When did you discover.....????

[Tiger_rifles]

Hello All,
Due to the fact that two threads are running neck and neck and nearing 50+ posts, lets all poke fun at ourselves and try to remember when it was that "YOU DISCOVERED YOU WERE A FARB!"

For me it was May of 2004, 140th of Spotsylvania. I had been a "just get by reenactor" for many years, I made all my own leather gear and lots of my clothes...... just good enuff to get by! I was waiten to get my picture took, when I started talking to a group of fellows from the 1st Md. (CS), well really only one of them, as only one of them would talk to me! I am sure he does not remember, but the fact that one person was willing to speak to me and help me with my impression changed everything. I made up my mind there and then that I wanted to get one step closer to the men that really did this 140 years ago.

By Oct. 2004 (Franklin Tn.), I had myself a new Jacket from Cantrell,( sure wish he was still makeing Uniforms!), w/Fed Eagle buttons, jeanclothe civilian trousers and proper draws,( got them off E-BAY! and they are perfect!), got me a sloch hat,(no more kepi's for me.... why did I ever wear those hot things anyway?), and I was ready to go. Marched out with the Red River Batt. and never looked back, Franklin 2004 is still my best reenactment!, sleepin on the ground, eatin what they issued me, marchin till I dropped!

Since then I have discovered i can still hand stitch some items,( haversacks, shirts, etc...), but jackets should be left to the Professionals,(IMHO). Same with leather gear, I learned the way to make correct leather dye and got rid of all that "Tandy Leather Works" stuff. I use linen thread and correct awls, etc... but still leave the big stuff,(cart boxes, cap pouches, etc...), up to L.D. Haning & Co., they are the Best!.

I have not pulled out the big tent for 4 years now and I enjoy myself royally!

[Memphis]

While standing at the urinal one day, it was at that precise moment that I realized I either had to convert to an entirely different religion or face facts. :rolleyes:

[OVI]

It came to me in 1996 at the infamous Shiloh/Mudloh rained out event in TN. Once the event was called, I never forget me and a comrade lugging out my bread box to the parking swamp. It dawned on me that carrying boxes filled with crap I didnt need in miserable weather wasnt a productive exercise in living history. From then on I began the process of changing my ways.

Kent Dorr - Ohio
"Devils Own Mess"

[3rd_PA_Artillery]

I realized it when I came to my first reenactment (I thank God not many people were there) in a pair of jeans, some black church shoes, a button down shirt I borrowed from my dad, and an old tourist hat from a Gettysburg tour center. I'll admit, I'm still a farb, but its not as bad any more.

[Rob Weaver]

I marched with a fife and drum unit back in the Bicenntenial. After 2 years with them I joined the Brigade of the American Revolution. I said "I have a complete uniform - see!" and showed off my double-knit polyester uniform made from the Simplicity pattern.

[indguard]

I was never a FARB because at each stage I was learning to be more authentic. I think it does no good at all to call people names (including yourself) when they are steadily progressing.

Now, if they are wearing the same stuff they've had for 5 years, never improved and never learned a single new thing... well, that is different question. That's a person that has no interest in progressing. Call them what you will.

WTH
The Whydoyouhavetobeajerk Mess

[reb4lee]

When I took out my shell jacket from the box. (Before my first reenactment) From that point on, I slowly improved. Still not perfect but it's getting there.

[flattop32355]

In deference to Mr. Huston, I shall always be "inaccurate".
Hopefully, I shall continue to become less so as I go along in the hobby.

As to realizing how inadequate I was to where and what I would like to become, it came within the first year, having spent money on things that looked useful that weren't very, upon attending events that gave no sense of what I believed the war was like, and discovering that my years of studying the battle history of the war had only scratched the surface of what there was to know.

To my thinking, we are all farby. That's fine, because it's all we can attain. However, we can work to change the degree, if not the fact.

