[MR] raising and lowering expectations

[Logan]

well i am certainly glad that someone can read without knee jerking and
getting bent out of shape.  thank you eogan as you have saved me from my
overwhelming desire to point out how crazy some of the arguments against my
opinion have been.  most private but some public.

i will say one thing about those "cheap", "comfortable", "convenient",
"lightweight", very modern nylon chairs.  four years ago i made 12 benches.
they cost me $120 total.  we built them in two days (the varathane had to
dry between coats).  i had all the wood precut for free at home depot.  we
use them every weekend and for two weeks at pennsic.  four years later i
have 10 of them (one got chewed up by one of my dogs).  ive had the two
largest members of my household sit on one of them at the same time (around
600lbs).  the smallest member of my household (less than 100lbs 4' 11") can
easily carry two of them at a time.  i can pack two of them easily in the
trunk of my honda where they make a nice box to put things in.  last time i
checked those nylon chairs run $25 at wal mart here in charlotte.  thats a
savings of $180 and they look ok.

an attempt is not what i am concerned with.  its the blatant and avoidable
modern items that make this organization less credible and less enjoyable.

logan
  -----Original Message-----
  From: atlantia-admin at atlantia.sca.org
[mailto:atlantia-admin at atlantia.sca.org]On Behalf Of EoganOg at aol.com
  Sent: Friday, May 31, 2002 5:08 PM
  To: atlantia at atlantia.sca.org
  Subject: Re: [MR] raising and lowering expectations


  I realize that His Majesty does not need anyone to jump to his defense,
but this is rediculous.  Here he is, on a medieval re-enactment list,
talking to a group of medieval re-enactors, and he comments that he is
seeing too many blue jeans, mountain dew bottles, and nylon camping chairs
at events (in court even).  And he gets jumped on for this?

  I read his message.  It didn't sound to me like he was calling for the
exclusion of anyone who can't go 100% period.  He just said it was a
"disturbing trend" that people are being more and more lax in their
authenticity.  I have noticed the same disturbing trend.

  Yes, all we are required to do is make a "reasonable attempt" at pre-1600
garb.  But when you see someone walking around at noon on Saturday, in the
main event area, in a Pennsic t-shirt and jeans, and you know he has half a
dozen changes of garb, is he making a reasonable attempt?

  Folks, we are not talking about the newcomer with a tabard thrown over his
mundane clothes here.  We are talking about long time participants in the
SCA who just don't seem to showing the same amount of zeal for the
atmosphere of an event as they used to.  And, as one person has already
stated from first-hand experience, this can have the undesired effect of
discouraging newcomers to aspire to more period garb and accouterments.

  The result?  An increasing trend toward the mundane.  This isn't just a
camping party in the woods.  It's re-enactment, re-creation, whatever you
want to call it.  We have to at least be able to pretend we are living in
the past.

  If you want to have your nylon chairs, plastic 2-liter soda bottles, and
wear a Hawaiian shirt and flip-flops at your private camp, go for it.  No
one will complain.  But when you are in or near the main site, please *try*
to dress in period.  Pour your coke into a mug or tankard.  And if you have
to sit on a nylon camp chair, because you can't buy/build/borrow a more
period seat, that's fine.  We won't burn you at the stake.  But it should
not be the *norm*, and this is the fact that His Majesty is bemoaning.

  Aye,
  Eogan Og

  Tighearn Eoghan Og mac Labhrainn, CP, OPE
  http://www.albanach.org
  Sacred Stone Pursuivant
  Web Master for the Canton of Hawkwood
  "Checky Or & Vert, two lions combatant, tails knowed, in base a mouse
couchant, all within an orle of roundels, Argent."
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