TIME TRAVELLERS
Sometimes, it’s a relief to shed your century. Many people have discovered the joys of reverting, even for a weekend, to a time with no cell phones, no diesel fumes and no 24-hour news cycles. We talked to four people involved in two of the Inland Northwest’s reenactment groups – The Washington Civil War Association and the Northwest Renaissance Festival – and asked them to explain the appeal of dropping out, dressing up and harking back:
Matt Randall, Second Sergeant, Army of the Confederacy
Actually, he’s Matt Randall, 16, a sophomore at Ferris High School.
Yet every year, he reverts to 1863 with the Washington Civil War Association, which stages the annual Civil War Reenactment at Riverside State Park.
At first, he wasn’t crazy about certain aspects of the 19th century.
“My first time out there, I was thinking, ‘These soldiers must have been crazy,’ ” said Randall, who was about 13 at the time. “You’re standing shoulder-to-shoulder and having a blanket of lead shot fired at you every minute or so. I was way overwhelmed my first time. I thought, ‘I’m glad I didn’t live back then.’ “
Now, he enjoys all of it, even the hardships.
“I’m trying to portray the Civil War as closely as possible, so you’re wearing thick wool all day, even if it’s 90 degrees, and you’re eating hardtack, a food that breaks your teeth,” Randall said.
He got involved in Civil War reenacting when he and his dad saw a poster advertising the Memorial Day event. They went and watched, but at age 12, he wasn’t impressed.
“I would rather have been riding my bike or something,” he said.
But after his dad joined and got him involved the next year, he suddenly discovered the appeal.
“I put on the uniform and shot the guns, and I was like, ‘Hey, this is way cool,’ ” Randall said. “And I’ve sort of been hooked ever since.”
Most reenactors are middle-aged, yet his “company,” the 7th Tennessee, has four or five teenagers with more on the way.
“I’ve been recruiting like crazy,” Randall said. “That’s what it was like back then. You had a lot of guys who were younger than 18 but said they were 18.”
History is, not surprisingly, his favorite class at Ferris. He especially loves military history. And as a little boy, he also was partial to games of shoot-‘em-up.
“As a kid, growing up in my back yard, I liked to pick up sticks and pretend to be shooting somebody,” Randall said. “Now, I don’t even have to make the sound or anything.”
Dan Compogno, herald to His Majesty and town crier for the village of Pleasance
That title sounds slightly more grand than Dan Compogno’s day job: electroplater for Honeywell.
Compogno, 49, was hooked a few years ago the minute he and his family set foot in Pleasance, the fictional Tudor village at the Northwest Renaissance Festival.
“We walked through the gate and fell in love with the place,” he said. “It was truly like stepping back in time. This young man who greeted us was a squire, just beautifully dressed. And then you have the peasants and beggars and Gypsies and horses. It just takes you back.”
He was only a patron, but a couple of years later, he and his family immersed themselves in the Tudor Period in a more intense way: by becoming part of the show.
And that’s even more fun.
“I think what appeals to me is the simplicity of it all,” he said. “Today’s society is such a go-go-go kind of thing. When you’re out there (at the festival), it’s more relaxed. It’s a simple time, and you get to do things in a different way.”
For instance, Velcro on costumes is definitely out. Stone or horn buttons, in.
He and the other cast members went through 10 weeks of workshops, learning 16th century history, etiquette and language. Eventually he worked his way into the role of John Callsforth, herald, town crier and timekeeper. When a show is about to start, patrons hear about it the old-fashioned way: through Callsforth’s lung power.
He is also on the fight team, which means he went through extensive training in fight choreography.
“One of the nightly games is a play on the Battle of Bosworth Field, in the War of the Roses,” Compogno said. “Of course, we don’t kill off our major players, like they did in history. We have a lot more fun.”
Mike Inman, surgeon in the Union Army
Mike Inman, 52, a battalion chief with the Spokane Fire Department, remembers the moment he realized that reenacting was worthwhile.
He was at the annual Civil War Reenactment at Riverside State Park when he watched a man lead his 13-year-old son down to a trio of “Confederate” soldiers.
“The boy was blind, and he touched the soldiers and their weapons,” Inman said. “And I thought, how else would a blind child picture in his mind what a Civil War soldier would look like, without actually getting to touch one? At that point, I was like, shoot, I’ll let people touch my uniform, my weapon, whatever they want to do, just so they can get a feel for what it was like.”
Inman, a history buff from way back, also portrays an 1880s soldier at Fort Spokane and Fort Sherman for the National Park Service.
During the Civil War Reenactments, he plays a battlefield surgeon.
“We go out on the battlefield and do Civil War period medicine, and then when we get back to the hospital (tent), we do mock surgery and explain the instruments and what it was like to be a surgeon in the Civil War,” Inman said.
He also performs modern first aid if any of the reenactors get hurt, since he is a firefighter/EMT.
Inman always has been fascinated with the period from about the 1850s through the 1880s.
“I think it’s because I was born and raised here in Spokane, and it’s probably about that time that the area here really started to grow,” Inman said.
He said he and his fellow “soldiers” joke about their reenactment hobby, calling themselves “just a bunch of friends that enjoy history and go camping in old clothes.”
Yet it goes deeper than that.
“It’s kind of my escape from the 21st century, to a time that was easier,” he said. “Well, slower, let’s put it that way. It wasn’t much easier.”
One other reason he loves it: One of his ancestors, W.P. Inman, was the main character in “Cold Mountain,” the best-selling Civil War book and movie.
Jenna Longshore, peasant and town liar for the village of Pleasance
Jenna Longshore has a fascinating alter-ego: Faith Notlikely, the town liar at the Northwest Renaissance Festival.
“I spend my entire day telling fantastical little stories about how I built Pleasance all by myself, and how the king and I are friends,” said Longshore, a medical transcriptionist at Eastern State Hospital. “And every time I open my mouth, they all yell, ‘Liar!’ It’s a lot of fun.”
She calls it a creative outlet, like being in an eight-hour improvised play.
Yet what really hooked her nine years ago was the realization that she had “joined a second family.”
“It’s the camaraderie,” Longshore said. “I enjoy the people I do this with, and it turns into my social life. We really are a family.”
The bonding begins during the pre-festival workshops and continues through the performance season.
“We build this ensemble cast that works, in my opinion, because we are all very friendly with each other,” Longshore said. “We enjoy spending time together, putting on a show and making people laugh.”
The laughter is part of the appeal as well. When asked her age, Longshore said, “I’m 28 again. This keeps me young. It really does.”
One other cast member truly is family.
“I have a daughter who was 3 years old at the time we started with the festival, and she has been a character with me throughout the nine years,” Longshore said. “She plays a Gypsy; I play a peasant. We have this family activity that we do every weekend.”
Before joining the festival, Longshore was never particularly interested in history in general or the Renaissance in particular. Now, she reads about the Renaissance, watches movies about it and finds it so fascinating that she’d just as soon stay in Pleasance for the entire six weeks of the festival.
“Of course, I have a regular day job,” Longshore said. “So I have to come back to that. Sometimes it’s a downer to come back to the real world.”