new thread
As part of our civil war group I was visiting one of our local hight schools to present an award to a deserving member of the
high schools ROTC program. (This is an annual award that
is presented every year to a deserving ROTC and Junior ROTC
member.)
I had my hair in a pony tail and got absoluteley no complaints about it. i was the only guy with long hair, and my hair
was longer than every woman in the place. (Many of the cadets
are women)
The last time i was in a high school was 40 years ago. And like now my hair was long then. But back then AI got lots of complaints. Not one complaint this time.
Were you in uniform also?
Yes I was in uniform. No photos though, the room was too dark.
It was in a school cafeteria and I suspect they shut off at least
half the lights to save on electricity.
That's great. Where do you live though? It always seems that you're the only long haired person there, though to be fair you do have longer hair than most women I know. Maybe I'm just spoiled living in central coastal Florida where it's quite common for men to have long hair. I know when I had long hair in rural SC there were very few if us. Though to be honest, the only time I had any negative comments was ironically at a rock show where the entire band had long hair. Go figure.
-CJ
I would point out in this case I was presenting a national
Civil War award to an outstanding ROTC cadet. And being that
they are ROTC cadets they will all have short hair.
In the civil war group i'm in i'm not the only one with long hair. There are five of us who have long hair,
Now this is upstate New York and outside of the civil war group
there are more long haired guys, but they tend to avoid
civil war groups. Many of the guys in the civil war group
are former military, hence the short hair. But long haired guys,
like the general population tend to shy away from history/the civil war/etc. Now the main reason I got involved in this
civil war outfit is through relatives who have been in it for years and finally succeeded in recruiting me. And of course one of the conditions of my joining was that my long hair would
stay long. One complaint about the hair and i'd be gone from the organization. I've now been in the organization now for three years and haven't gotten a single complaint about the hair.
Now between the various civil war groups, civil war
round tables, re-enactors, and allied groups they are
constantly looking for new members. But alas there aren't many
interested in history. Which is too bad since much of our history is being forgotten and is dissapearing.
I completely forgot about your post a few weeks back about the other longhair members of your reenactment group. I do understand that this was a ROTC event and the cadets would have short hair. I was actually in JROTC all four years of high school. And almost did it in college as well. But thinking back I always pushed the limits of how I could wear my hair.
I guess I was just having a brain fart when I posted my previous post. I immediately kicked myself when I also figured you must live in Albany NY. I travel all over the country and it's become habit to ask for a state. I know a dozen people that live in Philadelphia Mississippi for instance. It can get confusing sometimes.
It is a terrible shame that people don't partake in reenactments or even go to watch them. I was a history major in college, but before that I grew up in Camden SC which is known mostly for the crushing victory by the British in the revolutionary war, but there were several civil war battles in the area too. We had several very active groups doing reenactments when I lived there and they were always interesting to go to. Heh as a matter of fact I was at the Shiloh Tn battleground On Friday. If I wasn't gone on a merchant vessel for two thirds of a year I'd definitely consider joining one. I find history too fascinating.
We are not a re-enactment group. We're an honorary group.
i.e. we honor the sacrifices and service of our ancestors.
How far could you push the limits? For guys it looked like there wasn't much room for pushing it. (Now this ROTC class
also has a large number of women who do seem to allowed to keep their hair long (although they do have it restrained in bun or
something similar.)
I wish more people found history fascinating. After all those
who ignore history are bound to repeat it. Also we should never
forget all those who sacrificed their lives in the various wars
over the years.
My mistake. For some reason I was under the impression you were reenactors.
JROTC was a bit more relaxed since it's only for high school and there's no obligation to join the military. In fact most people in my school took it to get their required physical education credit. For us, the guys had to keep their hair off the collar and a shorter more military style was encouraged. It couldn't touch the collar down, long hair would have been out completely. Now this was in the late 90s so I was able to wear a modified bowl cut that barely stayed above my collar.
Times may have changed though, and in ROTC it was military specs or out. Especially after the first two years. After which you then have an obligation to serve as an officer. Women could have longer hair but as you said, had to restrain it in a bun or otherwise off the collar.
I couldn't agree more.
That is common misconception.
I would mention at this particular school I was at the cadets
were extremely polished, my inclination is they were more
polished than many college ROTC cadets. Very impressive.
Also from what I understand the cadets are supposed to be inspected every three years. Now these are so good they have
been able to skip inspection years.
None of the guys had hair of any length at all. Very short
for all of them.
Now where the women had their hair in a bun or something similar
I couldn't tell how long their hair was but i'd guess probably shorter than mine.
But it felt really good to be only guy in the room with long hair. I really enjoyed that part.
Ans where I was presenting a national award they were glad to have me, long hair and all.
In the 1960s, ROTC was mandatory in many schools, and it was used as a vehicle to persecute people like us. Mention of it still makes my skin crawl, and it always will.
Bill
I started high school in 1969, graduated in 1973. In that time
I attended three high schools none of which had ROTC.