Hello my CW relic community:
At this holiday time, I just wanted to share an interesting experience I had last night concerning CW relic collecting—well, at least that was the catalyst for what ensued.
We had guests last night, among whom there was a ten-year-old boy with an interest in collecting coins, and other historical things. In talking to him, I remembered myself at his age, having caught the collecting bug very early. His mother asked us, “What does one get out of collecting? . . . Why do you want to accumulate stuff?” Of course we responded, initially, in the way all true collectors respond to such a question: with a deep breath and an intuitive knowing that if we really tried to explain, we would eventually be discussing Freud! Anyway, the boy’s expression to the question certainly betrayed the joy of collecting I too once had (and still do). I had given him a riker case containing a .58 Gardner and a .58 Federal three-ringer last X-mas, and since that time he’s been pondering how he might begin to collect more CW bullets.
Anyway, what I would really like to share is the interesting questions that an examination of my collection brought up in this child. Now, I will not go into what my best attempts at answers to his challenging questions were, nor what his questions PERHAPS imply about the state of classroom history learning (or at least this boy’s perceptions of any lessons on the Civil War). I just want to share the questions as he voiced them in their honest simplicity and curiosity—as items to ponder at this Christmas time for us CW collectors.
After, “you mean cannons shot things other than round balls?” and, “Oh, I thought bayonets were only used for when you ran out of bullets,” his questions became rather profound:
“Why did Americans fight Americans? . . . The South was fighting to have slavery, right? . . . If they would have won, would we all have slaves, or be slaves? . . . Since the North won, does that mean we won the war? . . . Wasn’t the South the bad guys? . . . The North was really the U.S., right?" Finally, “If war is bad, why do we want to remember it?”
Who knew old relics could elicit such questions in a boy? . . . I, and all of you, of course!
Happy Holidays!
At this holiday time, I just wanted to share an interesting experience I had last night concerning CW relic collecting—well, at least that was the catalyst for what ensued.
We had guests last night, among whom there was a ten-year-old boy with an interest in collecting coins, and other historical things. In talking to him, I remembered myself at his age, having caught the collecting bug very early. His mother asked us, “What does one get out of collecting? . . . Why do you want to accumulate stuff?” Of course we responded, initially, in the way all true collectors respond to such a question: with a deep breath and an intuitive knowing that if we really tried to explain, we would eventually be discussing Freud! Anyway, the boy’s expression to the question certainly betrayed the joy of collecting I too once had (and still do). I had given him a riker case containing a .58 Gardner and a .58 Federal three-ringer last X-mas, and since that time he’s been pondering how he might begin to collect more CW bullets.
Anyway, what I would really like to share is the interesting questions that an examination of my collection brought up in this child. Now, I will not go into what my best attempts at answers to his challenging questions were, nor what his questions PERHAPS imply about the state of classroom history learning (or at least this boy’s perceptions of any lessons on the Civil War). I just want to share the questions as he voiced them in their honest simplicity and curiosity—as items to ponder at this Christmas time for us CW collectors.
After, “you mean cannons shot things other than round balls?” and, “Oh, I thought bayonets were only used for when you ran out of bullets,” his questions became rather profound:
“Why did Americans fight Americans? . . . The South was fighting to have slavery, right? . . . If they would have won, would we all have slaves, or be slaves? . . . Since the North won, does that mean we won the war? . . . Wasn’t the South the bad guys? . . . The North was really the U.S., right?" Finally, “If war is bad, why do we want to remember it?”
Who knew old relics could elicit such questions in a boy? . . . I, and all of you, of course!
Happy Holidays!
