One of my favorite photographs from our visits to the Fort Massac Encampment. The image was captured at the 2015 encampment...and was used on the cover of a tourism publication which we create here at the paper.Sugar cookies...and other cookies, too...that were baked in a stone oven at Fort Massac State Park during the 2018 encampment. The cookies are one of the treats yours truly looks forward to savoring at the encampment.The creation of such “old-time” crafts as lace making can be seen...and admired...at the encampment.The sounds of muskets...as well as the boom of a cannon...also can be heard at the encampment.From back in the day...like back in 1997...this is one of the “oldest” photographs from the Fort Massac Encampment which yours truly has in his digital scrapbook.

Plan A...then Plan B...did not go as planned...

Please read this...

So, the plan was, on the morning of the third Saturday in October, we would get in the car, motor to Metropolis, and spend part of our day at the Fort Massac Encampment.

The plan might have flashed through my simple little mind months and months and months ago...

...of course, my plan did not take a pandemic into consideration.

Then again, I’m pretty sure that the word pandemic was not on anybody’s mind months and months and months ago.

As you may recall, The Other Half and yours truly have, for a number of years, taken a bit of a trip back in time during the middle of October. Our journey takes us to Fort Massac State Park in Metropolis, which is the home of an encampment each fall.

The encampment brings historical reenactors who strive to bring the 1700s, and early 1800s, to life for thousands of visitors who journey to Fort Massac each October to be a part of the encampment.

We have a lot of special memories from our journeys back in time...going to the encampment with our kids...making the trip one time with a visitor from Colombia, South America...meeting reenactors, the creators of “old-times” arts and crafts and several authors (whose books became a part of our library).

Sadly, like so many other activities in what has been a very strange year, the 2020 Fort Massac Encampment was cancelled due to pandemic...

...so, since we could not go with our original plan, I decided to go to Plan B.

Plan B involved cooking something on the grill last Saturday evening...using a wood fire. I really enjoy the aroma of wood fires which are part of the experience at the encampment...

...well, cooking on a wood fire pretty much went down the tubes last Saturday, thanks to a pretty much unanticipated Red Flag Warning which was issued by the National Weather Service.

Oh, well...

...anyway, since Plan A and Plan B did not go exactly as planned, I decided to go with a variation of our original idea for this week’s column. 

Since my sweetheart and I could not go on our time travel adventure to the Fort Massac Encampment, we’ll take a trip down Memory Lane, which, by the way, is somewhere on the way to Metropolis. Hopefully, by next year, we’ll be able to get some new photos..and some new memories, too... 

The Gazette-Democrat

112 Lafayette St.
Anna, Illinois 62906
Office Number: (618) 833-2158
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