[Rob Weaver]

We are ALL farbs, even if we don't want to own that title. I don't just mean obvious things like we're too old or overweight or that we just pretend to kill people. We are visitors in the past, with a second-hand knowledge. That knowledge may grow, based on our interest, time, ability, etc, but it will always remain second-hand. Imagine, if you will, that you lived through the 1960s. At some point in your old age, you went to a 60s-themed weekend, where young people tried to demonstrate what life was like. How many of them will never succeed beyond the level of characature? How many will get just enough right to remind you of your youth and the people you knew? How many of them will look right, but mix details; in the words of Twain, they "have the notes but not the music?" How many of them can address the myriad of conditions which came together in your hometown at exactly that time? When all is said and done, though, YOU are the only authentic in the room. You were there. Remembering that we weren't there and are at best very very very good impersonators is a great step of humility that is greatly needed in living history ranks.

[7thMDYankee]

Rob,

Thanks for that perspective. I was just reading through the thread and thinking to myself, "the first volley fired in my general direction and it was not accompanied by lead rounds..." Of course I could go on and add other details like not walking to an event, returning to work Monday morning, the comfort of my home Sunday night, etc... Some may not like hearing it, but we are indeed all farbs of one flavor or another.

[hanktrent]

Imagine, if you will, that you lived through the 1960s. At some point in your old age, you went to a 60s-themed weekend, where young people tried to demonstrate what life was like. (snip) When all is said and done, though, YOU are the only authentic in the room. You were there.

I'd go even one step further and say that the only "authentic" would be someone living through the real 1960s as it happened. Someone remembering the 1960s many years later is apt to forget details, mix up dates, put things in a different perspective, and so forth, perhaps even more so than someone who's studied the era specifically.

Perfect example: I was watching the TV show "Life on Mars," set in 1973, and the time traveller from today says he was driving a Jeep (meaning the vehicle he'd been driving before going back in time). The cop from 1973 says in surprise, "You were driving a military vehicle?"

I was 14 years old in 1973 and remember it fairly plainly, but that struck me odd. When did the civilian Jeeps come out? I owned one in 1977 but they weren't new then. Still, the reaction might be accurate; I don't honestly remember how familiar the average person was with civilian Jeeps four years earlier.

Despite being a supposedly "authentic" person for 1973, I'd need to sit down and research how the average person would react to the statement that someone was driving a Jeep. Only the truly authentic 14-year-old me, living in 1973, could answer that accurately without doing the same research as anyone else.

Hank Trent
hanktrent@voyager.net

[Spinster]

:p Farb Show :p

In 1973 I was begging Daddy to let me use the insurance money from my utterly totaled Dodge Coronet with 137,000 miles on it, to buy a fairly new Jeep. Preferably one with a big Golden Eagle custom paint job.

Daddy would not sign off on the deal--no hard top. No roll bar of any substance either. This became an important point later on. I learned a lot about car specs that year. Daddy gave me a minimum wheel base length and sent me out to find a vehicle. Cute little cars that were easily smashed were virtually eliminated by that one spec.

[Blair]

Hank,
Perhaps you wouldn't need to do any research? All you would need is to have lived in an area where 4X4's were practical opptions.
I believe the Willis company came out with their first civilian model in 1947. By 1973 Toyota had two Land Cruisers out that were very popular.
What we may view as super authentic in our overall knowledge of a given time period may have little practical application to an individual and his or her experiance.
I remember very little about the Manson Murders or Watergate because I was overseas when these happend. My individual experiance was focused else where.
Blair Taylor

[sbl]

Battle of White Plains, 1976. My plastic baseball helmet light infantry cap and hunting shirt with the bed-spread fringe just didn't match the stuff the other units had. They were kind enough to show me their stuff and how to get it or make it.

[sbl]

"Willis company came out with their first civilian model in 1947."

My dad had a "Jeepster" in the 50's. It was already used.

