Howdy

Well, been busy still. Tours, festivals and sleeping takes up time.

Tours are picking up greatly here and going one. I'm glad I got the company setup.
A local history festival I'm working here has been tough, but it'll be done soon.

The girl I was going out with, well that fell through. She Liked George W Bush.... Enough said!

Not sure on jobs, but I'm busy till mid November.
The winter might be boring, though this will pick up once my friend Philip is over.

One step at a time, then go from there. I do want to travel again however. Got the itchy feet.

Oh well! One day again, I'll get to Europe again.

Anyway, this is just a quick update.

Update to my life

Hello all! Sorry been bad about posts, but I've been either way busy, or un-excitingly slow. I have the tour company I started still going, but limited calls. I applied for a local museum job as "Co-director of Education and events". Still not heard back however.
Now I do have LOADS of tours booked in October and I'm going out with a great girl now too.

Course the exciting things are that I'm getting in the local paper very often now, my photo from the CorinthCivilWar.com will be used by Mississippi tourism for adverts and I'm the education coordinator for the Corinth Heritage festival.

Ahhh, but the best is the filming I was in recently!


Well, on the 22nd through the 25th of September I did some filming geared up as a Civil War soldier. Chickamauga battlefield has what is really a rather horrible film, course Shiloh has THE worst one. But this year they are shooting new videos for both battlefields. I was very disappointed I missed out on the new Shiloh filming in March, but just over 2 weeks ago I heard of the other filming and got registered just a week before.

On the 22nd of September on the Thursday I started the long drive to the Chattanooga area about 4 hours away. I was able to setup camp at Dyer field on the battlefield and get a quick bite to eat. I found out I'd have to do Rebel Saturday morning, but otherwise I could be Federal the whole time.
After talking with some people I retired to my tent and woke up at 5:45 AM got kited up and then got breakfast, which gladly all the meals were provided by the film people.

We the boarded a bus to Snodgrass hill and sat around for many hours. Then we did 30 minutes of filming and got lunch, then sat longer. The Rebels got loads of film time, though for all I know that could have been related to them drilling poorly!
Near the end of the day I got to fire a Spencer and got a close up, on my good side of course.
Other than that, the Friday was boring. But $50 was in my pocket.

Saturday I.... was forced to dress as a Rebel for the first half! Now gladly the uniform was very nice, but the Cornfeds drilled VERY horribly. Thank god for my good training in the 18th Missouri! Drill is much easier if you know what you are doing.
Anyway, did loads of filming again and switched to Federal for the afternoon. Though we had to sit around loads again before being filmed as the 10th Wisconsin who ran away during the battle after being placed in FRONT of Federal cannon. We recreated that... the running bit.
After that we sat around longer and nothing happened. Can you see a theme yet?
Though I made yet another $50.

Sunday was the last day and it went pretty much like the others. Wake up early, eat, test weapons, then get fake blood, black powder and dirt put on. Fake blood does NOT come out easy by the way from wool. We got filmed quick, then sat around for 5 hours, filmed quick and that was a wrap! Not a bad filming and had some great guys there. I collected my money, broke up camp and had a nice long drive back to Shiloh Tennessee.

So if any of you are thinking of a film career, the big thing you'll here "Hurry up and wait!"... which it'll switch to "HURRY UP!" at any point too.

A new start! ....oh and sorry for lack of posts

Well! I'm back again writing. At least a little bit.

Things been interesting. I'm now back in Tennessee. Fort Bridger Wyoming, hmmm, well it was great having Philip, Andrew and Andre out for a visit in late June. Other than that, I'm very happy I left that place. I'll miss some people, but I'm just very glad to be home. Not glad that some things came up, or what had me leave, though, whatever. Whats done is done and I am happy enough with it. Sometimes you must stand and other times.... run away! Run away to Dixieland!

So I got to spend some time in Salt Lake City with my sister and niece before I bolted back to Michie here. Was really wonderful to see them and really, get to know my sister at an older age. I'm so happy I had the chance. Amazing what a few years will do.

Anyhow, I got back to Tennessee just about a week ago and got started right away on making my crap situation into a good one. So I'm starting a new company called "Shiloh-Corinth Battlefield Tours". With the grand help from Corinth tourism so far and me being on CorinthCivilWar.com AND being featured in the new local visitors guide, I should do rather well for myself in the near future. My budget is balanced for the next several months and I've more or less already launched the tour service to boot.

Now with luck, perhaps I'll get to college this year, but if I can't get grants, then it'll be next year I hope. Knowing me, I have no idea where I might end up though in just 12 months! My life is amazing fluid and I'm rather lucky even at dark or low points.

Anyway, keep an eye out for more updates. I'll try and be better bout them!

