Scott's Birthday in Gettysburg, Saturday, Nov. 21, 2015-

     When Scott realized that his birthday was on a Saturday this year, he immediately started thinking about being back in Gettysburg for it.  The anniversary of the Gettysburg Address falls on Nov. 19, and for years there has been a parade in Gettysburg on the weekend nearest that date.  Scott was here for the 125th anniversary parade back in 1988, and on one or two other years as well, but here was a chance to go back again.  He's been hoping for good weather ever since then.  It turned out to be in the high 40s and sunny here-- not a bad day for a parade in wool.

     We left for Gettysburg shortly after school on Friday and arrived here just before 11:00 last night.  Anna was the first to wish Dad a happy birthday at midnight.  We woke up this morning, had a breakfast at the hotel, and went out for the day.

     Our first stop was at Barlow's Knoll.  When Scott was here with the 8th grade students in March, he had heard the story of Bayard Wilkeson, a 19 year old lieutenant from Buffalo, who was mortally wounded here on the 1st day of fighting.   Scott wanted to see where his battery was, and it made for a nice little walk and exploration to start the day.  After driving through the town, which was pretty crowded for the parade, we stopped for a picture at the 15th and 50th NY Engineers monument because Scott was going to be marching as an engineer today.  We then went to the National Park Visitors Center and visited their gift shop.   We had an early lunch at the cafeteria there, because Scott was supposed to be dropped off at noon.

     One of the teachers Scott works with, Ray B., is also a re-enactor with the U.S. Engineers.   He has often been inviting Scott to fall in with them some time, and this seemed like a good opportunity to do so.   That meant that Scott wouldn't be marching with a rifle today, but would be carrying an axe instead.  The girls dropped him off near the High School and Middle School, where a lot of re-enactors had already started to gather.  Scott quickly found both Ray Sr., the teacher he works with, and Ray Jr., who Scott has been with at a lot of re-enactments.  Once the parade started, it wound up to finally come out to march down a large portion of Baltimore St. and Steinwehr Avenue.  There was a band playing in front of them a ways and a band about the same distance behind them.  When they marched through some parts of the streets, the music from  two different directions and the echoes from  the buildings sometimes made it hard to stay in step!  Carrying an axe was a lot easier than carrying a rifle, though.  Julie and the girls had parked the car in the National Park, near where the parade was to end and found a spot to watch.  It was a much longer parade then any of us had expected, but the weather was sunny and cool so it was a fine day for it.  The girls favorite part of the parade might have been seeing "Sallie," a dog portraying the mascot of the 11th Pennsylvania.  She certainly did look like the dog on the monument.

     After the parade, Scott tried to meet the other guys from the engineers for a photograph together at the monument that he had visited earlier, but either Scott had misunderstood the location or time, or they changed their plans.  We decided to go shopping.  Julie parked in the hotel lot next to the Jenny Wade house, and as Scott was coming down the slick pavement with metal heel plates on his shoes, his feet slid out from under him and he went down.   A few kind people helped him up.  He only skinned his knee a little, but he seemed to have pulled some muscles in his right calf, so he had to walk gingerly the rest of the afternoon.    We got to shop in a few stores that Scott really wanted to visit-- the Irish Brigade Shop, the American History Store, and the Regimental Quartermaster.    We rode a little bit through the battlefield as the sun went down (-- that's the bad part about coming here in winter-- the sun went down before it was even 5:00).  Scott chose Tommy's Pizza for dinner.  It was very crowded but the girls gave him his presents while he waited-- a book about Gettysburg monuments, a tie with Joshua Chamberlain on it, and a calendar of Historic Buffalo.  After dinner, we went back to the hotel so Scott could rest and change.  The girls went to the nearby movie theater to see the last installment of "Hunger Games" which came out this weekend.