Old Clothes: But All I Wanted to Do Was Wear Old Clothes and Go Back to the Past is an indispensable guide to the often misunderstood field of living history. It presents the actuality that there is a great deal more involved in this discipline than merely "wearing old clothes and going back to the past." This volume succinctly captures the perspectives that Richard Pawling has gained from over thirty-five years of experience in the interpretive profession (in county, state and national parks and as entrepreneur and owner of Rich Pawling's History Alive!). Here, Pawling shares his observations and advice about everything from designing a living history persona to his successful use of this provocative teaching technique in the college classroom, to the role of research in helping you to learn about your own genealogical past. Though written for a broad audience, this book should be of particular interest to those employed as an interpretive park ranger or a naturalist, a museum or tour guide, or those who volunteer as a military reenactor or as a docent at a park, museum or historic site. Old Clothes presents the important lessons Pawling has learned along the way, the most important of which is that "life is a journey and understanding our past plays an important role in helping us to continue to learn not only about life in general, but more importantly, about ourselves."
About the Author: Richard Pawling has over thirty-five years of experience interpreting the natural and cultural heritage of the United States. Beginning his interpretive career as an environmental educator and later historian-naturalist at local and state parks, his evolution into living history began while employed as a National Park Service ranger at Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site. To help visitors there understand that this now pristine site was actually a dirty, smoky iron furnace in the 1830s, he chose to portray the charcoal dust-covered, tobacco-chewing filler of the furnace in first person. He was honored with the Freeman Tilden Award for the Mid-Atlantic Region of the NPS for his efforts in designing and presenting this program about the "forgotten heroes" of the past - the common laborers. In 1991, he launched his own entrepreneurial venture History Alive! to provide living history and heritage music programs as well as interpretive training workshops to venues throughout the United States and Canada. At that time, he also returned to adjunct college teaching with a focus on cultural geography - routinely bringing culture to life in the academic classroom with living history representations of old-time baseball players, coal miners and loggers for over twenty years. His unique teaching style twice won him the Outstanding Adjunct Professor of the Year award. Most recently, he was a full-time instructor of natural and cultural interpretation--inspiring the next generation of interpreters. The keystone of his educational/interpretive philosophy is that "History is People! History only comes alive when you realize it is people that make history and not some dry facts in a textbook. By looking at the past, we can learn who we are in the present and where we are going in the future."