The only thing that separates most retail jewelers from the “---Mart“ stores and everyone

I am not addressing the well heeled client, who by spending top money hopes to obtain top service (hurrumph). I am interested in how clients with small or single item loads to move, should approach the business of balancing cost against quality:- How can you know until it’s too late?

Of course every move is different.:- Some single items can be difficult. I have moved pottery kilns, and machinery, as well as pianos, the latter up tight stairwells. You may imagine that each job demands the right manpower, equipment and planning.

So often, a removal quote is as much about how the move will be carried out as the cost.Therefore, satisfy yourself that the remover is thinking properly about your case.

Sometimes prospective clients can hardly be bothered to think about the task at hand, and opt for the lowest quote to come in. That means that if the client has not got her wits about her, she may fall for a company which has not considered or is not competent to assess any problems which might arise during the job.

So much concerning the assessment of a job is subjective that clients should take time make up their own danger list, and actively bring these points to the attention off the estimator. Removers cannot know what obstacles or delays await them at the delivery end. Clients interested in obtaining the best price will therefore do themselves a favour with a little forethought and a full declaration of any perceived problems.

I am put in mind of a lady we once moved. After a four hour drive, we had to wait two hours for the client to show. When she did, she was unabashed-‘What a lovely lunch we have just had! ’ she exclaimed, ‘we found such a lovely restaurant! ’ I am very sorry madam;- but that’s why we have conditions of carriage!

Not properly packing your property is a false economy. So the price may be lower, but if something is broken, then you will pay more to replace or repair it, and, there is no such thing as insurance cover for badly packed property. . Actually I will go further: The insurance industry hates insuring private property for moving.

Common colors of slouch hats were black, silver gray, brown and tan. Any felt hat of the period will do. Generally speaking, they wore their hats on their heads. Sometimes they cocked it off to one side - but they did not push it back.

Men of the Victorian period wore their hats all the time when they were outside - unless they were taking them off as a sign of respect. Winter or summer - they wore their hats. Wheel hats and straw hats were also worn in the summer. I found I could not find many photographs of winter hats. My theory is that the cold temperatures interfered with the chemical reaction in the photography development.

I try to stay away from anything fancy on my hat. Hat brass, cords, pinning the side of the hat up would be the exception to the rule. I believe generic is the best. A generic felt hat with a medium size brim worn wither with a flat or bee hive top possibly with some type of crease or the hat tilted off to the side is what I have observed in photographs most often. Wearing the brim up was the rage during that time period.

Coach McCoach has been a Civil War reenactor in the 4th North Carolina Infantry, 2nd Virginia Regiment, and 21st Virginia Company B. Coach has received the “Authenticity Award“ from these companies several times for his Civil War Uniform Impression. Coach’s Civil War uniform designs have been seen in the movies GETTYSBURG, Antietam Visitors Center, ANDERSONVILLE.

For more information, contact coach@civilwaruniforms.net or go to http://www.civilwaruniforms.net

2005 permission granted to reprint this article in print or on your website so long as the paragraph above is included and the contact information is included to coach@civilwaruniforms.net and

The every day Confederate or Union soldier’s uniform was actually never made to be washed. They wore out so fast that many of them were never cleaned - ever.

This leaves us with the question -

Do you really need to wash or dry clean your Civil War uniform?

Some reasons for cleaning a uniform may be

1. To prevent it from smelling really bad.

(Some hardcore reenactors feel that smelling really bad is really part of the mystique?