Civil war buffs drill for the 'hardest test in history'
I didn't realize they licensed private tour guides. My son's scout troop went to Gettysburg and joined one of the NPS tours. The guy kept a whole lot of teenaged boys engaged and interested for what was at least 2 hours and several miles of walking. I've been on tours of other Civil War sites and that was by far the best.
I guess when you want to be a guide to nerds, you have to be a uber-nerd. There is a degree of mansplain competitiveness amongst hardened <anything> specialist tourism, people who seek to edgelord it out with the guide over some microfactoid.
That said, there's also the thing that people have a strong sense of connection with bits of history, and this is one of those bits, and it's nice the guides can try to work out where your nth squared great grand-uncles substitute stood, in that amazing charge. Probably over there. near the wall made in 1871 out of the rubble left over when the significant object of this fight was destroyed in a storm.
(seriously I admire docents, they have to work bloody hard to cope with the random stuff people ask. And these guides undoubtedly know their stuff)
today's one of those rare days when my penchant for painting ancient greek miniatures feels like the shallow end of the nerd pool.
This honestly makes me want to take a tour knowing how hard the guides worked to get to that position.
I don’t understand how the civil war has managed to become so many people’s full time hobby. I grew up near all the battlefields. Do you know how boring it is to have so much viable land dedicated just for people to drive around a field that a battle or two was fought 150 years ago? It’s not even like the war-buffs are super into the cause of the war. it’s just like wow a war happened here once, let me collect the antiques ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
People use to hand me antique bullets like they were a prize or something