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| Gabe firing his Brown Bess |
Have I mentioned I love reenacting and living history? What an awesome thing it is that we do. But what is even cooler, is watching someone have an experience for the first time. Several years ago, I was needing a haircut and I punched in "barber shops" on my phone and found myself headed into downtown Dayton. I pulled up to the place and went inside. I love barber shops. Just the whole ritual of having your hair cut, the conversation, the vibe. It's all good. My barber introduced himself as Gabe. When you meet Gabe you'll notice right away that he's a rock and roll dude. Jackboots, slim black jeans, band t-shirt, tattoos, you get the idea. But there's always some subtle thing about people that you just get a good vibe off of. Gabe and I became instant friends and over the course of the next handful of haircuts we realized that we had a major thing in common. We both LOVED history.
Gabe, like a lot of young people grew up with a fascination for World War 2 and with his punk rock dystopian vibe, that post Industrial Revolution warfare is a likely choice. He's always had a keen interest in the bolt action firearms of the era. And so our conversations centered somewhat around that, and I told him that myself and some friends were doing Irish Republican Army 1920s reenacting and he should check it out.
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| Gabe, IRA |
I really wish everyone you meet and try to drag into reenacting was like Gabe, cause when you set him on the path, he's like a hound dog and he'll just get what you recommend and then add some of his own research to it and come up with a lot of stuff on his own. Pretty soon, his kit was more complete than mine! His first living history events were with the IRA group, and we had an absolute blast.
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| Myself, Tony and Gabe |
Eventually the conversations turned towards the 18th century and he expressed an interest due to some family history. I started sending links, he started purchasing things and then I became aware of a brown bess for sale. He jumped on it and I picked it up at the CLA show. I then reached out to Tony Bertolino about making a bag. We decided that the three of us would meet up at my place to pick up and drop off the items Gabe needed. After everyone arrived, I suggested we shoot. We walked out into my back yard pointing towards the field and I set up a board against the burn pile. I showed Gabe the loading process and walked him through it. He put the gun up to his shoulder, pulled the trigger and that oh so familiar sound of the slight hesitation between the flash and the BOOM echoed around the property. I wish I had filmed his first reaction because he was enraptured and let out a cackle of excitement and pure joy. I think it's safe to say at that moment, he was hooked. Gabe will be attending his first 18th century event in September.
I am telling this little tale, not to embarrass my friend hopefully, but to encourage you that love of history is out there, you just have to find it and cultivate it. One of the common things I hear from new people is that they had wanted to get into living history for a long time, but just never knew how. Be that contact point. Don't be ashamed to tell people what you do for fun on the weekend, because you never know when you might run across a guy or gal who's been wanting to get into this but just doesn't know where to start. And it doesn't hurt to get their hands on a flintlock, "an elegant weapon, for a more civilized age." Bonus points if you can tell me what that reference is from.
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