Talbot Day and the Teddy Bear Picnic

 

   One of the upshots of the COVID-19 virus and the necessary precautions was the cancellation of all reenacting events in Ontario and just about everywhere else in the western hemisphere.

Except for one...

    On Civic Holiday, the Backus Page House Museum scheduled a "Teddy Bear Picnic." (This was August 3 in Ontario - It really celebrates nothing in particular although some municipalities call it something, like "Simcoe Day" in Toronto; it's really an excuse to have a three-day weekend in August so each month of the summer has a three-day weekend!) St. Peter's Anglican Church is just down the road and had scheduled a day to celebrate or at least remember Colonel Thomas Talbot, a local leader in colonial times who arranged and distributed land to those he deemed worthy. More on that another time. The pandemic crashed the plans and Bishop Thownsend of the Anglican Diocese of Huron closed the churches of the diocese for any public event. Canon Nick Wells, the pastor and a member of our reenacting group, worked with the museum staff and the local health authorities to combine the events... and it was fun.

     Croghan's Company of Reenactors (reenacting Captain Croghan's company of the 17th Infantry, United States Army in the War of 1812) set up a display and did some musketry demonstrations while families ate their lunches amid a mass of teddy bears. They brought their own picnic baskets and their own teddy bears. One family brought a huge laundry basket of bears!

   Here's a gallery of images from the day:

Tyler, our First Sergeant, prepare for drill.

Yellow Jacket of the Unami Lenne Lenape with a new friend.

Kevin, serving as a sergeant of militia

Linda, who makes beautiful hats, in her outdoor millinery shop.

Steve the Frontier Painter, Linda's husband, working on his latest portrait.
That guy looks familiar somehow. Rod Steiger?

     Not a reenactment per se, but it was a display with proper social distancing maintained. We kept 6 feet/2 metres from the public and from each other. (Families excepted) Masks were available for all. We got to wear our funny clothes and fire a few rounds. As hot as it was, it was a good day.

At Linda and Steve's encampment, some explanations

Period firearms - musket, rifles, and a non-working pistol
(a really heavy piece of work)

Edged weapons and a powder horn, including a First Nations' war club.
In the rear, a small display of musket balls.
To the right, the "bottle shaped" item is a grenade discharger
for the British Brown Bess musket.

Parachute games for the families.

Linda with a bear who took proper precautions!

The Tea Party at the picnic

Steve and Linda's area.
Note the rope that enforced proper distance.

At the musket demo, Kevin fires his favorite Jager rifle.

Tyler, Kevin, Kaise/Yellow Jacket, and Marcus prepare the firing line
in the afternoon demo.

Make ready! Take aim! Fire!
(Crown forces use "Present!" rather than "Take aim!")

Nick dreams dreams of glory... or of iced tea.

Your Humble Blogger - now a lieutenant - checks with his First Sergeant.

More firing at the morning demo.

Beth, my wife, in historical finery

She makes the photo memorable, doesn't she?

Al, a member of the museum staff, fires a rifle.
She's fully insured due to a previous employment at another museum.
(She was wearing a lovely dress and we lent her a hunting frock to keep it clean)

A epaulet, a new sword, and a lovely wife.
Can it get better?

Speaking to the crowd just before the reenactor's salute
to the crowd

Yellow Jacket of the Lenne Lenape
aka my Delaware daughter

One last photo of a lucky man...

 

     If all goes well and the health situation remains stable in our area, we'll be part of a Canadian history/heritage time line in later September. More on that later.