Saturday, May 3, 2008

My Little Drummer Boy

My fourteen year old grandson, Elliot,
is a drummer boy in the lst Oregon, 20th Maine volunteer Infantry Civil War re-enactments. He is totally immersed in this part of our history and has been doing this for two years. He tends to zero in on one thing and it becomes the focal part of his life for a few years.

Twelve years old--his brand new uniform for which he saved $100 to pay for it.
You can tell he takes all of this very seriously!

The groups meet all through the summer and act out battles. Little Elliot and all of these grown men, are play-acting a battle, which looks and sounds pretty real with cannons, fake gun fire and so on. (You get the picture). I didn't enjoy watching. It was too real for comfort. They were tending to their wounded, which Elliot does when he is not drumming! But for right now, he loves it and he is counting down the days until his first re-enactment of the year in 14 days! I should add that his mom goes with him to all of the re-enactments. She dresses in period costume to fit in with all of the other ladies of that era.

At times they have overnight camps, set up tent cities and it is all quite realistic. Groups of family and others used to follow the men and set up shop in tents where they camped.

The men and boys all have their 100% wool uniforms on, horrid old black boots that hurt, I'm sure, and 100% cotton shirts under their jackets. The shirts are a wrinkled mess as soon as they put them on.

In January I let him order some civil war stuff off the internet which he keeps here and plays with when he visits.
He visited this week-end and had a great time planning battles, etc. He runs to the computer to look up some fact from history, then comes back and sets it up for his imaginary battles. He took about twenty five photos. I chose a few as he will be disappointed if I don't "publish" any of his photos!!


Before it was the Civil War, trains were the top interest for many years, and before that, it was vacuums! When he out grew his trains, we brought them up here to my garage. This week-end I asked him to set up the train table. So he did, and of course, had to take more pictures.

All of you with boys will be familiar with Thomas the Tank Engine and all of his other engine friends, whose names I used to know, but have forgotten.
I do remember "Sir Topham Hat" who ran the railway!

Do these look familiar to any of you?

Here's the whole train yard ready for play by my little visitors!


Another week-end with my sweet Elliot boy is over for this time. He returns home to continue school. This week will be his last track meet and I didn't get to one of them this year! I can't believe that he will be a freshman in high school next year.

I miss the toddler years. We spent so much time together having all kinds of adventures. Alas, we cannot go back, except in pleasant memories! ...and below are some of my memories!





P.S. Elliot's daddy sent me this email this morning. "We just received a letter from Elliot's unit and he was awarded "Rookie of the Year." Way to go son!"

9 comments:

Kristy said...

SO wonderful to 'meet' you!!
Oh my goodness, those pictures of your grandson are priceless - from the little toddler to the young man that he is today.....wow.
I'm loving the season I'm in, with my youngest little man running around in his underwear with his play swords, and my oldest daughter who still likes to play in the sandbox with her siblings.....it all does go too fast, doesn't it?
Loved reading through some of your blog. Your mother was precious - your cards are YUMMY! You really do make beautiful cards.
I am so excited to tell you that I know Matt and Gaye - how fun is this??!
In fact, Miss Bailey was at that adoption party I wrote about on my blog (with the fruit!) - she stopped by with my niece. I actually didn't reconize her, she has grown up so much!
We all used to go to the same church, and our kids have played sports together.
Again, so fun to meet you - looking forward to following your blog!
Blessings ~
(ps. you were close, we are out above Sandy!)

Kim said...

Is this a local re-enactment? My son would probably love to see it (okay, I admit it, so would hubby and I!).

We have a train table very similar to that in my son's room right now! ;) However, he often uses it to set up his army men also!

Margie said...

What a truley wonderful Grandson to be so proud of!! Such wonderful memories you two have made over the years and continue to make. How special for both of you! May God continue to bless you both with many many more years of memories together!!!

Margie :-)

Anonymous said...

Isn't it wonderful that he would take such an interst in our nation's history. My son would play for hours with soldiers all lined up on the floor too.

We have a Civil War re-enactment by us at a place called Riley's Farm.

Thanks for sharing the pictures, sweet memories, I am sure!

Blessings, Patty

Ruthie said...

very nice post. Enjoyed reading the post about Jim Elliot. I remember it all when it happened.
And so glad to see the film "end of the spear".
Hope things are well with you.
Smiles. Ruthie

HW said...

What a great hobby for your grandson. We have been to a Civil War reenactment and they ARE very realistic. One of the soldiers even fed our children from ration sack - dried meat, biscuits, nuts.

Thanks for your kind words on my blog. I do appreciate your thoughts.

Joanne@ Blessed... said...

I found your blog through, It's all about him.

What a precious blog about your grandson Elliot. No doubt he will soar when it comes to his history classes in school. My husband has a love of history that he passed down to our oldest daughter Meghan. I was blessed to be able to go with Meg and her 8th grade class to Washington D.C. for the first time. We can't wait to be able to take the kids there one day. We are praying that we can afford to do it next year. It is in God's hands.

Your blog is so full of love for your grandbabies. I am blessed to have a grandma who is my number one fan too. At forty years old, I still need my grandma very much.

Blessings, Joanne
p.s. You mentioned that you knew Jim Elliot, wow. I have his book, The Diary of Jim Elliot, that was signed by his wife Elizabeth. I found it at a book sale and I treasure it.

Anonymous said...

This was really interesting. I loved reading it

Anonymous said...

What a nice post. I really love reading these types or articles. I can?t wait to see what others have to say..