seminolewar

I receive some interesting emails from people seeking information about the Seminole War. Yes I am a self-appointed expert on the war's history. But even with my self-appointed status, I am still considered a good authority by some. And I have a following that will read this blog regularly.

I have a YouTube channel. It is more for my own amusement, since I do not have an expensive camera. So my videos are short, taken on my little hand-held Sony digital camera. The YouTube channel is nothing more than a toy, in my opinion. I do not seek subscribers, even on this blog. People can come here if they want; my world does not revolve around the internet. Which is why you don't see daily postings of my innermost thoughts.

Occasionally I get flames. Nasty emails. They are almost always amusing. I got one the other day, below in quotes. I won't talk about his complete rant, but he takes a personal jab at me. He claims that the image of Fort Foster on my Youtube profile was not made by me.

"The photo of Ft. Foster you use on your profile you did not take. I go every year to the battle re-enactment and I guess you don't. I have great images, which I know you don't have.You are just another lost soul on the web. Oh, your 15 subs is very impressive."

First off, when someone demonstrates illiteracy, uses bad grammar and spelling, I take it as a sign of other problems. Problems that I will not be able to solve for him.

Second: Why on God's green earth does he want to say that I faked the photo? How does he know if I take good photos or not? I am not the only one who knows how to use a camera, and have a lot of "great images" that you see right here on this page. And this image of Fort Foster is from one of my YouTube videos, which he would have seen if he checked my profile further. Here is the video:



He doesn't know that I work for the park service and am friends with the staff at Hillsborough River.

I took that photo/video on March 6th, 2010 when I was asked to do a Fort tour / program at the Volunteer Appreciation weekend.

The reason why I have not attended the reenactment is because my own park has had events conflicting on the same date for years.

I have been involved in Seminole War living history/reenactments for 25 years. The past few years I have only done a small number. Mainly because working at a park, I work most weekends and holidays. Many of my days off are weekdays.

But recently I have been involved in a lot of living history interpretation that you will not see. I have been involved in black powder safety. The state parks are developing standards and safety procedures similar to the National Parks, and I am glad to take part in the process. And there is also talk about having a living history interpretive team within our district in the park service. (I am a life member of the National Association of Interpreters, which is now an international organization.) There is talk of working among our different parks to develop living history training / interpretation. This is all in-house and will not be seen by the public. So just because I am not blowing smoke, doesn't mean that I am not active in living history.

Btw, I seem to do more programs / living history / reenactments outside of Florida in the past few years. Later this year I will be at Fort Washita, Oklahoma, and Fort Toulouse / Jackson in Alabama. Two years ago I was at the 1812 Grand Tactical south of Baltimore, Maryland.