Hello from Moore’s Primitives and the Moore family; Brian, the instigator who brought all of this to life; Sandy, the wife who tries to hold it all together; Mariah, the oldest daughter with dark brown hair; Amanda, the youngest daughter with light brown hair. We live in a small town in southwest Missouri. Kissee Mills is not exactly the hub of the re-enacting universe, but we try to do our best and keep growing.
Brian began historical re-enacting about 25 years ago. He wanted to get more involved in rendezvous. After his mom made him one shirt, she told him, “If you want anymore clothes you’ll learn to sew.” Not only did he learn, gather information, and talk to other re-enactors about their clothing, he became quite good at sewing and chose a persona of tailor. When I met Brian he was just getting our business started and was in the process of making completely hand sewn shirts for John Curry and was featured in one of John’s articles in the magazine Smoke and Fire. Things were sailing along quite well for Brian, and then he met me.
Yes, it was all his fault, and I sure am glad. I’m Sandy, his lovely wife. I say it was all his fault because he had me at the word “rendezvous.” I’m a farm girl, had heard quite a bit about rendezvous as my brother-in-law is a proud confederate soldier, but I had never even been camping. So after a few months of us spending all our spare time together, it was time for my first test. I was told what clothes I would need and when. I wasn’t a seamstress then, or now, but with a little help from my mom, I was properly clothed for the weekend. We traveled down to Berryville, AR. I was so nervous. It was a lot worse than any prom date. I loaded up, had a wonderful time, had to leave early to get to work, and cried all the way home, sure that I had failed. That was almost 20 years ago.
Like many young couples our lives changed. Looking back, we took a good eight years off from re-enacting to make time to have a family. Mariah and Amanda have taken to rendezvousing like it’s better than fresh butter and hot warm bread. They are now great workers and we couldn’t do it all without them. Mariah now 15, and Amanda 13, can pretty much handle the store long enough for us to get out and look around. Don’t get me wrong it is not all work and no play for the girls. They love their network of rendezvous friends and are upset anytime they can’t go see them. It’s amazing how quickly rendezvous friends become family.
Our hope and plan for our business is to devote more time to the rendezvous life as we get older. Right now full time work, school for the girls, and the fact that I have MS keeps us from being as involved in the re-enactment life as we would like. You will see us at a few events each year, but in our hearts we would like to be at a lot more. We are trying to make our products more available to all of the re-enactors by starting this web site. Please, feel free to contact us with any questions or request, you may have and we’ll do our best to help. If you see us out and about stop in the shop and say hello. We would love to have faces and smiles to put with all the voices we hear over the phone. We look forward to seeing you soon.
Love,
The Moore Family