Two guys in a trench!

Well after turning 34 (and trying to grow up......well not really ;) )  the best way I could think of celebrating was to sit in a foxhole overnight, in the cold, just for re-enacting (I don't even get paid to sit in a foxhole and have people shoot at me, this is just for giggles......well there is a far more important purpose.....to remind people what those incredibly brave, heroic men and women lived through in defending our liberties and life!)

 Whilst we battled through Saturday and there were all manner of stories and amusing moments, although they are probably those kind of stories that will only be amusing to fellow re-enactors, but after 8 hours in the woods we decided to retreat back to the foxhole. For those who have never seen a re-enactment it is a bit like boyscout camps, interspersed with periods of historical activity, and usually a rehearsed pitched battle. In the winter season there are private battles, where training and tactics are practiced (it's a lot like cops 'n' robbers but in period kit, and with period tactics). 

The battling was fun, but what really struck me was that whilst we do this hobby and try to ensure that we do things as correctly as possible, waking up on a foxhole was incredible. That poor young men from all over the world woke up in the bottom of trenches, or in bunkers, or foxholes, and are still doing so. We woke with mist and smoke slipping along the trench bottom and through the door, swirling in the slanting sunlight. 

We are incredibly lucky that we do not live through those times anymore, that whilst conflict still rages around us, we are still in a very long period of World peace. That countless young men woke up, and still do, to these conditions......to never see another. That those young men lived, and died that we may be free, and at this time of year, with Remembrance Day around the corner it is a time that I always take a few hours to remember and thank those that have come before, and those that are still to come.