Neary-Sighted

So here's the inside scoop - apparently there are still tickets available for the Candlelight Tour living history re-enactment at Fort Nisqually this weekend. Otherwise, the event is sold out. The tickers are only for the last tours on Saturday, after 9 p.m., and if you want them, call the fort ASAP.

Candlelight Tour is my favorite event to volunteer at. Several dozen of us put on our wool clothes - which will be handy in this weather - and re-enact the 1850's in several buildings throughout the complex. My character, Steilacoom newspaper publisher Charles Prosch, will be complaining that the political troubles in the East are undermining the growth of Washington Territory. And if someone gives me a glass of wine, I may fondly remember the days we typesetters lynched people in San Francisco ... but how it was totally wrong for the Olympia power brokers to lynch poor Chief Leschi. You can read more about my real-life guy Charles Prosch in this biography of "my" boy Thomas Prosch, who was 9 in 1859, but would grow up to start the Tacoma Tribune and to be the co-publisher and founding editor of the Seattle P-I.

Charles will be pontificating Friday, but I am not sure if I will be there Saturday as we've not settled plans on how we will be helping to spend our daughter's 20th birthday. That's in my life, not Charles'. His one daughter died tragically right after traveling across Panama, before there was a canal.

The great thing about Fort Nisqually is that this living history museum is packed with re-enactors of all ages - and it's very unusual to see so many youth at re-enactments. They add a lot of joy and life to balance out us guys talking politics. In the candlelight, during special moments, it really does become 1859. It's the best way to "learn" history and appreciate past times, back when daughters and sons often died much earlier than they do today. Check it out, this year or next.
Forward this post