Last Friday, R. L. Fifield wrote about being in other people’s family albums. In the future, I think I’ll turn the camera on the crowd as she did at the Battle of Brooklyn. It is an odd thing to be an animal in the zoo, as the boys and I have been.

But what seems even odder is the how the public behaves.

I have not been shoved too hard myself, but I have been elbowed and ignored. I have seen grown men push their way through a group of chatting reenactors, shouldering past the men they didn’t want to talk to as if they were sleek as a cat. (Note to the Rude: If you give a speech at an event and state your name and organizational affiliation, perhaps you should not actually shove the participants aside later, even if they are “only” privates.)

I have heard a woman with a point-and-shoot camera yell at my son and the Regiment’s adult drummer, “Turn around! I can’t see your faces!” Really, I had no idea Brian possessed an Evil Eye, but it’s a good one.

I have watched an elderly gentleman with a large digital SLR pull and tug on my husband’s hunting frock to force him into a portrait with woman he did not know.

And that was all just on Saturday in a small town in RI. Similar behavior, with more foot-crushing and shoving, was on display at Fort Lee, NJ last November. (A NJ camera club came to the Fort Lee event, which was listed on their website as a good event for taking photos.)

We’re reenactors, not dolls.

Please,  ask before touching, or tugging. We’re happy to explain what we’re wearing and let you touch our clothes but we don’t like being pulled around to suit your aesthetics.

Please don’t step on the women in kit. We can’t be in the battle, but we like to watch it, too, and the guys on the field are our friends, husbands, sons, fathers…we care about them.

In short, remember we’re people too, and we’re happy, delighted—eager, even—to share the history with you. But let’s minimize the tugging, shoving, pulling, and yelling.