The Startin'

To make a beginning I will confess I am not a computer nerd nor a computer nerd's son so to blog is a strange new world to me. I suppose one must codgitate, ruminate and meditate before blogitating. All of which sometime gives me a headache.

I have spent some 76 years on this planet, although for a good many years I wasn't actually on the planet I was driving an airplane some small distance above the surface of it, and during all those years I never really felt a need to go probing the blogosphere. But never being a thumb twidling type I said to myself, "Self you need a hobby." Self agreed with me, which he doesn't always do by the way, and so I commenced to explore the world of Civil War reenacting.

I came into this world with a fascination for this period of history. By the time I was old enough to start school I had already read Shelby Foot's narative of the said war. This whetted my appetite. As the years and books went clicking by I became more and more interested in this confliction. By middle age I could squint my eyes and see long columns of ragged but determined troops marching toward Shiloh. On a quiet day if I listened I could hear the distant thunder of Yankee guns along the Kennesaw line. Sometimes as I read, I could smell black powder smoke curling from the pages of "Battle Cry of Freedom". Usually at such a time I realized I had set my pant leg on fire with my cigar. Be that as it may, it finally culminated in my venturing too near a real life reenactment and getting so caught up in the action that I grabbed a Yankee's gun from his hands and hit him over the head with it, much to the surprise of his bewildered self. Now you may think this is a slight exageration but you would be wrong, wrong. It is mostly bald face lies with just a tad bit of truth thrown in to make it interesting.

Very shortly I began to accumulate period stuff. Pantaloons with no rear pockets and held up with suspenders, goofy looking muslin shirts, wool shell jackets (I don't know why they call them that) black powder pistols, black powder rifles, black powder sabers, and gun powder tea. Period canteen was a must as well as tin plates, tin cups, and home made forks and knifes. I had to have a black leather belt complete with a Texas buckle to hang these accouterments on.

Learning to walk in a column of troops with out knocking some one down or punching them in the hindquarters with my rifle was no easy chore for a full growed man(you see I even began to talk period). My reenactor friends called me Farby Freddy. Sleeping on the ground with just a blanket with period ants crawling in my period mustache was so much fun I could hardly stand it.

Finally after years of this delightful hobby I began to think maybe I should write a book about life during this period, you know with lots of action, adventure, dastardly yankees and of course, lots of pretty ladies and ante-bellum romance. It took about two years of typing with my two fingers and an old worn out period typewriter but it is now on the market.

It is titled Tales of Travis Hawkins McCleod It may be purchased through Amazon or Barnes & Noble for around 18 Yankee dollars and I'll bet my last period cigar you will enjoy the read .

If not write and tell me anyways. I'm a sociable old cuss and like to jaw and argue.

Dale Roberts