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Rendezvous
What is Rendezvous?
* In the late 18th and early 19th centuries in America, there was a brisk trade in furs. Trappers working for the Hudson's Bay Company, the American Fur Company, and independently, took the beaver from the streams. In the early 19th century, business centered in the Rockies, where the trappers would bring their plews to the summer Rendezvous and sell them, buying their supplies for the coming year and blowing their earnings on whisky and what-all.
* In the late 20th century, "Living History" became a popular avocation. Now 21st century people reenact Civil War battles, Revolutionary War battles, French and Indian War battles. Living History settlements such as Williamsburg VA portray the everyday life of the past. Renaissance Faires and the Society for Creative Anachronism re-create earlier times in European culture.
* Rendezvous began as reenactment of the original fur trade Rendezvous, and spread out to include the entire time-period of 1750-1840 American life. This was a time of independent-spirited men and women, strong and self-reliant. A time of craftsmanship, before Mass Production and planned obsolescence. A time of marksmanship, when the round ball in your flintlock stood between you and starvation - or worse.
* At a Rendezvous, participants (called Buckskinners) camp in the styles of tents that were used pre-1840: tipis, marquees, wall tents, military wedges... canvas, not rip-stop nylon. We dress in the clothing of the 18th century - cook over the open fire, which we've started with flint and steel - participate in competitions with muzzleloaders, hawks and knives, etc.... - practice the crafts of the period, weaving, spinning, dyeing, making brain-tan buckskin (the wonderful soft Indian leather), porcupine quillwork, beadwork, leatherwork, blacksmithing, etc...
* When the sun goes down, we do not run back to the Modern World. We continue to share the spirit of the 18th century by gathering to sing around campfires, rather than "ampli-fires", tell stories, and talk late into the night without television or radio to intrude...
If that sounds like fun to you, you will probably enjoy my songs! Some of them are on my CD, IS THAT A REAL FIRE?.
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