Going old school in Oak Brook Civil War re-enactment

The disparity between the two worlds was striking.

As seven-year-old Emily Bittman and her father sat along the edge of the Salt Creek in Oak Brook Sunday morning eating their McDonald's Happy Meals, Luetta Coonrod had a timber fire struck and was heating coffee and meat in cast-iron cookware.

Her dress was clearly not of this century. Neither was her meal of choice: a mix of sauerbraten, sweet potatoes and corn bread.

"The questions I usually get are 'Are you really going to eat that?" Coonrod said. "Yes, I'm going to eat those fresh foods from my garden."

Coonrod and a group of about 25 Civil War re-enactors portraying the 10th Illinois Regiment spent the weekend encamped outside of the Graue Mill and Museum in Oak Brook.

The Civil War re-enactors have been coming to Graue Mill - a historically significant monument that was once used by slaves as a stop along the underground railroad - every year for the last 20 years.

The group spent the morning lecturing curious passers-by about Civil War-era life and providing a host of demonstrations, including one very loud lecture on how to fire a musket.

"It sounds like a large cap gun, doesn't it?" Gloria Anderson asked her 11-year-old grandson, Ryan Anderson, as the pair watched the firing display.

Ryan spent part of his summer vacation traveling to Gettysburg, Penn. with his family to tour the famed Civil War battlefield.

"I like Civil War history a lot," Ryan said.

Theresa Malanca, who drove from Cicero to take in the sites at Graue Mill, was surprised to see the camp site and its curious spectators.

"I find it very interesting," she said. "It's like getting a chance to go back into the past."