[Bordermarch] Jan 3rd demo for trumpeter

[Thelismar at bordermarch.org]

greetings good Bordermarch gentles...On the 3rd of January Ld Zane, Ld
Grant, & I, Ld Biau-douz, had the opportunity to demonstrate the medieval
martial arts to 3 classes full of students. A week before the 3rd Rose
Hevrin (Grant's mother) instructed Ld Grant to call Zane & I & ask if we
could put on a demo for her history students. They were studying medieval
history so she asked if we were able to and we of course said yes. The
school was the Grace Co-op home school located on the hwy 69 feeder road
on the other side of the LNVA canal going towards Lumberton. A "home
school" school you scratch your head & ponder?... It seems that this is a
large group of parents who get their children together that are "home
schooled" & bring them to a pseudo classroom setting where they are taught
some things that are better taught in a classroom as well as interaction
w/ other children in their age group. They get together every Monday for
classroom style instruction. This particular Monday was medieval history
Monday (my favorite Monday of all time).
      We were asked to be there, suited up, & ready by 10am for the first
class. Karen & I were @ Ld Zane's home @ 930am to get some last
minute items & then we would caravan to the site. Countess Tessa
made sure that we brought some demo placards & SCA pamphlets, as
well as, the camera. We made it there & were met by Ld Grant. We got
suited up & were fighting by 1030am. We fought for about 10-15
minutes then we had Q&A time for another 10min. w/ the wide-eyed (&
mouth slightly agape in suspenseful confusion look) children. They
got to put on chain mail shirts & coifs. They were also shown swords
& other medieval weaponry. Many questions were asked about the who,
what, when, where, & how of the SCA.
      The second of the three classes arrived outside @ 1120am. We did
much of the same as described before w/ 15min. of fighting followed
by 10 min. of Q&A. Gracious Rose fed us period (I think) meat pies
as we now took a several hour break. The next, & last, demo was set
for 2pm. I happened to be (conveniently?) working on the new charter
contest scrolls for kingdom that day. So I was given space in their
library to work on this until time for the next fighting demo. At
this time I asked Gracious Rose to pass out fliers to the other
interested parents. She gave them all out & had to make more copies.
Likewise, I was asked about 1 million & 1 questions about the
calligraphy work I was doing which is about the best segway into
describing to folks that the SCA is no one trick pony show. I
described that calligraphy & illumination was just one facet of our
A&S side. I told them all that, "there were like a gazillion things
you could do". I was then promptly corrected by one instructor who
said gazillion was neither a real word or a real number. I digress.
      We were back outside & fighting by about 150pm. We really wailed on
one another this last time. We conducted a sort of Round Robin
mini-tourney. Zane commented that I had cheerleaders that were
instructing me on how best to clobber him. I heard them & laughed.
15min. later it was Q&A time. I had to @ this time make an exit as I
had an appointment to get to. Zane & Grant then took over the Q&A.
Karen took scads of pics as did Gracious Rose. We had an absolute
blast & hope that this type of demo had the duality of educating
young & old minds, as well as, bringing in new members to our SCA
family... Thx, Biau-douz de la Mere