Re: MtMan-List: Mtn-Man: Introduction and request for help

[John Kramer <kramer@kramerize.com>]

Susan,

Welcome to the list.  Hope you have fun.

Most rendezvous are held where there are no city lights.  Some are held on
high
plateaus above 11,000 ft. like Elizabeth Ridge, Utah.  The night sky's are
amazing and prime for viewing.  At Hickerson Park, Utah one year we were
treated to a glorious display of the Northern Lights.

There are available incredibly beautiful telescopes, sextants and such of the
period which could fuel his interest.  I doubt anyone would much complain at
any of the public rendezvous if he drug out a gigantic modern reflective at
night.  

Calculating longitude and latitude with compass, clock and sextant and working
with old star charts, might feed his need for logical deduction required on
the
computer.

Or he might find something else, a brand new interest; straight from the
past. 
There is much more to this than camping and shooting while dressed up in funny
old clothes, and living without modern conveniences by choice.

Unaccompanied Women are certainly welcome at rendezvous and safer in every
regard than nearly anywhere else on earth.  As with all life there are
always a
few bad apples, they maintain a very low profile in camps filled with
honorable, well armed, men and women.  I have never been in a camp where a
woman alone was at any kind of risk; not of her own choosing.

John...
  


At 03:45 PM 7/30/98 -0500, you wrote:
>
>
>Hello the camp.
>
> I have been lurking for a bit now and tried once earlier to make
>my presence known, without much success(posting problems). 
> My name is Susan Gilbert, aka She Has Old Hands.  I've been
>interested in and researching women in colonial and frontier America for
>about 8 years.  I do presentations for the local schools on the daily
>lives of 2 of my ancestors, Annie Night-born, a Cherokee mid-wife and yarb
>woman and Matilda McFarland Clayton, wife of a trapper and cartographer
>named John Wesley Clayton.  My presentations are done in character as
>either one of these women and I have learned many of the "goodwife" skills
>necessary to run a house and feed and cloth a family in the period they
>lived. I never thought of my presentations as "Living History" until
>someone who saw me used the term to describe what I do. 
> 2 years ago I stumbled across a Voo at Ushers Ferry, in Iowa, and
>was completely captivated.  I would love to get involved but I have an
>unusual problem. 
> I'm a married woman who's husband is only mildly interested in
>this area.  Brian is very supportive of my interest and has allowed me to
>drag him all over our area in search of gear and people to interview, but
>feels there is no place for him. He is not interested in firearms,
>trapping, or any of the other things that occupy you menfolk, other than
>as a spectator.  He is a videographer, photographer, astronomer and Alpha
>computer geek.
> So how does a woman involve an only marginally interested husband
>in the lifestyle?  You who had to coax a hesitant wife might be able to
>give me some hints, I hope.
> I have enjoyed this group very much and hope to be much more
>involved now that I mustered my courage and finally said hello.
>
>Thank you for your attention and any help you can offer.
>
>Your humble servant,
>She Has Old Hands
>
>Susan Gilbert
>sgilbert@Blue.weeg.uiowa.edu 
> 
Use it up, wear it out, make do, or do without.
John Kramer  <kramer@kramerize.com>