World War II Days

Today we drove up to Rockford to the Midway Village Museum to meet friends (the P. Family and the W. Family), because it was World War II days at the museum. It is evidently the largest WWII re-enactment in the US. I wasn't sure what to expect, but it turned out to be excellent. No one wanted to leave when it was time, and there was still so much we didn't see.

Essentially, groups of WWII re-enactors come and set up camp at the museum for the weekend. Today was the school group day, which meant that we got a discount on adult tickets (we were chaperones), but we also had to navigate large school groups. (Not really my favorite thing.) We wandered around, and stopped at a group that looked interesting, and talked with them. They were all in character, and described what they were wearing and what they were doing and anything they had on display. It was truly excellent. If you live in the area, I would highly suggest you go over the next two days. It is completely worth the entrance fee.

Everyone, even (especially?) the adults learned so much. Here are just a few pictures from the day.

A communications tent. Our tech-savvy children were a little horrified at the thought of having to string wire everywhere they went to communicate.

A scene of some of the many encampments.

We spent a long time talking with some young women who were Land Girls.

There was a display of some amazing 'trench art'. That would be art made by soldiers as they sat around waiting for life to become terrifying. (That long thing at the top of the table is a beautiful engraved shell casing.)

The children who were cooperating with group picture taking.

Some German soldiers. The carts they are standing around are horse-drawn. It turns out the vast majority of the German army was not mechanized, but relied on horse-power.

There were many, many more encampments in the woods. This is a trench some German troops were digging and fortifying.

I should have taken more pictures. There were so many re-enacters, you really did feel as though you had been transported back in time. I think this was because there were so many people, all busily doing things, moving around, obviously with jobs outside of interpreting for the guests. We seemed to be somewhat beside the point. We've been to a lot of living history museums over the years, and while many are very good, the only one that felt this same level of immersion was Plimoth Plantation.

Everyone is already talking about when we go back next year. And since it didn't rain nor was too hot, it was just about one of those perfect field trip outings.