Harpgirl, living history is a way for us grown-ups to play pretend with much better toys than the kidlings. Kidlings play war, too, even without anyone to show them.

And it is a way of life. There's a lot of people in this world, when their electricity goes off, they have no idea what to do so they sit around and whine about it. Me and Mister, we fire up the woodstove, get out the Aladdin lamps, put batteries in the radio and keep on going. Living history prepared me for that sort of thing. I figured if there really had been a Y2K crisis, all us reenactors would just pitch tents in a field somewhere and carry on, while everyone else commenced with a gnashing of teeth and tearing of hair.

Not only that, I have learned more about American and world history than I ever did when I was in school, and I was an honors student.

Louis L'amour once wrote that history wasn't just about dates, it was about the People and how they felt, what they said, what they did... and that's the truth.

Living history gives you real connections to those people who have gone before us. I can't tell you how moving it was to stand on the front lawn at Mount Vernon and look across the Potomac River, and think, except for that airplane overhead, I'm Seeing What George Washington SAW from his Porch!!!!! George Washington HimSELF stood on this very grass and looked at this very river!!!!!

It's also given me a lot more respect for people throughout history who have sacrificed much for something they believed in.

Beat that with a big stick.