[Sca-cooks] Coopers and Pennsic

[Saint Phlip]

Dunno why y'all are getting all up in an uproar, however...

I've been camping at Pennsic since Pennsic 22, and have been there
from Land Grab to Closing since Pennsic 25. I have also arrived a
couple days early in order to assist Land Staff, and have even been
there in the off season, to help with Pennsic specific matters. And,
I've been a Pennsic Chirurgeon since Pennsic 25, so have occasionally
had staff interactions with Coopers on that basis, not to mention
other interactions as Land Agent throughout that time.

Coopers have never been anything but perfectly reasonable and helpful.

At Pennsic 25, Chirurgeons's Point was just a big Grimms tent. When it
rained, we needed to slosh through ankle deep water in order to treat
our patients. Look now, at the lovely pole building with a macadam
floor we have- Coopers Lake Campground didn't need that. Yeah, now
it's a nice extra facility, but they rarely have any use for it,

A couple years ago, Chirurgeons and staff set up a brand new shower
trailer for us(think about it- who do you really want to be clean,
when handling your infections and open wounds?) but somehow, someone
didn't hook the pipes up right, and raw sewage was spilling out all
over the place. Coopers didn't panic, throw a fit, or call HazMat, as
they had every right to do (they didn't set it up so charges would
have gone to SCA- last small HazMat spill I had reason to know about
cost $60,000). Instead, they discussed it with us, and allowed our
people who had just happened to bring along a couple HazMat suits to
clean it up.

Y'all mentioned the ATM machines. I happen to know about how they came
to be installed personally. Coopers had wanted to install them, but
were concerned about the expense, since from the queries they'd made,
they would have to pay a fee for them the rest of the year. It was a
friend of mine who explained to them how to convince the ATM people to
put the machine in, and maintain it, for free.

Several years ago, when Muirdach camped with us, there were no
handicapped portapotties down by the lake- all of them were up top. I,
personally, caught Dave Cooper, and explained the need for one near my
camp, and generally all over Pennsic, not only for wheelchair folks,
but for ladies in bloody big dresses, and for fighters in armor. Next
year, and ever since, there has been one near our camp, I've seen more
and more of them all over Pennsic, and they've even been putting them
out by the Woods Battle, for the poor fighters.

I'm not saying the Coopers are Saints- they aren't, and I should know
;-) But, they are damned good people, who work hard, and do their best
to make Pennsic a safe and pleasant place for all of us. If you
approach them with a reasonable request, they'll do their best to make
it happen. Don;t be calling them names, because there's quite a few of
us who know better. And, if you want to find out for yourselves,
rather than sitting around camp or home computers and listening to
gossip, get your...selves out and volunteer to do something for
Pennsic. Maybe you'll be lucky enough to see how things REALLY work

-- 
Saint Phlip

Don't like getting old? Beats the Hel out of the alternative.

The purpose of life is not to arrive at the grave, a beautiful corpse,
pretty and well-preserved, but to slide in sideways, thoroughly used
up, totally worn out, proclaiming, "Wow! What a ride!"