Had Lindsay Wallace been alive and living in the Hinsdale area during the Civil War, she said she would have fared all right, except for one thing.

“No way I could have lived without my cell phone,” Lindsay, a seventh-grade student at Clarendon Hills Middle School, said while attending a program May 28 that demonstrated what life was like during the Civil War. “I need to be in contact with my friends all the time.”

When told visiting with friends 145 years ago likely would have entailed walking several miles to and from the nearest neighbor’s farm, she said “that would have been tough.”

The presentation was the idea of teacher Mario Castillo; it supplemented the school’s regular curriculum.

“It is a chance to really engage the kids and get them involved in the culture of a different era,” Castillo said. “It was a great success, and we hope to expand on it and improve it in years to come.”

Teacher Marie Bonds’ students also took part in the daylong program.

“I think it is a great idea because it really brings this time period to life for students currently reviewing that era in our social studies curriculum,” Bond said. “Students can read about it, but this really brings the text to life for them.”

Throughout the day students were treated to a demonstration of Civil War-era baseball, met with a re-enactors portraying a soldier and medic during the 1860s and watched an edited version of the movie “Glory.”

“The presentation (by re-enactor Ken Boeschen) really showed me how deadly the weapons of that time were,” said student Charlie Crane of Hinsdale. “It was a lot different back then, with more than one guy sleeping in little tents and having to eat rations. I’m glad I wasn’t there.”

For Boeschen, the presentation was particularly rewarding — he taught at CHMS for several years before retiring last year after spending 33 years within Community Consolidated School District 181.

Boeschen’s demonstration allowed students to handle items from the period, from muskets and bowie knives to lanterns, wooden canteens and articles of clothing.

“This is an effective program because at a museum these kinds of things are under glass and cannot be touched. In this setting, the kids get to handle the objects and get a feel for them,” said Boeschen, who now lives in Lake Geneva, Wis. “What kids sometimes don’t realize is the day-to-day lifestyle of that era, the difficulty of going to war. It wasn’t like going on a camping trip.”

Charlie agreed with Lindsay regarding what he would have missed the most growing up in the 1860s.

“I would have missed the electronics, the cell phone. But on the other hand, I probably would have had to attend school less if we lived on a farm,” Charlie said.

For Brian Allen, a seventh-grade student, watching and participating in the baseball demonstration caught his eye.

“It was really neat because the dimensions of the diamond were totally different back then. I guess I would miss television the most, but I think I would have liked that you weren’t as busy back then as we are now,” Brian said.

Castillo said the baseball presentation was likely the most popular among students.

“We were able to get all the students to play the game because we had three fields going at once,” said Castillo, who added about 300 students participated in the program. “It made a connection with the kids because they all know how baseball is played today, and they now understand that soldiers often played their version of the game when they were not fighting.”