Prez dispensers

Presidents Day is that other February holiday, the one not overwrought with gaudy commercialism and guilt about all the romantic relationships you’ve screwed up, or with pressure not to screw up the current one. No, this tends to be a more earnest occasion, a day for retrospective bemusement from imagining that the highest elected American office could ever have been occupied by people of such intellect and character as George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. A day for honoring two great leaders of the American experiment. And, perhaps most essentially, a day for allowing the hobbyists of historical re-enactment their moment in the sun.

Which is probably why, on Sunday, from 1 to 5 p.m., the Old Sacramento Living History Program will present a historical-costume workshop. It costs $10 and affords you a rare opportunity to buy, sell and trade historical clothing and accessories with experienced re-enactors. (Call (916) 349-8846 for details.) This particular event will concentrate on the middle of the 19th century, which you may recall as a difficult and important period in our nation’s history, what with the Civil War and all.

And it is also thanks to re-enactors that you’ll be able this holiday to speak in person with Washington, Lincoln, Betsy Ross and Paul Revere, all of whom you may recall as long dead in actuality. Well, not from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Monday in Mount Vernon Memorial Park, 8201 Greenback Lane in Fair Oaks. Also present from the past will be the California Consolidated Drum Band (pictured), the state’s official fife and drum corps since 1997. Call (916) 969-1251 for more information.