Of death

Death. What a scary thing, yet is something everything must have happen to it. From the one celled germ to the mightiest of trees or whales. Even rocks, though not really alive even can crumple to dust. The whole earth will die in time too.
How should death be seen by those not dead or dying? Some celebrate it as in New Orleans with a jazz band, though most are somber affairs. What is beyond? Are we just out of existence, like that? Is there a heaven? Is there hell? One or both? Are near death experiences real, or the mind working in strange ways?

I think of these things now because my Uncle Tom, AKA in the family "Crazy Uncle Tom", has taken a turn for the worst with a quick acting cancer. He has between 1 day and 2 months. Most likely it will be sooner then later.

I spoke to him just tonight.
I said thank you for the good times, that I'd see him again one day and also asked him 2 things. First was "How do you react to death?", simply he said "You just accept it and deal with it". The second was, what advice he could give, sadly he faded out but said cryptically almost "You'll figure it out and put it together". He faded badly as he is in great pain at that point and we said our goodbyes, quite literally.

Though I have had some friends die, most were older and it was expected almost. Plus I wasn't super close to them either, but close enough. 2 of my Grandparents (One from each side at different times) died, but I was to young really to know them really, let alone remotely understand death. Reading of death in Wars does not really prepare you, even more since mostly they are very quick.
So this is the first serious death I've had to deal with in the family. It is strange. Doesn't feel real. I'm so far away from it. Almost expecting it to be some crazy prank and since he is still alive to just stay living.

Well, I guess the best thing is to think of the person alive and happy, the good times, Etc.
Though pain will happen surely, if the memory of the person is kept alive and well, will they really truly die? And when the time comes for us, how will we deal with it? Though, Uncle Tom seemed rather accepting of death and quite simple it seemed on the subject. Just deal with it and accept it. That seems like good advice. When the time comes, I hope I can be brave like him and not fearful of the next great journey, the greatest journey I'll ever have.

Now, for Shakespeare-

“Of all the wonders that I yet have heard,
It seems to me most strange that men should fear;
Seeing that death, a necessary end,
Will come when it will come.”

This strange strange land called Bridger valley....

Welcome to a world, which is like ours, but different. A place where weather and things make no sense. You are now entering the Twilight zone..... I mean Bridger Valley! This is my 4th season here working at Fort Bridger state historic site.

Within 30 miles about 4000-5000 people live all year round in the LEAST densely populated state in the lower 48 states. It is 7000 feet high "Or in metric about 2300 meters up." about round abouts. Somehow, it can snow all year round, even in the summer. It snows more in May then all year round in other places, like Tennessee or Western Oregon. Why just a few hours before writing there was a goodly amount of snow, then sun, then sleet then sun again.

Along with the horrible weather, is however some of the most wonderful landscape around. Out to the north is bleak for mile around, though just that is beautiful in its own way. Then while out there you can look to the south and see the great Uinta Mountains, covered in snow, even as late as June.
Not many trees grow in the area, but the Pines, Cottonwood and Aspens are such a blessing right on the fort grounds where I live.
Animals love the fort grounds such as at Shiloh NPS in Tennessee. The animals are far more relaxed and don't mind people as much, seeing as they know no one will try to shoot them.
So nice to stroll around the grounds, seeing the trees, birds and other animals. It really makes it worth being here.

So, weather, land, plants, animals and now the best for last, the people!

Well........ that I shall save for another day in more detail. Mostly its sad stories or stories that'd shock many. The youth here are not very open minded and are more regularly much more conservative than the "New South" kids. Racism is even more shocking here then in the parts of Dixieland I'm in. Lets say.... apart from the few forward thinking people "who are almost always 30+", it is more backwards then Tennessee "minus Crump and the creepy roads out of Shiloh!".

This is still the "Wild West", and never think otherwise. It can be brutal here and people can have zero manners or get angry easily quite often. They aren't used to people pretty much! Sometimes I wonder if I'm still in American or some independent nation claiming they, and are more patriotic then the rest. Of course, this isn't true for everyone, plenty of normals here, but these are trends I've noticed.

Huh, well, October isn't to far away till I'm back home anyhow and strange I'm only 100 miles to one of the largest cities in the west.... what the hell am I here for? Oh yeah! I like my managers and enough co-workers and the air is clean! ...Plus money and free lodging. Gotta love that!

Of acting and the "new South"

Well, yet another good day past! Yesterday on Monday I was able to be part of a short film for Corinth's new Civil War webpage, with me as the face and intro to it. The crew was great to work with "Anne, Jason, Wes, Derrek and Kristy the Tourism director". Pretty simple shoots, but well done. Everyone knew what they wanted rather quickly.
Though it took 3 hours and I forgot many lines, it was great to be doing something I love. I've made the point earlier in other posts that you should do what you love if you can.