[Shortround]

We are ALL farbs, ... Imagine, if you will, that you lived through the 1960s. At some point in your old age, you went to a 60s-themed weekend, where young people tried to demonstrate what life was like. How many of them will never succeed beyond the level of characature? How many will get just enough right to remind you of your youth and the people you knew? How many of them will look right, but mix details; in the words of Twain, they "have the notes but not the music?" How many of them can address the myriad of conditions which came together .

I've seen the high school kids do those 60s themed parties and - at best - they remind me the Austin Power's flicks. Strangely, the only movie I've ever seen that didn't screw up the sixties was "Apollo 13". That pretty much captured the flavor of NASA and the culture at the time. The men in Mission Control drank coffee by the gallon and smoked like old freight trains. The pilots were all "Type A" personalities who were absolute perfectionists. It also helped that Ron Howard was a kid of the sixties.

I'm beginning to think we should concentrate on Pratical History. We show the stuff that would be ageless and smart to get general public's attention. Example, have a firepower show to the public. Show an progression of weapons and the loading times.

And, yes, Rob Weaver is absolutely correct that the reenactments are wrong. My dislike of the civilians in the hobby started when I saw some woman dressed like my passed away Grandmother who was over 80 years old in the 1960s! That woman saw two major wars in her life time, children lost to sickness, and worked like a slave to feed her family during the great depression.

I do love the cannons. Those things are ageless. Thor smiles when the red legs fire their weapons.

Bill Hensler
CW private/F&I/WWII soldat
Michigan

[DColeman]

The day I started reenacting.
Or the day I couldn't decide which took up more space in my closet, Renn Faire or Civil War. ;)

[Ephraim_Zook]

I started reenacting about 15 years ago because my two sons got into the hobby and later brought me along with them. The boys originally joined a local group that was so bad that no brigade would let them affiliate. But I knew nothing about this and began to acquire all kinds of stuff that I hauled back and forth and seldom used. I looked at the fellows who had dog tents and concluded they had them because they couldn't afford bigger tents; I waited until I had the cash to spring for an uncommonly large common tent. Dinty Moore was haute cuisine at a reenactment. I built a folding table large enough to accomodate four for dinner, and speckleware with which to set it.

After a while we found a different group and joined it. They were better than the first club. Later my sons latched up with the Liberty Rifles and were reluctant to attend mainstream events with the group I still ran with. Then I attended a South Mountain event as part of Bill Watson's first "Company I" attempt, and seeing all these other guys looking and acting the part, as well as my sons as they headed in a totally new direction made me painfully aware of my own farbiness.

[tompritchett]

I'd go even one step further and say that the only "authentic" would be someone living through the real 1960s as it happened. Someone remembering the 1960s many years later is apt to forget details, mix up dates, put things in a different perspective, and so forth, perhaps even more so than someone who's studied the era specifically.

I can remember just a few years ago watching some reruns of the Smothers Brothers show. Taken out of the historical context of the time, and more importantly the tensions and emotions fo the time, the show was really not that funny anymore. And this used to be one of my favorite shows on TV when it was on.

[Rob Weaver]

I remember the Smothers Brothers! I was not allowed to watch them because their humor was too risque at the time! :D But I was a very aware child in the 60s and was the only kid in my class who thought "Laugh In" was funny.
Try reading Poe's humorous pieces. He's pretty funny from a "read" humor standpoint, but on the other side of James Thurber and Robert Benchley, then the stand-up comedy of the late 20th century, he's just not amusing at all.
We really walk a tightrope, don't we? On the one hand we have to avoid becoming parodies of the 1860s (like the them party I mention) or becoming paralyzed by over-analysis of the subject matter.

[Curt-Heinrich Schmidt]

Hallo!

