"This Was"

I won't tell you when this picture, of me and my sixth-grade classmates, was taken. But I will give you a clue. Jethro Tull's debut album "This Was" had only just been released a few months previous and they had begun their first US tour.

I look literally squeezed into that ugly plaid sport coat. Like it's some sort of Scottish sausage casing and I'm the porcine filling. I don't know where it came from, but I pray I didn't wear it but this once. I do remember that it was a clip-on tie... and that the little pocket kerchief that is showing was fake. It was just a bit of folded cloth sewn onto a rectangle of cardboard. All in all, a rather classy get-up.

I won't embarrass anyone by identifying them, although I think I can recall everyone's name.

Pvt. Previs Perry

"Pen Gillett"

Okay, okay, Penn Jillette - the magician - as far as I know, isn't a relative (distant of otherwise). He well could be. He is an odd, odd man. My ears just perk up when I hear his name on the radio or television. "Pen Gillett" sounds like it would be a good cartoon feature someday. Too bad the name is taken.

Jillette is an atheist. I've read where his license plate reads "DOG ON". Which backwards is "NO GOD".

If that is what he wants to believe, that certainly is his right - but you'll never catch me riding in the in a car with the man.

"Gillette - The Best a Man Can Get"

You'd be surprised how many times guys have tried to use this as a pick-up line with my daughters. Regardless, for the little bit of shaving that I do (and infrequently at that), nothing will do but a Gillette Good News disposable.

Anyway, King Camp Gillette, shown here, another distant relative of mine, is the inventor of the Gillette Safety Razor. He was a bit of an eccentric himself, and was a "Utopian Socialist" and advocated that "all of industry should be taken over by a single corporation by the public and that everyone in the US should live in a a giant city called Metropolis powered by Niagara Falls."

"Holmes, Sweet Holmes"

The famous William Gillette, pictured here as "Sherlock Holmes", is a distant relative of mine. It was Gillette portrayal of Holmes on stage (and later in motion pictures) in the very late 1890s and first third of the 1900s, brought us the now firmly fixed and stereotypical image of the detective with a deerstalker cap, curved briar pipe, magnifying glass and violin.

Below, the eccentric Gillette Castle, built by Gillette in East Haddam, CT. overlooking the Connecticut River... was a kind of a early version of the "Neverland Ranch." It is now part of Gillette Castle State Park.

Today's trip to the Henry Ford Museum

"You May Already be a Wiener!"


The "Weinermobile". This was right at the main entrance to the Museum. It was a long time before I got that stupid "my bologna has a first name..." song out of my head...



This is Edgar Allen Poe's portable writing desk. A first generation "lap-top".



This is the Montgomery (AL), city bus that Rosa Parks was riding on when she refused to give up her seat to a white man.



George Washington slept here. Quite literally. This is Washington's camp cot from his military days. The whole thing folds neatly into a wooden box, seen there at the head of the cot.



The limousine that John F. Kennedy was riding in, in Dallas, when Lee Harvey Oswald shot him.



The chair, from Ford's Theater, that Abraham Lincoln was sitting in when John Wilkes Booth shot him.



Abraham Lincoln delivering his "Gettysburg Address". History teaches us that Lincoln wrote the "Gettysburg Address" on the back of an envelope. But here we can quite plainly see that he wrote it on a scroll.



And this is Lincoln writing his "Gettysburg Address". We know this is the real Lincoln, because he has "Abraham Lincoln" right there on the bottom of his shoe.

The Museum authenticates everything...

The 2nd Federal Battalion

My first foray into the world of Civil War Reenacting was, a few years ago while living in Ohio, with the 2nd Federal Battalion (Reinforced). Made up primarily of the 1st Ohio Volunteer Cavalry, Co. D and the 4th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, Co. B. It was a great, great experience for me... and after we made the move here to Southeast Michigan in January of '05, after getting the utilities turned on and the kids enrolled in school, our next priority was to find a local CW reenacting group. All four of us now are happily and much involved with the 21st Michigan Volunteer Infantry, Co. H. Be sure to check out our website at http://21stmichigan.org/

I joined the 2nd as a battalion staff officer, their chaplain - a 1st Lieutenant. Major Steve Reincke, Captain Shawn Farkas and 1st Sergeant Rick Williams, pictured here, were wonderful mentors and good friends. These images were taken at my very first event in late summer of '04, at Caesar's Creek Pioneer Village, between Dayton and Cincinnati. If you can't see their ranks, Steve is wearing boots, Shawn has the long dark mullet and mustache and Rick the long blonde hair and goatee (he also portrays a wonderful General George Custer).

Captain Erv Rock is the military commander of the 21st. The 21st is a member of the Cumberland Guard... an umbrella organization of regiments from Michigan, Indiana, Ohio and Wisconsin. The Cumberland Guard is a brigade... made up of battalions... there is a Cumberland Guard battalion, as well.