Afterward we went to a Philly cheese sandwich place and I was asked by the very cute waitress "Are you one of those Civil War reenactor guys?" Though stuck with sounding like a nerd I said "Well, yes I am, BUT I have found a way to make money with it, I just got back from filming."
So she got a photo of me in my uniform uttering the words "Oh that is Hot". Ha Yes! Women love a man in uniform..... even if it is 140 years out of style.... Of course I also had to make the joke of how hoop skirts drove guys wild and how they liked big bums! Ahh, the 19th century, so many funny little facts and great pickup lines.

Another interesting thing the waitress said is when I mentioned that most people don't like my blue Federal uniform, She then said "What, because Union troops didn't fight for Slavery?" Although the subject VERY simplified here, she, well, was pretty correct. Everyone had many reasons for fighting, but yeah, the South pretty much fought for it and the North LATER fought to end it AND bring the states into a peaceful Union again...

Also everyone on the film crew had no issue with my Blue uniform. I really think there is a new south that is appearing and that people are waking up and figuring out the past better than they ever have before. Hopefully I can be part of the Civil War education in the future and helping people discover the past, with a moderate modern view.

Anyways, until then, out to the Wild West once more in Fort Bridger, Wyoming. 4th Season there.... I totally need to get more creative with how I do things out there. Well, Hopefully I'll have plenty of company this year!

Of tours and war...

Well yet another great tour over with. Only 1 left now.

First one was pitifully small, only 5 people, 3 from a family of a head of the welcome center, a reporter from the local paper who was truly fantastic to have along, and another great fellow from Long Island NYC. Much different to have a small tour. Easier to judge the crowd, but being the first one, lots of kinks to work out and get my feet. Also, having a flash light to disarm the house is VERY helpful.... Thank god I got it off in time.
So, maybe not big, BUT with the article written, it has lead to bigger tours and better ones seeing as I could do a good test run with people I didn't know. Easier for some reason. Had a good chat with the 2 guys afterward.

Second one was important, being as it was 150 years, to THE day, that Fort Sumter was fired on, April 12th. I felt honored to give a Civil War tour on that day.
Though quite a few rednecks were on the tours, had many out of towners. They usually appreciate things more, but plenty of Corinthians enjoy the tours. I try to put little facts of the town in, stories of the buildings and draw people back in time. Make them see Corinth in another light, another era. So at the end I got a good tipping and after a good chat with some people from Michigan.

Now, tonight's tour, I thought I wasn't on my game as much as I was the last one. I forgot a few details, I stumbled and I didn't feel confident. However, having done the tour enough I could go along easy enough in the end. Usual people would interject, some groans of the Federal Blue Uniform I wear would occur, even disinterest or scowls of sorts. Course on the tour before that had happened, I AM down south and ALL of this group was local. But all that was limited and soon would go away once the tour started going.
So explain bout every, ruffle a few feathers and speak of the Saloons and houses of "ill repute", AKA Whore houses and the lack of sanitation.

But at the end of the tour I talk about the Battle that raged on that very ground. How men died where we are walking. Speaking of the fight and reminding them this was the worst of the war. This might seem like a nice town, but in fact, it is just like Shiloh, except its not a field that has signs. I make the point that Confederates after were welcoming of former enemies, and would help them if they were touring. Giving modern number comparison of deaths and wounding. Be the modern equivalent of 20 million, Killed, Wounded "in body and mind" and captured and sent to POW camps. And that War is a sad thing and we should think about the human toll. Not just ideas, but that real people died.

Also added that there was a mass grave at Davis Bridge battle for Rebel troops and 3 lonely tomb stones for 3 troopers from Ohio and that, they died young, never lived life and died in some godforsaken place and are most likely not visited.

That is what I want to convey, REALLY think about death in war, that war is really horrible, get people thinking of the toll of war and think that we are now Americans, North and South, are united now and forever.

I thought I did bad on this tour...... but I got double the tips on this tour, asked if I had done acting before and someone mentioned to the effect that at the end of the tour it was like "All quiet on the western front themed".

I hope I made a difference. To sound all kooky too, I had read the part of my "Battle of Corinth and Iuka" that covered the battle IN the town, and driving tonight all seemed extra dark and spooky. As if the tours were bringing the spirits of the dead back... That or I read too much and think on that stuff too much as well.

So, now, few more days and I'm off to boring Fort Bridger. Just keep an eye out for the odd post here though.




*Personal rant, warning!-

I don't usually think about being patriotic, but in the face of pro Confederate people, people who want America in their own twisted view with no compromise and not following the higher ideals of America. I'm proud to be American and I'm unashamed that being, ONE nation, the UNITED States of America and compromise together with the Union, is THE best option. Maybe I don't agree with much nowadays, or what the nation does, but in this little way, the events of 150 years ago, I am proud. So very proud of those Soldiers in Blue that fought and died so that I, and so many others didn't have to fight a Civil War later on.