"In an August 9, 1936 strip entitled 'Wha's a Jeep?', Popeye asks Professor Brainstine what exactly a Jeep is. He gets the following response:

'A Jeep is an animal living in a three dimensional world-in this case our world- but really belonging to a fourth dimensional world. Here's what happened. A number of Jeep life cells were somehow forced through the dimensional barrier into our world. They combined at a favorable time with free life cells of the African Hooey Hound. The electrical vibrations of the Hooey Hound cell and the foreign cell were the same. They were kindred cells. In fact, all things are to some extent are relative, whether they be of this or some other world, now you see. The extremely favorable conditions of germination in Africa caused a fusion of these life cells. So the uniting of kindred cells caused a transmutation. The result, a mysterious strange animal.'

Oh.. sorry... wrong trivia.

I used to be a Farb. Then I got promoted to Faggot Uber-kewyl Keyboard Kampaigner. I think it is a joke, as they are both the same. :) :) :)

Remembering my first ride in Jim Brenner's Jeep in 1974...

CHS
Eugene the Jeep Mess

[50th vice pres]

I can remember just a few years ago watching some reruns of the Smothers Brothers show. Taken out of the historical context of the time, and more importantly the tensions and emotions fo the time, the show was really not that funny anymore. And this used to be one of my favorite shows on TV when it was on.
Like wine that only gets better with age, so did your wisdom in recognizing the "lack of funny" of this show.

[Rob Weaver]

Like wine that only gets better with age, so did your wisdom in recognizing the "lack of funny" of this show.

"Mom always liked you better."

[johnerys]

As soon as I posted my idea for a photographer impression and got verbally whipped because I didn't plan to use an original wet-plate camera. I guess I'll contimue to be a Farb, because I'm not going to change that part of my impression.

[tompritchett]

As soon as I posted my idea for a photographer impression and got verbally whipped because I didn't plan to use an original wet-plate camera. I guess I'll contimue to be a Farb, because I'm not going to change that part of my impression.

There is nothing wrong with taking pictures using modern photographic equipment camoflauged as period equipment as there are a number of highly respected photographers who do such. However, if you are planning on using the photographer as your impression, I would suggest that you at least become familar with the 19th Century photograph technologies and methods for those times that you have to answer questions from the public about your impression.

[johnerys]

Tom,
I did just that, before I even started gathering my kit I learned as much as I could about any type of method that a photographer would have been familiar with at the time. I was lucky in that my first time out i met an actual ambrotypist and got a good look at his equiptment so I could fine tune mine. I fielded a lot of questions this summer and the only one I couldn't answer was about when the flash bars were used.

[hanktrent]

There is nothing wrong with taking pictures using modern photographic equipment camoflauged as period equipment as there are a number of highly respected photographers who do such.

The problem with pronouncements like that, is that nobody has the authority to say what's right or wrong, hobby-wide. There are events where that's not allowed and those photographers would not be permitted to attend with their modern equipment.

I'd say a more accurate statement would be "there's nothing wrong... at most events."

Hank Trent
hanktrent@voyager.net

[tompritchett]

The problem with pronouncements like that, is that nobody has the authority to say what's right or wrong, hobby-wide. There are events where that's not allowed and those photographers would not be permitted to attend with their modern equipment.

I'd say a more accurate statement would be "there's nothing wrong... at most events."

You are correct. I was definitely expressing my personal opinion not issuing an edict. That opinion was also based upon the mainstream events that I have been to where photographers have been allowed to conduct themselves in a similar manner. Thank you for pointing that out.

[captdougofky]

When a fellow reenactor ask me now that I had the cannon and limber when did I plan on getting the 6 horse pull. I told him never, I had done enough spent enough, and this was as far as I would go. Uniforms and things have improved over the last 15 years but the livestock, is still waiting in someones barn.

Always
Doug Thomas
Lyons Battery CS
Kentucky

[tompritchett]

When a fellow reenactor ask me now that I had the cannon and limber when did I plan on getting the 6 horse pull. I told him never, I had done enough spent enough, and this was as far as I would go.

