ANST-Announce - Cars, Cars, Cars!

[Peer2]

Greetings to All of Ansteorra!

Recently there has been a request for photos of SCA events, activities,
people, etc. So, of course, I dug out my photos and started going through
them for a little reminiscing. I was shocked at what I found.

Out of 34 photos taken at a single event, 13 had CARS in the photo. Eight of
these were in prominent places near major activities. Five of them showed
vehicles less than 50 yards from the activity. Five of them (not the same 5)
showed vehicles which were openly parked in camps.

(I thought at the time that I had done a good job of staying away from
mundanities. Oh well.)

Of course, there were other less obvious mundanities (portapotties, an
undisguised plastic hand cart, coolers, and so forth), but these are all
somewhat necessary evils that cannot be avoided entirely. But leaving
vehicles parked within open view without even the slightest effort of
concealment is unacceptable.

I have watched the heralds at several events announce repeatedly that "all
vehicles must be taken to the parking area immediately", and then watched as
people with those said vehicles listened to the announcement and then went
about their business like nothing had been said.

I am forced to recall a passage from Ansteorran Law ;

Article 4 (Rights and Duties of the Populace), Section 5 (Maintenance of
Period Ambiance)

* 1.) No object, conduct, or manner of dress which is blatantly modern shall
be publicly displayed at SCA events unless permission has been obtained from
the autocrat or the Crown.

* 2.) Any person who displays a blatant modern appearance shall be open to
public censure by the Crown or it's representative.

* 3.) Modern equipment such as recorders, vehicles, phones, and cameras must
be hidden whenever possible.

Obviously, this leaves quite a lot of leeway in how we carry out needed
mundane activities, but I do not believe that leaving a car in plain view
because "it's so much to unpack" is an acceptable excuse. I have always been
amazed at how a car takes two days to unpack on-site, but only two hours to
load up on Sunday morning.

Come on, friends. Let's stop the madness. If the car can't be concealed and
doesn't have a job to do on-site, take it to the parking lot. This is really
getting silly and more than a little annoying.

End of Rant. Thanks for listening.

-- Cedric Aeschere Einarsson, Peer2 at msn.com

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