I See By Your Outfit

You'll have to wait a bit for all the touristy shots from the BIG trip (first time I was out of state in four years - my life is so riveting). I'm choosing, on this post, to join the Madogre in his quest for Cowboy Action Shooting events minus the costume party. First of all the pic: My Great Uncle Grover Hall back in the 20's or 30's. This illustrates what is cool about the outfits. I'd have killed for one when I was in the first grade. And you've got to admit, you can tell by Grover's outfit that he is indeed a cowboy.
The apparel issue in reenacting, which is similar to CAS, is one that has bugged me for a long time. I started making and selling knives aimed at reenactors because, a cruise through their supplier's websites revealed them to be seriously undersupplied on that count. I would therefore be providing a valuable service, authentic weapons of minor destruction. I have to say the folks who reenact "The War of Northern Aggression" have always been faithful and enthusiastic customers. However my assumption, since I've always had a sick fascination with the First World War, that I'd be able to just slide into a ready market for all the interesting and twisted blades produced during that conflict was sorely disappointed. I sell lots of WW1 knives, but none to reenactors and the reason appears to be: It's all about the clothes. Not to fault these fine folks a bit. There's nothing wrong with what their doing. I just don't get it. For me the WHOLE point would be the weapons. When I was a little kid playing army it never occurred to me to recreate the experience of standing in a chowline in the rain or sleeping in the mud. I wanted to shoot the shit, run around with some ugly knuckleduster and crack Boche melons, mow down waves of men with a Vickers, in short, play with the weapons. Of course you can do that anytime. You can go shoot your firearms and reenact the part of the history that's important to you but you'd have to come up with your own company. Not a problem for me. I'm an antisocial bastard. But others of a more approachable demeanor would like to be able to play with their toys and be competitive without being jumped about how closely you resemble, in the words of Curly Fletcher's song, "The Strawberry Roan" 1913, "...a bronc-bustin' man - by the looks of your clothes". Cowboys weren't about guns so much anyway. The afore quoted song runs along for six verses and never mentions them. Grover, you'll notice, isn't packing any heat. I wonder if there's any event in the modern world where one can live the cowboy experience, the ass-busting, dangerous work, the thrilling face-plants into the dirt, the total disregard by the intellectual community, the reality of being a cowboy. See what the cowboy lifestyle was really about. Oh yeah - rodeo. So I guess the whole CAS thing seems, in the end, to be a gun-shooting party. If that's the case, you ought to be able to pull that off without a dress code.