Living History Lessons the Pandemic Taught me
This is some advice I would give to my younger pre-2020 self and to anyone new to re-enactment- or even to hardened veterans who might want to get more out of their hobby.
1.
Changes to my soft kit and equipment
Like many other re-enactors with a sudden surplus of downtime, I sorted through my clothing and equipment (after pairing all of my socks and baking copious banana breads, of course!) I replaced some of my machine-sewn garments with hand-sewn items, adapting the patterns as I went to aid in a more comfortable and accurate fit. More importantly though, I cleaned my gear and found myself patching holes and tears. This may sound laborious, but it is extremely satisfying to see an old garment gain new life.
2. Better preparing for displays at events
Organising and preparing proper storage for my kit was one of the best jobs I did over lock down! It started with making lots of little linen bags from scraps. This was a fun job to do while watching Tiger King. Before I knew it, my scrap bag was lighter and we had all sorts of handy bags to store accessories, tools, dry food, tent pegs, you name it!
This led to an assessment of my equipment itself. I am fond of natural dyeing, but don't yet have a full dyeing display for events. A new cauldron is on my wish-list, but in the meantime, I bought some replicas of historical thread-reels and wound up one spool of every colour I've dyed. These pack down into a linen sack which can then be unpacked into a tidy display of period accurate colours for the encampment. To my delight, this went down a storm with visitors at the Battle of Hastings last autumn. This is just one example of a small preparation that had a big impact for me.
3. Completely changing my approach to research
With more time on my hands to improve my impressions, I found myself questioning a lot of what I thought I knew about life in the past. It turned out that numerous “facts” I had been repeating were simply re-enactorisms, half-truths or extremely vague re-countings of old research. I decided to put my money where my mouth was and find out the answers for myself, rather than relying on basic kit guides. Kit guides are invaluable for folks just starting out, but I had been resting on my laurels for years and not exploring any further.
While a lot of historical and archaeological papers are kept behind paywalls, many of them are actually available for free online or through libraries. It can be daunting to dip your toe in as a hobbyist, but I found it really rewarding. My opinions on historical clothing were challenged significantly, but it also opened a whole new world of knowledge that I didn't know existed!
4. Venturing outside my comfort zone and trying new things
It was only when I was unable to attend events that I realised quite how firmly I was stuck in my living history comfort zone. I visited the same events each year and did the same things like clockwork. In the spirit of lockdown “carpe diem”, I started to say yes to things that pre-lockdown me would have made excuses not to do.
Some friends invited my brother and I to join them on some cross-country walks in kit, so we did- we came home with a list of adjustments to make to our gear! I took part in a weekend-long Zoom sewing class alongside some living historians I really look up to. To my relief, they were so kind, friendly and generous with their knowledge. I even attended some virtual archaeological conferences, but I never would have had the confidence to attend prior. All of these experiences brightened my lockdown and taught me things that I was able to pass along to my group.
5. Remind yourself of why you do this
I really recommend asking yourself: “Why am I doing this? What do I get out of it?”
I was desperate to get back to doing events, but began to question what exactly I get from living history as a hobby and what I missed. This helped a lot when preparing for the future, yet it also became clear what I didn't miss. I had thrown myself into doing many events that caused me a lot of anxiety and stress, but had been so busy doing it that I didn't have time to reflect. With some clarity of my personal goals, I've been able to enjoy post-Covid re-enactment so much more and stress less. Life is too short to be unhappy and with so many different interests within re-enactment, there's always something new to try.
Written by Leah O'Cuinneagain-De Bernardi
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