On the weekend of September 17th, I had a lot planned. Some friends had asked me to accompany them to an airshow at Martinsburg in the eastern panhandle of West Virginia. This was an opportunity to visit some good friends and take in an attraction that I had not seen before. As anyone who watches the news is probably aware, the airshow did not turn out well. My friends and I were witnesses to the horrendous crash of the T-28 trainer that killed pilot Jack Mangan. The show was of course, suspended at that point.
Despite having our moods dampened by this occurrence, I continued my visit with my friends Saturday evening and got up Sunday morning to proceed to Gettysburg, PA to take part in the Eisenhower Farm WWII Weekend living history. The Eisenhower Farm WWII weekend is held every September by the National Park Service and is a quality event.
When I got to the site around 9:00 am and checked in, one of the first things that I noticed was the number of reenactors loading up their vehicles to leave. Since this event is a two-day affair, I was a little surprised. As I soon discovered, there had been a great deal of rain in the Gettysburg area on Saturday, which resulted in very muddy conditions on the field. This was possibly part of the reason for the early departure of so many of the participants, but I am not sure. Most of those leaving were American reenactors, but I was told some of the Germans left as well. As it was, there were few Germans on the field, ,mostly the sturdy Volkssturm unit. The 193rd comrades with whom I fell in, noted that there were twice as many spectators on Sunday to see half as many living history displays.
I believe a lot of these troops took part in the New Oxford battle which ran concurrently with the Ike Farm, so possibly some folks had just had their fill for the weekend. Still I have noticed that WWII reenactors this summer, seem to be packing up and leaving earlier on Sundays than in the past. Whatever the reason, it does leave the event organizers holding the bag if spectators show up and wonder where everyone is, when it is supposed to be a two-day event. I know a lot of folks have a long trip home, but so do the Civil War reenactors who invariably stay for Sunday at their events. Anyway, I see this as a curious phenomenon and wonder where it is going. Will event organizers get tired of scheduling events where everyone bails out early? Time will tell, I guess.
http://www.nps.gov/eise/parknews/world-war-ii-weekend.htm
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