Heritage Days

A couple of weeks ago there was a re-enactment weekend not far away. It was at the height of the mosquito infestation, but the township must have sprayed the park well, because it was beeeeautiful outside there.

Not only did they have antique firetrucks, but they had the modern ones too. Alia really like trucks!


I think these guys were Civil War era. They had plenty to tell (and demonstrate) about warfare on the sea, shooting cannons, and trying to capture ships instead of sinking them.


Those cannons said BOOOOOM!


Philip knew from way across the field that this dude was a Hoplite. As far as I recall, I never heard of Hoplites before. The kids tell me I knew about them. Apparently they pay better attention to the history books I read to them than I do. By the way, the Romans were the next camp over from the Greeks. These guys were plenty chatty about their clothes, food, culture, methods of warfare, etc. I love the chatty re-enactors!


As Andrew amused Alia while listening to the Hoplite, swinging her around, the Greek soldier pointed out how much she enjoyed swinging from her arms like that, and used that to help explain the use of his spear and how it was held/carried and thrown and the physiology of that. Cool.


My kids had plenty to talk about with the guy on top of the hill. They talked about trebuchets and catapults. Oddly enough, the man who plays with ancient and medieval weaponry had never heard of the books "Art of Catapult" and "Backyard Ballistics."