Living History Association

Saturday, November 1st

Matterhorn Inn
248 Route 100 North
West Dover, VT 05356

Meeting Schedule

9:00 am            Registration/Coffee Klatch

10:00 am          Meeting Opens—Chairman’s remarks, remarks by President

10:30 am          Revolutionary War Department Report—Past year’s activity, planned year ahead, financial status

10:50 am          Civil War Department Report—Past year’s activity, planned year ahead, financial status

11:05 am          WWII Committee Report—Past year’s activity, planned year ahead, financial status

11:25 am          Ancient & Medieval Department Report—Past year’s activity, planned year ahead, financial status

11:40 am          Administrative Department Report—Past year’s activity, planned year ahead, safety and insurance, fraternity and organization, financial status

12:00 pm          Break

12:45 pm          Lunch provided by the Living History Association and the Matterhorn Inn

1:45 pm            Nomination and election of a new President, followed by nominations of people to run for the board of directors.

2:30 pm            Break

3:00 pm            Introduction of representatives from the Dover Bicentennial Committee with a discussion of their proposed activities and 2010 dates.

3:15 pm            Introduction of representatives from the Celebrate the Valley Committee with a discussion of the Time Line, 2009 & 2010 dates and correlation to Dover Bicentennial Celebration October 2010.

3:30 pm            Introduction of the Wilmington Old Home Week Committee representatives and their plans and needs for August 2010.

4:00 pm            Introduction of the representatives of the Wilmington Historical Society and their wishes for a small 2009 Civil War Event.

4:30 pm            FINAL MEETING ASSEMBLY AND ADJOURNMENT.

5:00 pm            Meeting with Chris Donnelly for those people who want to lecture or host programs for International Elderhostel 2009 & 2010.

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September 25, 2008--Jacksonville, VT

While the Living History Association (LHA) is no stranger to the Deerfield Valley or Mount Snow Region, as it has become known, this is the first time that its General Membership Meeting has been held in West Dover, Vermont. The LHA has maintained a physical office in the town of Wilmington which is right next door to the West Dover Community for nearly 20 of its 30 years of operation. The LHA has never been far from West Dover, having had a full museum and library only 10 miles away in Marlboro, Vermont for five years, as well as its current office in Jacksonville, Vermont again about the same distance away. But the creation of a fund for the Dover Economic Development Committee and the LHA’s own ambitious historical, educational, and promotional plans have brought Dover to the forefront as a possible site for either doing more events or creating a permanent headquarters location, or possibly both. The LHA currently maintains a traveling store, a static display museum, as well as all the trappings for a small living history museum, in storage, an office and a 2,500-plus book library. The LHA has never been fully self-sufficient and therefore will never be able to create a permanent headquarters site without community involvement and/or some other types of substantial help. The seeds for such help were planted in July of 2008 with the enormously successful International Time Line Event held in nearby Wilmington, Vermont. Over 100 reenactors of all time periods participated and large crowds of local people attended the event. The LHA headquarters unit picked up two members, the organization made enough funds from the event to pay its annual liability insurance premiums as well as adding to the general fund. Most importantly, the business community took a special interest and volunteered its help on several future projects. 

In addition, groups that are new to the LHA from the local area have come forward to ask our assistance on events such as: Wilmington’s Old Home Week in 2010, the Dover Bicentennial in 2010, a small Civil War event for the Wilmington Historical Society in 2009, a possible larger Civil War event by Celebrate the Valley in either 2009 or 2010 and the Time Line Event in 2009, International Elderhostel participation for selected LHA historians, and a possible headquarters at some point in the future. Local interest is high and new LHA memberships and activities cannot help but rise because of it.

James Dassatti, LHA Executive Director, stated, “We have Lee & Dot Fisher, who led our Board of Directors through some very trying times, to thank for keeping this organization going these last five years. When they retired last year, Mike Heenan and the new Board took up the challenge, were mindful of the lessons learned from the tenure of the Fishers, and then moved forward building on that foundation. We are stronger now, with more options open to us than ever before, with an ever growing list of exciting projects and educational programs.”

Attend the LHA General Membership Meeting to see what is next!

July 12-13, 2008  22nd International Time Line Event
Howe Field, Wilmington, Vermont

Saturday, July 12
10am - 5pm
Sunday, July 13th
10am - 2:30pm 

 Admission:
$5 - Adults
$3 - Children
(Children 6 and under are FREE!)

The 22nd Annual LHA Time Line event is an educational walk through man's history and is enjoyable for the whole family, as it is presented with hands on demonstrations. The 22nd International Time Line Event hosted by the Living History Association (LHA) with the help and sponsorship of the Celebrate the Valley Committee is an event that surpasses the educational expectations of all their other events. This is an event which characterizes both the achievements and failures of the human race through history and the event is truly unique in the amount of history that it covers.

The LHA Time Line Event attracts some of the association's best volunteer historical interpreters from the time periods of Ancient Rome to the jungles of Vietnam. It is not unusual to see Roman soldiers practicing their maneuvers with sword, shield and pilla while a Centurion speaks to you about the accomplishments of the Empire and the desirability of Roman Citizenship. All of the time that he speaks, our modern eye is reminded that he is served by slaves from conquered lands, and there is a certain callous ruthlessness in most of what he professes. Even though you may be repelled by his demeanor, he seems to be unaware of it and tries to recruit one of your family members for service in the Roman Army by encouraging you to feel the heft of his weaponry and the comfort of his armor. While all of this may seem barbaric, those who portray the middle ages seem to have fallen into an even greater pit of despair, and ruthlessness, punctuated by superstition. It is difficult to imagine our own ability to get from that point in history to where we are today.

But if you move on along this time line of history each camp offers something new, from American colonization and Revolution to Civil Wars and World Wars. Each has their own set of players with a different point of view, some of which will be contrary to your own. Some may even seem offensive in their ideology. Are the interpreters acting, or do they really mean it? They will enthusiastically show you their historical encampments and a huge amount of gear, both reproduction and original. In many cases you get to do more than look, you also get to touch, hear, and smell the history - from the cutting sounds of a World War II German Machine Gun to the light wood clicking sounds of a colonial spinning wheel, to the competing smell of fresh cooked sausage to GI Rations. One past year's event hosted Vietnam War soldiers and their VW love bug painted war protesters with signs and all their trappings. They even had some good arguments from both sides reminding us that history is not a tidy business.

So if you are not afraid of being recruited into the Roman Army of the 3rd century, becoming one of General Washington's Camp Followers in the 18th century, or even of having your papers asked for by a German World War II Military Policeman, - then this just might be a great event for you and the whole family!

There will be guided camp tours throughout both days of the event as well as a pre-scheduled clothing review demonstration on Saturday. There will also be pre-scheduled firing demonstrations of various weapons on both Saturday and Sunday. Units will drill and demonstrate aspects in their camps on both days independently.