Of all the reenactment scenarios I've participated in over the years in the US, I have never felt more transported than I did watching Jeff competing in that tournament. To be fair, each session of each tournament brings the same feeling. Watching Jeff compete with his friends and peers in honorable combat, the same way gentlemen of honour have engaged for centuries, is a uniquely transporting and moving experience for me.

My happiest moment was setting up at my first faire last May. I had been a spectator for years, but it was such a great thing to work "behind the scenes" and to have the attention and applause of the public as we did our demos on the joust field. With the horses on before us though, we had to watch our step!

First event I ever did - I never knew that marching on a hot sunny day could be fun!

Marching off the field after the first Bannockburn - everything had fallen into place and the event had gone really well....

Legion III Cyrenaica marched in the Columbus Day Parade in Worcester, MA last year (and looking to do so again this year!), it was a hoot because it was so far removed from all of the other floats/marchers, we even got on local TV for a few moments, and got lots of attention and wow's.

The best part was when the Parade ended. It was surreal to see how Worcester crept back to life as if nothing happened within 5 minutes of the Parade ending....However, there was a small group of fully armed Romans standing at the corner of Mulberry and Shrewsbury street (The parade route was down Shrewsbury, ending at Mulberry), poking around and chatting, waiting for our pickup...Practically stopping traffic left and right. (nevermind this is 10 feet to the Washington Square rotary at Union Station...A Busy and Dangerous rotary).

I even egged one of the members to "show some leg" to the next passing motorist, and sure enough it was an elderly lady who nearly ran into the curb and gawking in complete disbelief, and having the person behind her nearly rear-end her, also gawking in disbelief at this "crazy lady" stopping for noth--Whoa! Guys in armor! WTH?! *screeeeech!*

Gets em every time.

I always get a kick out of people who come up to me after a program, or an event, and say how thrilled they are to see the "Classics alive and well", as one person put it; and to see kids just stare and think you are an actual [Roman] standing infront of them, that's always pretty cool.

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Andy V.
You're friendly neighborhood Roman Dude

I sat next to him on a three-legged stool perfect for the application, rocking him while spectators asked questions, and marveled that he was a real baby! It was great knowing that I'd used an appropriate technique (swaddling) to calm him and keep him warm, and that I was rocking him, as so many mothers in the past had done.

Before that, my favorite moment was when a boy came into the armour tent, and peppered Jeff with 20 minutes of questions. I'd never heard such great questions from an adult before, much less a young boy. I asked his parents what they fed him -- they replied, "answers." He walked away with his imagination cranking, and face shining. It was a perfect example of *why* we do this.

One was actually at Pennsic.
It was sort of the birth of our "hardcore' approach to medieval reenacting. The infamous 'guy with the tent' (who I should add to the traditions thread) never showed. So it was just me, wandering around Pennsic with the clothes on my back and....... a couple blankets.

The first night I spent wandering till sunup then I slept under a tree. Then I found a merchant setting up in a rainstorm, having NO luck getting her ortable cottage/booth thing put together, so I helped out. This got me a roof to sleep under. A couple days later, other 'strays' were collected, and there we were, about six people crammed into a one room house with the rain gettin us all miserable and a baby crying its head off and not much food to go 'round.

It was awesome. For half a second I hated it. Then I realized, "Hey, this is what most of THEM really had to go through!". It was a huge turning point for our whole approach.

The other was a local 'heritage days' kinda thing, a timeline of sorts. My brother and I showed up at ten at night, threw some blankets down next to a campfire and went to sleep. Continued to freak everybody (reenactors that is) out all weekend. The public loved us, they'd never seen medieval reenactors before. Even put us in the parade.

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James, I place last year's Hastings as one of the best reenactment battles I have ever been to, certainly the best medieval one. I was one of those archers.

Had I been able to do both days I would have hunted you down and said hello, sadly I missed out on shaking hands with many of the people who travelled a long way to play that i have exchanged posts with here and on the AA.

But best moments, where to start really. I guess they would have been when I started when it was all new.

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Perhaps if I ever get to one that doesn't rain, then maybe I'll have an honest to goodness "best moment".

Right now...I got nuthin'.

