Impressions Impression complements

[LTDavis]

So we always work hard at our impressions. We do countless hours of research, scan sutlers catalogues, and try to avoid any reenactorisms. So what was the time you got a complement on your gear that made you swell with pride? Any particular moments? Mine came at the Resaca 2022 event. I was talking to one of the "wounded" union guys at the Confederate field hospital I was apart of. We were examining each others gear and talking quality and such. We compared each other's hats next. He had a black slouch made by Clearwater and mine was a Dirty Billy slouch. I had shaped mine to resemble ones I had seen in photos like the three prisoners at Gettysburg but I hadn't told him this. He tried mine on and goes "Look, I'm the prisoner in the middle of the Gettysburg photo!" That really made me happy cause I achieved exactly what I was going for and my work paid off.

 

[Union_Buff]

When I went to my first reenactment during April 2014 in California, I was complemented a lot on my (borrowed) gear, and was told that I had definitely done my research in regards to realism. This made me swell with pride that someone else had appreciated my hard work on creating my first-person impression.

 

[PrivateBrooke]

There was one time my Captain told me that one of the "Liberty Rifles" guys who was in one of the Yankee bands said I looked good.

 

[LTDavis]

There was one time my Captain told me that one of the "Liberty Rifles" guys who was in one of the Yankee bands said I looked good.

I've reenacted with them before, great group and that would get any reenactor happy to hear that from one of them.

 

[Mrs. V]

Now that I've been around a bit, I do get compliments on my dresses that I've made. As well as my music. I know that my son was complimented on his I.D disk he got from The Badge Maker. The fellows were impressed with his uniform a well..all bought second hand, but then my son wears it well.

 

[7thWisconsin]

From another reenactor who was watching me cook breakfast: ¨You make me think I could do this campaigner stuff. You make it look easy.¨
I decided to recreate Lawrence Chamberlain´s description of the first dead Confederate that he saw, adapting him as a Federal soldier. I took a hit, then crawled up next to a tree and fished through my pockets for my Testament. I read at it until I let it slip from my hand as my head bowed. As a unit passed over me, one of the guys remarked ¨That´s really creepy.¨ Mission accomplished.

 

[3rd North Carolina]

I remember at one event i had a federal guy said i knew the rebels were come since i could smell you

 

[Kathy the history sleuth]

So far the only thing anyone has said is that I look like "Little House on the Prairie" in my female impression . More work to do I guess.

 

[LTDavis]

So far the only thing anyone has said is that I look like "Little House on the Prairie" in my female impression . More work to do I guess.

One of those comments that means well but gets under our skin cause it's not what we're going for. Like a Halloween costume you worked hard on but no one can tell who you are even though you're a famous character. But then again some aren't educated enough so any old timey look is gonna be associated with something they have seen in media.

 

[7thWisconsin]

One of those comments that means well but gets under our skin cause it's not what we're going for. Like a Halloween costume you worked hard on but no one can tell who you are even though you're a famous character. But then again some aren't educated enough so any old timey look is gonna be associated with something they have seen in media.

It bugs ya because it won´t be the first or last time you´ll hear it. Really, it´s the only thing people know. They´re trying to connect what you´re doing with something they have already experienced.
Waaaaaaaaaaaaaay back in the 1970s, there was a paper towel company that used a matronly looking woman named ¨Aunt Bluebell¨ as their commercial spokesperson. During the US Bicentennial celebration, in 1976, this company costumed her in a blue colonial style gown for their commercials. We were just starting to reenact at that time, and my mom made a blue gown (OK - it was the much despised Simplicity pattern, but it was a long time ago, so roll with it). At one of the first events we attended, a little kid excitedly pointed at her and yelled ¨Aunt Bluebell!!!!̈
(My mom still tells that story blissfully unaware that it takes a lot of backstory now for it to make any sense.)

 

[Kathy the history sleuth]

It bugs ya because it won´t be the first or last time you´ll hear it. Really, it´s the only thing people know. They´re trying to connect what you´re doing with something they have already experienced.
Waaaaaaaaaaaaaay back in the 1970s, there was a paper towel company that used a matronly looking woman named ¨Aunt Bluebell¨ as their commercial spokesperson. During the US Bicentennial celebration, in 1976, this company costumed her in a blue colonial style gown for their commercials. We were just starting to reenact at that time, and my mom made a blue gown (OK - it was the much despised Simplicity pattern, but it was a long time ago, so roll with it). At one of the first events we attended, a little kid excitedly pointed at her and yelled ¨Aunt Bluebell!!!!̈
(My mom still tells that story blissfully unaware that it takes a lot of backstory now for it to make any sense.)

That's a great story and you are right. I am just starting out and I have two others in my family group to outfit. I've gotten most of this attire used luckily but I've still spent $1000 so far. I have found I can't stand to wear some of the female attire. I gravitate toward the working class look. I think people are not used to seeing that though it certainly existed.

 

[7thWisconsin]

I´d say you´ve hit it out of the park to get an entire family outfitted for a grand! Great job! Reenactors can be completists. You will run into people who will want you to wear all the underpinnings... and white gloves - essentially to go camping! Don´t listen to them. You´re going to be doing things that were considered pretty active in that day. Look at working class clothing, and pay attention to refugee stories, not only southern but like those from the Sioux War of 1862. Immigrant stories from people going west will help you get a grip on what people in outdoor conditions wore everyday too.

 

[Tennessee Union Gal]

That's a great story and you are right. I am just starting out and I have two others in my family group to outfit. I've gotten most of this attire used luckily but I've still spent $1000 so far. I have found I can't stand to wear some of the female attire. I gravitate toward the working class look. I think people are not used to seeing that though it certainly existed.

I love the working class look. I found a picture recently of a great great aunt, taken around 1910 and she was dressed to work on the farm. Those kind of pictures are so much more precious to me that the ones where everyone gussied up and went to a photographer.