Absolutely LOVE Gettysburg --- I could live there and am thinking about possibly retiring there someday....

We (the Surratt Girls) used to go there every July for the Civil War Relic and Book Show....biggest CW show in the US. You used to be able to buy a JWB CDV for about $2 - $8.00; all kinds of neat stuff.... unfortunately those days of "cheap" prices for LA stuff are GONE!

They would have nighttime fireworks out over the battlefield -- good times!!


I also used to reenact with my ex - we always did Gettysburg as it was the biggest reenactment of the year.


About time I made another visit!! Maddie - come across the pond and we'll pull in a few more Surratt girls and have a ball at Gettysburg!

All these years I've known you, Betty, I've known you were a horse woman. However, this is the first time I have ever seen you riding. Great photo.

My ex and I used to re-enact at Gettysburg also, and I spent many years going to Remembrance Day in November. Despite the commercialization that has been allowed to take over some sacred ground, there is just something about being there that stirs the emotions. Antietam does the same thing for me, and it is more pristine.

(04-23-2013 12:02 PM)BettyO Wrote:  About time I made another visit!! Maddie - come across the pond and we'll pull in a few more Surratt girls and have a ball at Gettysburg!

I want to wear a crinoline and waft around near Spangler Woods!

Trust me - you wouldn't wear a crinoline on the battlefield! Too impracticable - you'd wear a work dress like the one I'm wearing in the photo....and they are HOT!! No hoops to keep you cooler... and there are lots of ticks in the tall summer grass at Spangler Woods! Thirsty little bloodsuckers.... Just curious - but do ya'll have ticks over in England?

(04-23-2013 05:13 PM)BettyO Wrote:  Trust me - you wouldn't wear a crinoline on the battlefield! Too impracticable - you'd wear a work dress like the one I'm wearing in the photo....and they are HOT!! No hoops to keep you cooler... and there are lots of ticks in the tall summer grass at Spangler Woods! Thirsty little bloodsuckers.... Just curious - but do ya'll have ticks over in England?

Yeaaaugh! Ticks! You jest! You've just ruined my romantic notions.

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(04-23-2013 05:20 PM)MaddieM Wrote:  

(04-23-2013 05:13 PM)BettyO Wrote:  Trust me - you wouldn't wear a crinoline on the battlefield! Too impracticable - you'd wear a work dress like the one I'm wearing in the photo....and they are HOT!! No hoops to keep you cooler... and there are lots of ticks in the tall summer grass at Spangler Woods! Thirsty little bloodsuckers.... Just curious - but do ya'll have ticks over in England?

Yeaaaugh! Ticks! You jest! You've just ruined my romantic notions.

Yes, we do have ticks. I think I might have to visit in winter!

Someday, I'll tell you about four women in an RV making four husbands strip on the side of Route 301 before entering the RV after their little visit to the Garrett farmhouse site in the middle of the summer.

(04-23-2013 06:47 PM)L Verge Wrote:  Someday, I'll tell you about four women in an RV making four husbands strip on the side of Route 301 before entering the RV after their little visit to the Garrett farmhouse site in the middle of the summer.

Is it a tickfest?

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(04-23-2013 05:13 PM)BettyO Wrote:  Trust me - you wouldn't wear a crinoline on the battlefield! Too impracticable - you'd wear a work dress like the one I'm wearing in the photo....and they are HOT!! No hoops to keep you cooler... and there are lots of ticks in the tall summer grass at Spangler Woods! Thirsty little bloodsuckers.... Just curious - but do ya'll have ticks over in England?

Do ticks only get on you if you have bare skin? Please say this is so.

Nope. Those little suckers (pardon pun) start at your shoes and scamper upwards until they find some place to transfer to your skin. Men usually tuck their pants legs into their socks to avoid them, but it doesn't work. That's why the strip tease on the side of Route 301; we could see hundreds of ticks scurrying up all men's pant legs. We put the clothes in a trash bag and sealed it with duct tape until we could get home and leave the clothes outdoors.

When I was a child, there was a very serious disease called Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever (Tick Fever for short). I had to get shots every year against it because I lived in a rural area and we owned pets. Today, we worry about Lyme Disease that is spread by deer ticks.

Working as a Engineering Tech - we sometimes have to go out into the field with survey crews. I have found that the ONLY thing that ticks cannot penetrate is....pantyhose!!! Those things are the only material that the little suckers seemingly cannot penetrate because of the fine mesh -- so whenever I have to go into the field in summer, I wear hose under my jeans.... works every time --

BUT....can't convince the guys to wear pantyhose! HA!!

