[Ansteorra] History/Enculturation/Clickishness....

[C. L. Ward]

Lorraine suggested:
>There seem to be fewer and fewer "older" people
>remaining onsite at events in the evenings and
>at night.

You're correct that it's a problem that limits acculturation of new folks
and transmission of oral history.

However, having been victim to some of the things that cause us old,
doddering senile folks to leave early (grin), they include:

(1) I have problems right at the moment due to my horrific job and the
number of hours I work each week... which means that I have to make a choice
between staying the whole weekend/evening at an event, or going to work
naked the next week because I haven't had time all week to do laundry, wash
dishes, etc.

(2) Now that we're older, we're now homeowners as well... no more landlord
to fix that pipe that's spewing water 6 feet in the air, or patch a leaky
roof!

(3) Many of my friends have children, I have the horse, dog and multitude of
cats, all of which need to be fed and cared for, and we can't always find a
babysitter/pet sitter to help with this.

(4) The older I get, the less I want to sleep on the hard ground.  More
folks I know now too have asthma.  Just increasing aches and pains sends
many of us to hotels at night instead of camping, and those who are
hotelling have to leave early enough to be able to drive there safely
instead of shuffling 12 feet off to bed.

When I joined the SCA, I was in college, I could stay up three days straight
and not feel wretched (and did before events getting stuff ready!)  And a
much larger percentage of the "old-timers" were either also in college, or
had not yet had kids.

The problem is going to accellerate for the SCA, because how many of us are
baby boomers?  That greying population bulge the whole country is having to
deal with?

I haven't a good answer on how to "fix" things.  God knows *I'd* rather be
at the event singing and talking with my friends and hearing stories spun
and so forth than doing laundry!  But the laundry *has* to get done so I can
work, and my rec time, alas, is optional.

::GUNNORA::