During Pennsic, my Knight, Count Cellach and I bumped into two very awesome people I got to know during the reign, Sir Byron and Sir Ariella of Aethelmearc. We talked with them at the food court.  Before Pennsic, Sir Byron had had suffered a minor injury to his foot when he accidentally knocked his anvil over.

I shook my head. “Yea, I hate it when that happens”, I said. “Well, that because you’re in the SCA,” he said. When he was explaining the injury to his family, one of them asked. “Did the Road Runner get away?”. Normal people do not have anvils, much less knock them over.

This is one of many little things I often take for granted that sounds funny in the modern world, but is common place for all of us in the SCA. One of the many great things we do is to provide opportunities for people to step outside their comfort zone to try something new.

At Gulf Wars, I won a Viscountess Isabella doll from the Court gambling casino. (Gulf Wars Court was the #bestcourtever). It seemed simple enough to make.  The idea of making your own pocket peer was controversial enough, I thought the idea might be a fun one to implement.

A large box of muslin doll bodies and mountains of donated fabric later, I was watching little girls cheerfully picking out fabric and thread to make outfits. The boys watched at first, then reluctantly joined in, not to make dolls but to make “action figures”. They are absolutely nothing like dolls.

The most notable family was a father who came in with two daughters, roughly 5 and 3. The 5 year girl started the doll, but got bored. Her father took over the project. A hat, belt, and shoes later, the same young lady asked me if she could color because her Dad was having such a good time sewing for the doll.

That same day, I was able to show young people how to set gores, that I learned many years earlier from not-yet-knighted Cellach.  It was outside a fight practice in the parking lot. Keep in mind that I originally joined this game to prove my metal by clubbing other guys into submission. That’s why I was bent over the hood of a car, staring cross-eyed at a small piece of scrap fabric, poking myself in the fingers to learn the correct way to set a gore so that the fabric isn’t bunched up on the top. As this was happening one of the young ladies from the group walked by shaking her head and muttered, “Only in the SCA”.  Does this not happen in every fabric store across the country?

I was thinking about that, what is “normal people” do?  I don’t really know, but combining conversations I’ve overheard about other guys weekends. This image came to mind. In a musty “man-cave” near you, a bunch of guys are sitting in recliners, drinking a keg of beer with NASCAR blasting in the background, when after a brief debate about Dale’s records, one of them says “So Billy, whatcha recon is the best way to gobout gettn’ gores set just right?”

Yea, I don’t really see it either…

My favorite “only in the SCA story” is by, Duke Guillaume called “Rocking the World of History” wherein many SCA fighters try to move a very large garden rock using ancient methods. You can read at the bottom of the page, on the following link.

The SCA does many great things, among them it gives each of us the opportunity to step outside our comfort zones and learn new things, and grow beyond anything we thought we might ever be. I have learned a great deal, about history, about making awesome things and about friendship than I ever would have doing Mundane things. I assure you, during my teens and twenties, I never thought I would ever be good at history, sewing, fighting or even making friends.  The canvas on which to learn and apply these skills is found everyday in the SCA.

What thing have sort of “Only in the SCA” moment have you had? Please share your experiences if you are willing.

Picture taken by: Bjorn Thorroson while driving with an anvil.

If you would like to learn how to set gores, this link has a nice tutorial: http://cottesimple.com/tutorials/gore-in-slit-fabric/