Days of Yore

That's a big pickle.

One of the advantages to being a little further off the beaten path, but still within spitting distance of civilization, is the abundance of open space (i.e. "fairgrounds") that make it possible for things like a local Renaissance Faire to crop up within easy driving distance.

I'm talking 20 minutes from home.

Same with the local agricultural fairs. They're all within 10 to 40 minutes from our house. "All" being the ones we are inclined to go to. There are more. But we don't have to go to them because we have some closer to home.

With the exception of the New York State Fair in Syracuse. Sometimes we go to that one too, on the pretext of visiting family. But I digress.

This weekend we attended the geographically close Ren Faire. We still needed the Garmin, but when we got there we were so surprised. The fairgrounds were in the middle of a middle-class suburban neighborhood. Seriously, smack-dab in the middle.

My son, who loves the whole concept of dressing like a knight (pronounced K-Ni-Git), complete with "armor," sword, belt, helmet, gauntlets, etc, couldn't wait to get there. If you get there when the faire opens for the day, as we did, entering the grounds is a bit like running the gauntlet. All of the actors are lined up on either side to greet and welcome.

The boy, as he was dressed as knight, almost immediately found himself surrounded by the king, the prince and their knights.

Freaked him out and he couldn't face them. They let us pass without further molestation, as it were.

As we have discovered in previous visits to Ren Faires, the fun is in the games. We practiced throwing axe heads (I was pretty freakin' good!), knives and axes, and shooting crossbows and longbows. But the boy's favorite part was taunting a knight. The game is called "Smite the Knight" and is pretty much what it sounds like.

You try to hit a knight with a bopper sword while he tries to hit you.

The knight's rules: no hitting in the face or the "pouch". He wore a pouch as a codpiece. My guy got him in the pouch at least once. I had no problem with that. This particular knight was a bit of "too much cocky" as it was.

We watched some horsemen practice their skills with a lance. We watched players do terrible things to Shakespeare (for fun), we listened to musicians play the dulcimer and the celtic harp, and heard strains of bagpipes. We stood in line for far too long waiting for a freakin' hot dog. We made some purchases and got too much sun.

When it was time to leave, it took only 20 minutes to get home. And we got there before dinnertime.

In the fall, we'll have to drive farther for our Ren Faire fix. And we'll have to stop for dinner on the way home. But that's part of the fun too.

And in the fall, I will go in costume, because I realized that my fears about being seen in costume yesterday by people I might know and don't like were unfounded. Those people would probably never be caught dead at a Ren Faire. I guess it is good for me that they are so narrow minded. Also, in the fall, chances of running into anyone I know are even slimmer than they were yesterday.