While living and working at the Yalaha Florida Studio, I drove over to Mount Dora for the Renninger’s Military Show. When I was married, I used to go to the Renninger’s Antiques Show once a year and stay at the Mount Dora Lakeside Inn after a long day of seeing hundreds of vendors set up on the rolling hills around Renninger’s. I always lived in the hope of finding a working vintage fountain pen that would change the way I draw, but I never did.
The Military show wasn’t quite as large as the Antiques Show but there was an impressive display of military vehicles and collectables inside the vendors booth areas. The next-door neighbor at the Yalaha studio and I shared an interest in the military. We would stand at the fence and talk about WWII often. I therefore shouldn’t have been surprised when I bumped into him at Renninger’s. He was shocked at how the prices had jumped. He asked what I was looking for, and realistically I was just looking for a sketch but if I found an old WWII era watch, that would have made me happy. I didn’t find the watch but later I ordered a 24-hour watch that resembles the watches issued in WWII. I love being able to glance down and see the day of the week and date along with the time in AM and PM and 24-hour military time. Europeans use the 24-hour clock more often than Americans. Having the watch saves me from having to dig for my iPhone to get the date every time I write the date on my sketch.
Walking the aisles I noticed several boys dressed all in WWII era uniforms. Military reenactments were popular in France and Belgium when I was there. The first one I sought out and I was embraced into the American camp. The second reenactment in Belgium I stumbles across by mistake and once again I was embraced since I was the son or an American WWII Vet and I kept sketching the scenes as they unfolded. In Belgium I wasn’t sure there the battlefield was and I ended up getting a ride in an American Jeep to the front lines. It rained lightly at the battlefield, but I managed to get a sketch.