Genesee Country

A hot, dry wind blew steadily at the Genesee Country Village and Museum in Mumford yesterday.  It reminded me of Dallas.   Tourists on hand to view an annual Civil War weekend tended towards the shady spots and water and ice cream were the refreshments of the day.   The reenactors, encumbered by heavy weapons and equipment, were to a person beet red and sweating.  They love to do this stuff and even they were wishing for the pageant to end and for the sun to set.

At a few moments past eleven, as time was told on the clock above the town square, the soldiers chased each other through the village and blasted one another at close range.  The smell of powder smoke and sweat drifted throughout the crowd.   The Confederates, having had enough of the fight, took off through the village and into the fields beyond as Union blue horsemen clopped into sight.   The crowd cheered the home team and then broke up to return to lawn chairs and other diversions.

I am a veteran of this event, having attended many a time over the course of my life.  The crowds seemed sparser this year no doubt because of the heat.   The afternoon battle, held on an open field south of the village and in the shadow of the museum's newest exhibit, a replica of Dr. Thaddeus Lowe's famous Civil War observation balloon, was seen to be fewer than usual.   In the field, the sun bore directly down and shade was a precious commodity.   The cavalry horses looked irritated and the soldiers positively fatigued.

My wife and son and I had seen it before, so we opted to pass and retired to our perfect spot underneath a sunburst locust near the renovated art museum.  It overlooked the Great Meadow and the covered pavilion in the center.  We had a cooler and a picnic basket and the breeze kept us tolerably cool.   A few clouds tried to form in the heated sky and then gave up.   In the distance, the boom of the cannon and the torn sheets of musket fire told us the second battle of the Genesee Country was underway.