25 September 2007

Real Men Eat Hard Tack

I managed to get my computer up and running again, sans hard drive. It had bad sectors in it and it wouldn't format properl...~glaze over, skip to the end~...now I am back to square one. So, enough computer talk.

These last two weekends the House of Coffee was attempting to benefit from the last of the nice weather. We don't tan in our neck of the woods, just rust a little. Consequently, we adapt by using sunny days to our best advantage.

Saturday, we pulled our rusty selves out of bed and had a little family outing that included a history lesson. We attended a yearly event at The Fort Vancouver National Historical Site on the Columbia River. They had reenactors, biplanes, camps from Civil war, WWI, WWII, and pioneers from 1849 to the Oregon Trail Days. Before you glaze over again, I'll show you some of the highlights with my usual demented intuitiveness. Just click to enlarge the pictures, or you can see these and more on my flickr page.

Here is part of the WWII camp. Mr. Coffee studies military history and I enjoy researching my genealogy. For us, this was a blast to take the kids. Mr. Coffee wanted to take a few souvenirs with him, starting with the M1 Garands these Reinactor Dudes are holding. Dear Santa...





The kids sampled hard tack ("blech!") and asked multiple questions such as, "Were you really in the Civil War?". I loved that the Reenactor Dudes would answer in character. Mr. Coffee busied himself, talking with a uniformed few. These Stars and Stripes replicas were serious men with every semblance of guts and glory. Mr. Coffee was in his element, and holy cow, I almost grew a beard with all the testosterone floating around me.

Forget seemingly manly things like golf, Monday night football, or poker. Real Men reenact including Mr. Coffee who now has a personal invite to kick some German half-track in a couple of weeks. I love it when he can go do things he really loves, if only he can pry himself from practicing his bass.

I like how they had all these camps around in their canvas and drab colors and smack in the center of the field is this fiery red historic hot dog / burrito cart. Honestly, they were good burritos but a burrito cart? Maybe this one came up from south of the border with the Rough Riders from TX. Is this where historic burrito carts come from? I don't know and Wikipedia has squat on this. Darnnnnn them.



I managed to escape the testosterone-filled air without growing a beard. I ended up amusing the kids and myself, joking about the giant doggy door (below), and laughing together at the crotch powder. I knew you wouldn't believe me, so I took pictures. The hard tack in the picture is a dental nightmare but if I was starving I'd be horking it down, too.




I'd hate to get the tooth powder and crotch powder mixed up. One slip before your morning coffee, you could easily end up with a peppermint clean crotch and soothing teeth that don't chafe and rub. I'm just saying......


Now this is a doggy door.



She does her momma proud. Grinding coffee, old school.



Have it be known, the Cavalry had the first drive-thru coffee idea.

That's what I've been up to. Meeting Real Men with rifles, drinking drive-thru Starbucks while using crotch powder behind the doggy door to get in line at the historic burrito cart.

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

need firsties!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

so you lost me right after the part about the shoshone arrowhead you found over by the creek bed

Anonymous said...

crotch powder?

Anonymous said...

Wow, "peppermint clean crotch"... that's where you lost me.

Looks like fun - we'll have to check it out next year. If we're not hip-deep in soccer... which means I can kiss the rest of my autumn Saturdays goodbye until Roz is in college...

Anonymous said...

I left you an entire post on my blog. You mentioned "telescope" and I needed an idea for a post.

Anyway, I could stand in for one of the WWII guys. I have my own Garand. It is fully functional. I have about 300 rounds already loaded into the Garand clips. The clip shoots out of the rifle and makes a distinctive "ping" sound when it hits the ground. EVERYONE always notices that.

One group of rifles in the Flicker photos look like 1903 Springfield, not Garands. The 1903 Springfield was used as a standard issue weapon in WWI, but was also favored by sharpshooters in WWII - so they would still be authentic in a historical reenactment camp.

Anonymous said...

Love the drive thru coffee! :)

Anonymous said...

Crotch powder? Please elaborate!

Anonymous said...

I always get "calvary" and "cavalry" mixed up. :)

I dread singing "I'm in the Lord's Army" with my kids in front of others because I know I am going to biff it.

Anonymous said...

What is crotch powder for?

Anonymous said...

I was just trying to think of what to get people for Christmas this year. Crotch powder. I bet the ladies on my list wouldn't get "that" from anybody else. And as an added bonus...it'd be hell to regift back to me. bwaaaaaaaaa ha ha ha ha ha!

Anonymous said...

Nice to have you back.

Anonymous said...

I got a lot of crap. My dad had a collector license for a while and so I ordered some stuff. I have 8mm mausers from Germany and Yugoslavia, I have a SKS from Yugoslavia with the grenade launcher attachment in UNFIRED condition, a British Enfield (beat up), an American made Enfield, some crazy Swiss rifle, and so on. All the collector stuff I got is at least 50 years old.

Ill have to drag it all out one day for photographs. It is almost gun range season. In the summer it is just too hot.

Anonymous said...

I know I'm a new reader and all, but am I allowed to have missed you?

Looks like it was a sweet trip!

Anonymous said...

That is SO cool!

I always wondered what hard tack was. ...that's like "hard tack and grool," right? So, what's grool?

Anonymous said...

Well, I think it looks like a very fun day, but then I was the goofball who majored in history as an undergrad.

Now you all know how dumb I really am....

Anonymous said...

Just wanted you to know I love you more than a sister, and I thank God for the day we hooked up....you're something pretty darn special!!

Anonymous said...

Have you noticed that some of your commenters are hot? I have. I do not get many hot commenters at my blog. I never get commenters like Kimberly and Mcbunni. I do get a lot of comments from the ghost of Chris Farley however. It is kind of creepy in a Twilight Zone kind of way.

Bee said...

r,
I love spill chick so I'm okay, but thanks for pointing it out. I hate it when I do that.

august,
I don't even want to know what the TP looked like.

cathouse teri,
they know me by name at mine. They also know me as the 'lady who takes all the complimentary suckers for her brood'. Hey, they are free? right?

Lazy,
You must send pics. Mr. Coffee is a collector, in other words, I'd hate to be the Dude breaking into our place, I'm just saying...

I'll check out your post.

Mills,
Wow, "peppermint clean crotch"... that's where you lost me. Says the woman who did an entire post on little wheels of cheese. ~snort~

Your kids would have loved it.

dawn,
hehe, that was a Kodak moment.

doozer,
with all these random movie quotes, I think most will think we are insane or high.

Okay, just insane, but high? Jail, me no likey.

Anonymous said...

That looks like the perfect trip, Bee! It's totally my family's kind of trip, too!

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"One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words."

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