Every year, the Civil War is held in the Central Library Park. Most years, at least some of us go to see it. Battles are fought, music is played, food is cooked, and, of course, stuff is sold.
And people have fun.
Usually, they pick the hottest day of the summer to hold it on, but this year they messed up--it was hot, but not impossibly so, and the three of us who went had a pleasant time wandering around and watching the fun. We did listen to some music and watched a little dancing, but we missed the battles this year.
Can't say I'm terribly sorry. The cannons are really loud. Often, my method of handling things is to go hide in the library; the windows shake, but it's down do a dull boom. At that, they're only using about 1/4 of the powder they would if they were really firing cannonballs.
Oh, and did you know they had submarines during the Civil War?1 And hot air balloons for surveillance and, on at least one occasion, bombardment purposes? I didn't, not til today. I also didn't know that they seldom actually washed their dishes, one of many reasons so many people died. It's an odd mix of knowledge and ignorance, don't you think?
Wonder what our imbalance is now? I know folk will look back on us and wonder how we lived without knowing "__," but will they think "How could they know ____ and not ____?"
Also, my sister brought up the fact that it is really rather odd to celebrate our own Civil War. Do other countries? I really do not know...
1Wikipedia says they were not true submarines after all, but "only" Torpedo boats. *sniff. Spoilsports.
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