Evolution of SCA: wasDrunk and Dis.

[Burke McCrory]

At 06:47 PM 12/5/96 -0800, you wrote:
>dentim at mail.myriad.net wrote:
>
> So to you,
> the  people of Ansteorra, I pose a query, how has the SCA changed since you
> joined?  THe level of authenticety,the fighting, the arts, or just the
> "flavor" of  events. How have these changed? Are we getting better?
> timo

As I look back over the last 18 years (gads has it been that long!) I see a
SCA that is redicaly different in many was (some good some bad) but just
the same in other ways.  Chivalric Fighting has probably changed the most
visibly, armor requirements when I joined were metal helms with visors (yes
the old freon can), a kidney belt (two wraps of medium shag were ok),
basket ball pads on your Knees and arms, padded gloves on your hands
(basket hilts were yet to come), and some kind of throat protection (saw
lots of leather dog collars).  A killing blow was one that left a bruise or
dented your helm.  There was a lot more experimentation with unusual
weapons like morning stars and solid rattan maces (most got banned
eventually).  Fighting was a lot less polished and Knights and Masters were
few and far between.  The only Knight living in Oklahoma at the time was
Count Sir Jonathan DeLaufyson of Namron.  

The Arts and Sciences have probably come the farthest in terms of quality.
The work being presented today (like at Laurels Prize) is by far more
accurate and detailed than 18 years ago.  But I think that in some areas we
are more stuffy than we were in AS 13.  Event like tourneys were 2 1/2 day
events in those days, Fridays night through Sunday afternoon.  There was a
lot less day tripping or staying in hotels offsite.  We held full tourneys
on Sunday, once even the complete Crown List was on Sunday.  

There was a lot more drinking and playing around back then (that one area I
think we have improved in).  I think that we have also seen a shift from
early period personas to later period personas.  This is perhaps the most
difficult challenge I see facing us over the next few years.  As people get
better at recreating the later period cultures I think we may see the death
of the earlier period cultures, much like it happened in medieval Europe.  

We I have rambled on long enough.


In Service to the Dream

Sir Burke Kyriell MacDonald



mka. Burke McCrory
burkemc at ionet.net