Rick Geary

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	Re-Enactor of the Month


	by Jim Cummings


	We are preserving living history today so that the past will not be forgotten. Jim Cummings


	To See Past Re-Enactor of the Month


		Rick Geary

	by Jim Cummings

Rick Geary has been nominated by his peers as Re-Enactor of the Week. Although most of our re-enactors have been in this hobby for quite some time Rick is a relative newcomer. But after the work and dedication that he put into The Pigeon Roost Massacre - you would never know it.

Rick, a Scottsburg resident, proposed at A Painted Stone Meeting that we re-enact the Massacre at Pigeon Roost in 1812. He explained to The Painted Stone Settlers that Pigeon Roost was a small but very pivotal event in The War of 1812. Twenty-one women and children were run down and massacred at their homesteads by a mixed band of Indians.

The proposal was readily agreed to, and if you know Rick you’ll understand why. He can be very passionate about what he believes in and easily


	convinced The Painted Stone Settlers to add another outdoor drama to their schedule.

And The Painted Stone Settlers were glad they did. The Pigeon Roost Massacre Re-Enactment was a great success. There were well over 50 Pigeon Roost descendants at the event in Lexington, Indiana with some even participating in the re-enactment.

Rick made sure that there were enough Native Re-enactors. He worked the phones and counted settlers, natives and children to make sure the event would come off without a hitch. Geary is a dynamo when he gets on a role. He gets his teeth into a project and nothing stops him until it is completed.


	We in the re-enactor community need inovators like Rick Geary to push us just a little bit harder. I know he has me, and I like that. I find myself complacent at times and I look forward to the frequent, sometimes daily phone calls from a guy that cares as much about re-enacting as we do.


	INTERVIEW WITH RICK GEARY

JC: I hear that you have been toying with re-enacting since the 1980’s?

RICK: Yes I started out at Friendship and I love to shoot black powder guns, but as far as re-enacting I had a few clothes but they were hit-or-miss no particular time period.

JC: And now that you’ve been at it a while, how do you feel about re-enacting?

Rick: I find myself a little empty when I’m not doing something, somewhere, someplace. I can’t wait to go to Blue Licks, and Painted Stone’s Long Run Massacre.

JC: As all of us in re-enacting love history, what about you?

RICK: Yes, I love history and we as U.S. citizens have the richest deposit of knowledge in the world - our own.

JC: I know that you would like to see more people re-learn more about early American history and the events leading up to The American Revolution.

RICK: Yes, I would. That awareness really grabbed me after September 11. Like everyone else I was stunned. We take freedom for granted. We’ve forgotten what it took for our forefathers to say “Look , there is a better way to live and we are ready to die for it.”

JC: So you think we’ve become complacent as a nation?

RICK: Yes we have. That’s why we need to refresh ourselves every day of the freedoms we have. Re-read history and appreciate what other Americans have done for us, so that we may live the way our forefathers intended for us to live. 9-11 is an example of how easy it is to have what we take for granted - simply taken away from us.

JC: In closing, would you like to comment on anything else?

RICK: Well as I said earlier I would like to see more people re-aquaint themselves with American history and encourage both the young and old to do the same. Take your children and grandchildren to a local historic shrine or museum. Go to the library and head to the history section. Book stores too are starting to carry more history books. We live in a “history rich enviornment” in Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Not all history happened in the 13 original colonies. If you can’t travel far, that’s no excuse because history is all around us.

JC: Reality is a TV craze these days but for a real dose of reality - visit a history museum, a library or a local living history drama or re-enactment.