[ 01-22-2007: Message edited by: Fire Stryker ]

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quote:

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Originally posted by gregory23b: Had I been able to do both days I would have hunted you down and said hello, sadly I missed out on shaking hands with many of the people who travelled a long way to play that i have exchanged posts with here and on the AA.[/B]

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I did not get to meet everyone either, I was staying off site and was traveling with three other folks (including my wife) not in the reenactment. I did not get much time to wonder and meet people.

I look forward to traveling back for another big one.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Fire Stryker:
I still really don't have one, though one of my fondest memories was of Bob Davis wandering around 2003 Paston event speaking in latin and thanking God that the sun had finally come out...though not for long.

Perhaps if I ever get to one that doesn't rain, then maybe I'll have an honest to goodness "best moment".

Right now...I got nuthin'.

[ 01-22-2007: Message edited by: Fire Stryker ]

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In 18th century reenactment one of the coolest things I ever did or saw, that made a magical moment was being a sailor off a packet ship, drinking in an 18th century Tavern at Strawberry Banke and playing cards - near to Christmas, and by cnadlelight.

In Medieval reenactment there was leading the old Red Company pike detatchment on a little march, foraging at Bates nut farm. The Meal served courtesy of Greys company at the deluge thsat was Bob and Kasses Michaelmas, Bob Hurley working miracles of cooking in the rain at the same event. At Mont St. Anne, helping lead a pike block into a fusilade of arrows, and seeing men take hits and have a near miss myself. At the same event, the Duke and his mounted entourage reviewing the troops, and the first real sizable Medieval skirmish I participated in. At Calais 2004, the fun we had at pulling off our first little scenario.

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I can remember one spring at Cooper's Lake in Pennsylvania, it was my first SCA event larger than 20 people and I didn't know squat about the SCA or reenacting. It was quite cold for spring and those damned big brown beetles were flying everywhere and getting in everyone's hair. Soon after we set up camp I bumped into a complete stranger with a keg of mead, which I had never tried before...next thing I know, it is dawn and I am crawling on the ground looking for my camp. No sooner than I get to sleep in my tent, one member of our camp is rising for morning (6:30 am) and proceeds to wake everyone up for breakfast. Impervious to our pleas and demands to shut the hell up, he continues until everyone is up and awake. He goes away for a while and returns only to find his tent on the opposite side of the battlefield . The next two days went pretty much the same and my very first experience with mead ended up being a 3 day bender.

I do so miss that keg of mead...

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You have had some very nice moments - I was especially amused by the school child telling you to not worry about the Spanish Armada!

I had a few pretty good ones this Summer, interpreting at the Higgins Museum, where a small child after a performance came up and gave me a hug afterward, after having their parents take the child's picture with me.

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The battleforces weren't devided equally. We the flemisch city militias were outnumbered 1 to 2, facing 300 angry burgundian warriors, of which atleast half of them full plates. None the less i had e great time, especially when our line started to crumble. I heard the order to pull back so i looked back and saw my fellow battlebrothers strugling to retreat.They were already like 15 metres away from me and i found myself getting overrun by full plates. In an almost instinctively manner i took my halberd and started to use it like it were a pole axe, charging foreward while i was buying my friends some time.
In the end i found out i got 5m deeper into the enemies lines than i was before, completly surrounded by angry full plates, took a hell of a beating that day, but it was great fun none the less

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Originally posted by Fire Stryker:
Welcome Hendrik

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At a mountain man rendezvous, I surprised my father and showed up with my daughter. Not prepared for us, Janelle slept in dad's wall tent and I slept outside under a pine tree with a heavy wool blanket in the cool fall air of the Black Hills of South Dakota. I woke up face dry, but 2 inches of snow covering me and the camp.

At the Minneapolis Institute of Art they had a "Day with a Knight" type of deal and I helped out the guys of Arms and Armor do demonstrations. I showed up wearing my Black Prince armour and jupon. Chris Poor was giving his presentation and I was just chilling sitting on a chair in the hall, when this boy, about 10 or so comes and sits next to me and starts talking and asking questions about my armour and the bright colors. You could sense that this young lad had some type of disability but was very interested. After his father led him off his mother came to me in tears, thanking me over and over. Her son was autistic, never talked (much), and especially never talked to anyone but his immediate family. She was so happy to see her son treated and respected as a person, no matter how 'silly' his questions may have been. Kind of a warm type of feeling on that one.