Drunk and Disorderly

[Casey Weed]

At 06:32 PM 12/4/96 -0800, you wrote:
>Pug Bainter wrote:
>> Isn't almost every party setting usually boys looking for girls and vice
>> versa? Not only does it happen, but it happens at most events. This is
>> the whole idea behind "social" gatherings. Besides sharing with old
>> friends, we try to make new friends. Once drunk, it usually turns to
>> making new bed friends. *wink*
>
>
>What you are saying makes me uncomfortable. And makes me want to express
>something in this discussion. I have attended many "social" functions
>that were not "pick up" oriented. I did make new friends and strengthen
>old ones but I and my friends were not there to "hunt".
<snip>

Hear, hear!!  You've struck solid ground, Crandall, and I'd like to go
further...

Pug implies- as have posts before his- that the Society for Creative
Anachronism is some kind of pick up joint and I'm here to say that this just
_isn't_ so.... anymore.  I've been in the S.C.A. for 12 years now.  When I
first started, I lived in a barony that has a regular fighter practice
attendance of over 200 *fighters*.  The mood of the whole ordeal was that of
a party.  Along the small rise that parallels the field, singles (mostly
female, though it hardly matters) would discuss their 'prey' for the
evening.  The fighters would have similar discussion between melees.
Events, sadly, went much as Pug described.  

I had occassion to return to that fighter practice eight years later and was
*amazed* at the changes.  Gone were the days of bunny-fur bikinis and
boiling hormones.  The 'dating' crowd was busy taking/giving classes,
learning to dance-yes, right there in the middle of the public park-,
juggling, fencing, attending monthly court, or perusing the shopping
opportunities that the abundant merchants provide. Garb was the rule rather
than the exception and was more often designed from a period painting than
an illustration in a D&D book.  They looked as if they were having a grand
and productive time.  None of them appeared to be 'hunting' anything other
than fun and knowledge.    

As each new generation of SCAdians becomes slightly more informed at their
outset about the Middle Ages than the last, the flavor of the game changes,
matures, evolves.  The research our Laurels do today is a tool for their
apprentices; a place for them to start theirs. The first fighters in the SCA
had to do something akin to reinventing the wheel when they forged the
techniques that might now be called 'basics'.  A fighter today is taught
these from his first moments on the field and can reach competence far
faster than I did when I first swung a stick (as Timo so *painfully*
demonstrated to me last night! Ouch >:0).  Phone lists and points of contact
abound in a veteran Pelicans notebook- something the proteges will continue
to build up and pass on.  Heck, theres even a manual out on how to _reign_!
("Bright Ideas and True Confessions"- excellent reading for ANY seasoned
SCAdian... ask me for a copy)  Being a competent lady in waiting has become
a science.  Sure, some folks still go to events to 'get drunk and get lucky'
but that is no longer a broad based motivation... today that attitude can,
at best, get you a reputation and, at worst, get you a fatal disease.  To
proliferate those ideas, either by action or word, or even to state that
they are a 'norm'(sorry, Pug), is irresposible both for the damage it could
do to an individual as well as the damage it could do to the S.C.A. as a
whole.  I don't think I need to remind everyone about the gentleman- I use
the term *very* loosely- who slandered us so badly two years ago.  Something
to consider the next time you hear someone hospitalling new folks with the
idea that 'great booze and fast women' is a darned good reason to join up.

As for the rest of Crandalls post, I can only say that I admire his wisdom.  

Crandall, you can hospital my shire anytime.

Dieterich           Melio est dare quam recipere.

<snip>
>Drinking, at a gathering, is not designed or intended to gather bed
>partners. It is used, by some, to relax and enjoy the escape that
>alchohol gives. Some do it to appreciate the brewer's skill. 
>If these are the sum total reasons that you use in order to go to a
>"social" gathering, then I feel sad for you. 
>I can see that some people may agree with you. I will admit that at some
>events I have met attractive people that I am interested in. I will also
>say that drinking has led to bed partners. But I will also say that the
>intent of each person is different, and blanket statements that place
>people in little convenient roles hurt the people that do not fit the
>traditional roles in life. 
>Crandall
>non sum qualie eram
>I am not what I used to be
>
>
>