I bet many a Civil War soldier had either Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever or Lyme Disease caused by tick bites, but they didn't know what it was back then....

(04-24-2013 05:31 AM)BettyO Wrote:  Working as a Engineering Tech - we sometimes have to go out into the field with survey crews. I have found that the ONLY thing that ticks cannot penetrate is....pantyhose!!! Those things are the only material that the little suckers seemingly cannot penetrate because of the fine mesh -- so whenever I have to go into the field in summer, I wear hose under my jeans.... works every time --

BUT....can't convince the guys to wear pantyhose! HA!!

I bet many a Civil War soldier had either Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever or Lyme Disease caused by tick bites, but they didn't know what it was back then....

That has SO put me off! We call panty hose 'tights' in the UK. Builders wear them under their pants on building sites in winter because it's the only thing that keeps them warm. True.

UGH. Ticks and leeches!!! And flies. Can't stand 'em.

Right...so note to self. On visit to Gettysburg wear panty hose under jeans and over them for extra protection....

Maddie -

Do ya'll have chiggers in the UK?! Now, they are horrid as well! Only they go in GROUPS! Little red tick like creatures....and OMG do they ITCH!!

Back when I was about 16, my sister and I were helping my dad and another man cut hay - when we got home, we found we were covered in chiggers! And yes, they itch and itch - they pepper your legs and arms like you have the measles - little red itching spots! They burrow under your skin.

We had to get into a tub filled with hot water and put rubbing alcohol all over us - only thing that got rid of them.....

All that beautiful swaying Spanish Moss in Florida is also covered with them - or so Lew Powell's great niece told me! She told me not to touch it as it was covered in chiggers....

BTW - CONGRATULATIONS!! I see that you've reached "Forum Master" status!! HA!

(04-24-2013 05:53 AM)BettyO Wrote:  All that beautiful swaying Spanish Moss in Florida is also covered with them - or so Lew Powell's great niece told me! She told me not to touch it as it was covered in chiggers....

She was right! Those chiggers are real small, and itch like crazy
they seem to stay mainly in the south, GA, FL, LO, where the spanish moss grows. (My wife has a friend visit us in FL that loved the Spanish Moss and wanted to take some back home with them. We warned them not to. But they got some anyway and stuffed it in a big ziplock back. Big mistake! We still laught about it today; at least I do)


Around here we have very small ticks called deer ticks. Some are smaller than the head of a pin. (West KY) I had two sons in Boy Scouts, so before I knew better, I would go with them camping alot. Go into the woods or a field in the spring and you (and your pet) will be covered with them. And they like to hop all over the place. They spread. Fortunately they do have bug spray for them. Squirels get them and my squirrel chasing dog got covered with them and got them (ticks) in the minivan. My wife was not happy, since that is the car she usually drives. she decided to bug bomb the car. That worked, I'm glad she didn't bug bomb me, it was touch and go for a while. (She claimed I was touched, and I was going to have to go

(My segway for this thread is...)
I bet living in the woods in KY and IN, Abraham Lincoln and his family had to deal with ticks. Soldiers too. They must have had some home type remedy for dealing with them, besides scratching.

I had forgotten about chiggers. I always got attacked when we would go huckleberry gathering in the summer. A Clorox solution was what we used to stop the itching.

And let's not forget about mosquitoes. I'm sure that our ecologists will tell us that every one of these insects has a special purpose on earth, but I think they were put here to deliberately make our lives miserable. Of course, we can say that of some people also...

This isn't about Gettysburg ticks or western Kentucky ticks or southern chiggers, but, as someone who's been outside in the underbrush watching birds, I've been successful in preventing deer ticks from attaching themselves to me as follows:

1. Tuck your pant legs into your socks.
2. Use DEET bug spray on exposed areas as well as on clothing and hair.
3. Wear some sort of hat.
4. Brush yourself off as well as possible before entering home (or car).
5. When you get home, immediately put your clothing in the wash.
6. Take a shower.

The tips about head coverings is a good one. Ticks can literally fall from the sky (or leaves and branches) and head for the scalp where I've been told that blood vessels are closer to the skin. Yum, breakfast, lunch, and dinner before their bite begins to itch and alert you to something foreign nesting in your hair. Part of the pleasures of country living.