Subject: Re: SC - cleanup

[kat]

>> Have we lost our roots and our sense of being part of a community 
>>in which we all (as in all attending) are putting on an event?
>> 
>> Adamantius

>Well, I will claim to be an old-timer, and I say the answer is yes.
>
>Time was, and I'm neither joking nor exaggerating, when you could tell 
>who the nobles were - without looking for crowns, belts, or spurs - but 
>the fact that they were in the kitchen scrubbing the pots or in the hall
>scrubbing the floor.  I have seen -many- kings and queens in their
>"grubbies" among the last on site carrying pots and boxes to the
>autocrats car long, long after the festivities have ended.
>
>Sadly, I haven't seen much of this lately.  The Society today seems to 
>me to have developed a large number of people who consider their >status
to be too high for manual labor.  Noblesse oblige no longer >means what
it did 20 years ago.
>
>I think that Master Adamantius has hit the nail right on the head - we 
>are 'teaching' newcomers that paying a fee entitles them to be a guest
>at the event.  The money fee is only part of what it takes to put on an 
>event, the other fee needs to be paid in labor and sweat, and each
>person needs to pay their share, just as each person pays their money
>fee at the door.
>
>Elaina

Well, I am glad to say that here in Meridies, the Nobles still oblige
with LOTS of labor.  I can regularily count on Peers, GoAs, and many
others to pitch in, even if the need must be brought to their attention
first.  I don't know anyone who would refuse to help if asked to just
FIND some warm bodies for clean up. I have heard it joked that at Pennsic
a lady walking down the street practically had her heavy burden wrestled
out of her hands by a Meridian squire, because he couldn't bear to see a
lady carrying such a heavy load when he was unburdened.  We laughed when
we heard this, but it was with a knowing nod of our heads, because it
really is like that here.  Which is not to say that we are never wanting
for help, sometimes it is just like that, but rarely with the proper
planning, or, lacking that, the proper herald's announcements for help,
is it an unfixable situation.  I have often thought that the SCA took
hold so well in the South because of the tradidion of Chivalry taught by
everyone's grandmother here.  While not a Southerner by birth, I am a
Meridian from my first day (20 years ago), and have always been proud of
my Kingdom when I see so many of our own helping out at their own events,
other local groups' events, and at out-of-Kingdom events as well.   We
also make a point to let newcomers know how much fun it is to get
involved, so they have something to get hooked on.  
Christianna
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