--- Carol Kocian <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>  What I find are some reenactors who do not like
> dealing with the visitors, think they're an intrusive bother, and the
> reenactor wants to be left alone to their hobby.  We're usually invited to a
site to enhance it, though, which means we're "on" for the visitors.

Personally, I think these reenactors should just not do public events and stick
to the "closed" events for reenactors only. It's like all they really want to
do is sometimes called "live-action role-playing" or LARPs as opposed to
interpret history.

I reenact because I like public education (and I get to wear cool clothes ;).
Events without the public around have little interest to me as I've done my
share of LARPing and role-playing games in the past. Thus I tend to view
reenactors and reenactments as "living exhibits" as opposed to a big costume
party. And, I think we owe it to the historic sites to do a good job of
educating the public and help to dispell the "Hollywood" mytholody of history.

> The best defense
> against the rude visitor is a good offense - if we greet the visitor they are
> less likely to treat us as furniture.  If we maintain a protective posture
> with our historic possessions, they are less likely to pick them up.  Any
other thoughts along this line?

Well sort of on that line is my bone of contention with first-person
interpretation. Like accents, many will try, few will do them well. The best
first person interpretation I've ever seen was a couple that did French lace
merchants from the late 1700s at Mt. Vernon last year. They were brilliant and
obviously had done a lot of work on their impressions right down to the French
accents (which might have been real, I couldn't tell and I've spent a decent
amount of time around Frenchmen).

While I don't really care if people use "good day" instead of "hello" and I
don't think the public really picks up on it, I think what really counts is
people who know their history and their time period and can explain it well to
the public. Like Carol mentioned above, if people view the public as intruders
on their historic playground, I think people are more likely to treat them like
exhibits because they don't know how to interact with them. But if people are
greeted when they approach the camp and have things explained to them, visitors
will be more likely to see themselves as guests in the camp and likewise, act
more like they are visiting someone else's house instead of a hands-on museum.
Then again, with some kids these days, I don't think they have ever been taught
not to touch what isn't theirs before asking, which isn't a reenactor-specific
thing, it's a basic manners thing.

And one more thing to add to the list:

Chicks in drag - women who try to portray men, usually pretty badly and are
obvious about it. Don't know if I first coined the word or someone else did.

Deb



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