You can also ask him in return if he is willing to board, feed and transport them for you. :)

[Busterbuttonboy]

Step One.
I went ahead an bought everything.
Step Two.
Started flipping through EOG, and went to two local museums and thought... huh- that doesn't look quiet right. And when I had my stuff on, id say, "hmm... that doesn't look like the original"....

I did the steps backwards.
Still not perfect, but those wiser then me have clearly and accurately stated there is always room for improvement.

Still cant figure out why its so hard to step back with a mirror ans say- "wow, that doesn't look right" or "that looks nothing like the one in the museum." If you don't wanna spend the money for something correct, make it. If you don't care- maybe the hobby isn't for you cause there is enough anachronisms out there for us to contend with already.

D.a. Gruber

[Pvt Schnapps]

You're lucky, Drew. The anachronisms I see in the mirror are the ones hardest to fix :)

[Busterbuttonboy]

Ditto
Homemade bread and beer are really messing me up!
Drew

[captdougofky]

You can also ask him in return if he is willing to board, feed and transport them for you. :)

The fellow didn't have a clue, as to the expense. My pockets are only so deep.

Always
Doug
Kentucky

[FloridaConfederate]

http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii312/floridaconfederate/team.jpg

[LibertyHallVols]

I attended my first event and my coat had a zipper. I was wearing modern work boots. As I looked around, I realized that I was a farb.

I've been working to improve ever since. However, that guy who was in the zip-up coat is still me.

As to name-calling...
"Sticks and stones..."

Have fun, folks! It is a hobby, after all!

[Craig L Barry]

Wick

You are a farb (like me) because of your attitude. Don't you know you have to doing something that makes you miserable to be authentic? Anyway, your musket usually looks good.

[captdougofky]

http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii312/floridaconfederate/team.jpg

If that's your outfit, hats off. Not many out there (horse drawn). Working with another individual on getting a 3'' Ord. together. Got the barrel etc. One piece at a time.

Always
Doug Thomas
Lyons Battery CS
Kentucky

[Guy Gane III]

I knew, when I held an original forage cap (from a private collection) and I was in awe at how amazingly... beautiful, it was.

Then I saw the guys from the 151st NY at Cedar Creek and their stuff LOOKED so right, that I was stunned at not knowing there was a whole sub-culture in reenacting.

It was more my cup of tea... not for vain reasons, but because when I got all the right stuff... I did the look in the mirror and I was blown away. I looked like the pictures I would stare at. I was a present day interpretation of someone in the past.

I'll have to find my farb pics and do comparisons. haha.

(When asked what I wanted to be when I grow up, I used to reply "A Civil War soldier"...go figure.)

[LibertyHallVols]

Craig,
Would you believe that there are pieces of my Enfield that were purchased at my first event? The barrel and top band, to be specific!

I put "Farb" in my signature line for a couple of reasons. First, I take the hobby seriously, as well as the sacrifice of all veterans... However, I don't take myself that seriously. Second, I like to make folks chuckle. Last, I'm always trying to improve. I hope my impression is never perfect; I hope I never "know everything"... when that happens, the fun will be gone. So, if "perfect authenticity" is the unattainable goal, I guess I'm a farb.

Send me some pics of that PH Enfield, when you get a chance! I'd love to have a look! I think LACo Enfields are underrepresented, yet make an "obvious" choice for those trying to defarb the Italian repops.

Take Care!

[Tarheel57]

We are ALL farbs, even if we don't want to own that title. I don't just mean obvious things like we're too old or overweight or that we just pretend to kill people. We are visitors in the past, with a second-hand knowledge. That knowledge may grow, based on our interest, time, ability, etc, but it will always remain second-hand...Remembering that we weren't there and are at best very very very good impersonators is a great step of humility that is greatly needed in living history ranks.

AMEN! Outstanding comment! Many people in the reenacting world need to take this to heart!