In getting ready for Arthurdale Heritage’s New Deal Festival this coming weekend, I have been forced to do something that I have been wanting to do, but have been putting off for some time: developing a period civilian impression. Admittedly, this is a new area for me and I welcome any advice from the readership. Finding the right clothing was a challenge right off the bat. Luckily, Bill and Linda Donegan are tireless and experienced shoppers and have access to a very large Goodwill store in Charleston, WV. They found a very nice double-breasted suit that fit me as well as an Italian-made shirt that required cufflinks and seemed to be correct in all respects that I could see from photographs on line. I turned up a nice pair of Florsheim wingtip shoes at a 2/3 off price at a local shoe store. Again, I don’t think wingtips have changed much since they started making them, so these should be fine.
I purposely wanted something a little dressy, but I know there are many options. I encouraged one of my friends who works as a mine electrician to come as a coal miner. At least half of the original Arthurdale settlers were out-of-work miners and there were certainly some miners in the area who had jobs. Impressions as farmers and laborers would also be very appropriate. The first step is going to be getting the right clothing and accoutrements as it were.
Fleshing out the character from that point will be a natural progression of research and in the case of local people, perhaps talking to someone who may remember it, although probably as a child at this point.
Non-military living history is a different ballgame and admittedly not my area of expertise. I want to expand into this area and am quite interested in the comments any of you might have. If you know of good resources to check out, please send in your comments. If any of you are in driving distance of Arthurdale, please come by and check out what we are doing. It should be interesting.
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