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Well, I did it.
Jun. 5th, 2002 11:33 amRenFaire here in NJ starts this weekend, and I am free to go, as nothing happens with my relatives until 15 June. It's an hour or more by car to the first site, but they'll be changing sites midway through the season to somewhere about fifteen minutes away, so that averages out to the amount of time spent on the original trip.
Anyway, I usually go to these things in garb. Nothing fancy, 'cos I can neither sew nor afford anything fancy. I bring my bow, too - not the longbow, I just got that this past year. Usually one of the recurves. The Hoyt if I can get away with it, but that's a forty pounder and sometimes they have rules about the max draw weight you can use. The Bullseye if they don't want to deal with that, it's only around twenty-five pounds. I also usually wear the only other medieval-looking weapon I own, my dagger - it's the nine-inch dagger sold by Starfire Swords, very serviceable and solid and totally nonthreatening. (This kind of thing matters when you live with your parents. Dad doesn't seem to mind - I mean, he bought me the fifty pound longbow, for pete's sake - but Mom gets antsy.) Every so often I wander past the sword sellers and make mournful little noises because I can't afford anything, and consider getting a short sword 'cos that's what archers generally carried, but I never do.
This year is different. This year - probably not by this weekend, but this year, at least - I will have an actual sword. It will not be sharp, because I do not need it sharp. It will probably never be seen at the Faire out of its scabbard, because they peacebond them. But I don't care. I'll have my damn sword. now I just have to get together a reasonable outfit to go with it, and then if anybody asks why I'm dressed like that or carrying a sword like that, well, it's RenFaire. If they've got women as Captain of the Royal Guard and big burly African-American men with Cockney accents (!) as the Executioner, they're not going to put up a stink if I blame the outfit and the sword on Matteo Ricci and the other Jesuits who got into China. And if they do - then I have an interesting person to have a conversation with, and all will be well.
Anyway, here is the sword. Take that, sword sellers who easily run the cost clear up into the four hundred dollar range or higher!
Anyway, I usually go to these things in garb. Nothing fancy, 'cos I can neither sew nor afford anything fancy. I bring my bow, too - not the longbow, I just got that this past year. Usually one of the recurves. The Hoyt if I can get away with it, but that's a forty pounder and sometimes they have rules about the max draw weight you can use. The Bullseye if they don't want to deal with that, it's only around twenty-five pounds. I also usually wear the only other medieval-looking weapon I own, my dagger - it's the nine-inch dagger sold by Starfire Swords, very serviceable and solid and totally nonthreatening. (This kind of thing matters when you live with your parents. Dad doesn't seem to mind - I mean, he bought me the fifty pound longbow, for pete's sake - but Mom gets antsy.) Every so often I wander past the sword sellers and make mournful little noises because I can't afford anything, and consider getting a short sword 'cos that's what archers generally carried, but I never do.
This year is different. This year - probably not by this weekend, but this year, at least - I will have an actual sword. It will not be sharp, because I do not need it sharp. It will probably never be seen at the Faire out of its scabbard, because they peacebond them. But I don't care. I'll have my damn sword. now I just have to get together a reasonable outfit to go with it, and then if anybody asks why I'm dressed like that or carrying a sword like that, well, it's RenFaire. If they've got women as Captain of the Royal Guard and big burly African-American men with Cockney accents (!) as the Executioner, they're not going to put up a stink if I blame the outfit and the sword on Matteo Ricci and the other Jesuits who got into China. And if they do - then I have an interesting person to have a conversation with, and all will be well.
Anyway, here is the sword. Take that, sword sellers who easily run the cost clear up into the four hundred dollar range or higher!
