In 1999 we marked the 60th anniversary of the Finnish defence against the invading Soviet Army with a reenactment, and being one of the few of the group who could both ski and who had period-correct equipment, I was in the thick of it. Even better, a Finnish TV news crew, amazed that Americans would know or care, got footage of our efforts, some of which were spliced together with that of similar groups in Finland to memorialize the worldwide aspect of the volunteers- some of Finnish heritage, some not- who came to assist the Finns, or at least tried to. If our accents were a little off [one cameragirl noted my accent was more Russian than US; I told her I was half-German, Half Russki and that my wife, our only Lotta Svard was a Finn girl]
On the drive over to our meeting spot I stopped for gas in a borrowed old 19430 Ford pickup truck conversion. The doors were iffy, and when I went in to pay for my gas, I left my wqinter whites on the front seat with my k931 submachinegun on top to keep the wind from getting to them. On my way out, a TN State Trooper pulled up, headed the other way, on the other side of the pumps, took one look in the driver's door, and kept right on going. Yep, a Black TN Trooper.
I figure maybe he'd had a couple of Black Russians for lunch....
Kev OS4 guy. Pretty close to getting it right.
