The Civil War Navies Message Board

Re: AA Report from Hay Creek Living History

Ahoy All

This past weekend at the Hay Creek Fall Festival of Early American Life, Historical Impression's Naval contingent was part of the Union Encampment. The weather was wonderful and the crowd was large at this nationally recognized craft and heritage fair near Morgantown Pa.

Settin up our Recruiting Station in the CW camp we proceded to hawk and "enlist" dozens of youngsters of all ages into the US Navy. Leading the contingent was our Surgeon Don Fischer aided by our "honest" recruiter Dan Cashin. Rounding out the crew and serving as our interpreter of childspeak was our Powder Monker Clayton Dietrich. The Festival has made our little impression a main stay of their program schedule. For the cost of copying three sheets of paper per "recruit" this impression has proved more sucessful than we ever imagined it could have.

We started it in an air of "just what is the Navy doing in the mountains of Pennsylvania"? Being there are no navigable waters within 50 miles of the place and the old line of "Waiting for the high tide of the Confederacy" was getting a little thin, we figured the only reason for our being there was the ever present period search for manpower.

Set up was Friday with the day being a dedicated School Group day. We didn't get to run the station that day but were ready bright and early Saturday morning. The crowd started with a rush and didn't let up all day. All it took was the catching of the attention of one child and the line started forming. The only beaks we had were for flag raising and lowering. Then it was back to work. Sunday was a repeat fo Saturday.

We were not adverse to hawking the adults either. Funny things happened to the faces of grown men of a certain age when we used the "R" word. More than one guy broke in to the quick step when we asked him if he wanted to be "Recruited". We got around this by going after the wives with a promise that if they lent us their man for a year we'd "give him back to her better than we got him." I can proudly say this line got a 100% positive reception form the ladyfolks.

Our impressions revolved around getting the youngsters to stand for enlistment, with their parents permission of course. We get them to sign the necessary papers, decide if they want to go for 1, 2 or 3 years, take the Oath and then go through a period physical. Upon passing the physical tehy are given a railroad pass and two weeks to report to the Philadelphia Navy yard and the receiving ship.(No one has failed yet, there even was a rumor a dead tree passing Dr. Don's sharp eyes.) The problem of being short on the age requirement was solved with them standing on a piece of paper with the number 14 on it. Was ask them not to lie but to "honestly" tell us if they are "over" 14? The parents get a bigger kick out of this than you can imagine.

The highlight of this simple scenario is the taking of the Oath. The kids realize it's only a fun educational skit but the look in most of their eyes when repeating the same Oath their fathers, brothers and grandfathers took really seems to make history something tangible to them. One "recruit" told me he was going to frame his papers and give them to his Grand Dad who was a real Navy Vet.

Once word got out what we were doing we also ahd more than a few parents stop by to ask for papers for their child that was serving overseas in the real USN and USMC. This made my day!

For small Naval units looking to stage a relevant, entertaining and personally worthwhile impression this skit works well. Of course there are several behind the scenes rules we stick to. We NEVER interact with the child without their parent's presence and consent. I always position myself so the "recruit" is between the me and the parent. This way I can maintain eye and head nodding contact with Mom and Pop. The physical involves no contact and we hand the paper to the parents first to let them decide which items they want to use. As this is Southeaster Pennsylvania with it's large population of Amish and Mennonite I also mention that this is not a real Oath. We aslo go in to detail about the life of the perid sailor for the benefit of the adults. Having an impression that doesn't center on firepower seems to be appreciated by the site folks. We don't skip the combat portion but don't make it a center piece either. After rows and rows of Springfields and Enfields some folks seem to be looking for someting different. This is an area the Navy & USMC units and fill with just a simple skit.

We'll be manning the station again October 11 & 12 in Mullica Hill NJ. All are welcome to stop by! And if anyone is interested in more details of this accidentally successful impression I'd be happy to send you our recruit package.

Stay Safe
Dan Cashin
Historical Impressions

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AA Report from Hay Creek Living History
Re: AA Report from Hay Creek Living History
Re: AA Report from Hay Creek Living History