World War II shook the world and changed everything. It pulled in the entire population of the planet. As far as I can remember, I’ve been deeply intrigued by this point in human history.

I witnessed my first WWII Reenactment in Rockford, Illinois. Yes, I can’t help but be reminded of the Rockford Peaches from that time and place (actually starts playing A League of Their Own while writing this). At first, I was overwhelmed and my senses went crazy. I was a kid in a candy store as soon as I saw the campfires, tents, M1’s, German helmets, and took a whiff of the gunpowder in the air. As much as I wanted it all to be as authentic as possible, it had it’s funny moments. The first thing I noticed were all the EXTREMELY well fed soldiers and people of the suburbs wandering around. Some of the American units had kids in their early teens dressed up as soldiers during reenactments. That was definitely silly and distracting. Two guys in zoot suits strolled through the forest next to an encampment of Nazis. There were constant weapons malfunctions and the field even set on fire twice which prompted the battles to stop so they could put them out, twice. Despite the many little inaccuracies, it was great seeing these people have fun with it. And even with the excessively hot weather, my friend and I had a great time. I treated him to his first European meal of potato pancakes, pierogies, sauerkraut, and Polish sausage. I was excited when I found out they were serving this. It was a nice touch. And did you KNOW that Hugo Boss was a member of the Nazi Party and supplied the uniforms? Mind blown.