[Steppes] Demo at SMU

[Ciard49 at aol.com]

Greeting good gentles,
 
Today I attended the SMU Medieval Faire put on by the medieval club, which  
was celebrating (I believe) 20 years!
 
For those who have never been to this demo, including myself,  I must  say I 
was impressed!
 
The grounds of SMU are impeccable and the buildings pristine. The faire was  
held on a big open common in front of Dallas Hall near the Flagpole.  They  
had a stage with microphones where students read throughout the day from  
Chaucer's "the Miller's Wife" in Old English.  Some of them were  great!  One could 
hear the cadence of Chaucer's words and  understand many of them if one 
listened for the sounded "ed" on  the ends of the words.  
 
There were Celtic Dancers and a group (name?) who wore black and red, and  
fought with wooden long swords in a great fighting demo.  There was a  juggler 
who rode a unicycle, and an inflated "arena" where folks could use huge  
body-sized boffer toys to fight an opponent.  There were several people  there 
reading tarot or playing musical instruments, or spinning, or doing  calligraphy. 
Many other people brought their kids to sit and listen.
 
I spoke with several professors, and other folks about the SCA, and told  
them how to read more about us online.  I also gave my personal  contact info to 
one of the club members and a professor.
 
The club was prepared for a great many folks to participate and stop by. At  
class change time at noon there were many students passing through and 
stopping  to eat and watch the fun. There were tables and chairs and trees to sit 
under.  Today was so windy it was a challenge to keep things from blowing away.
 
They hold this event every year on April 1, and have another event in the  
fall regarding Falconry.  One member, Matthew, came running  up when he saw me 
approach in garb and asked if I needed any help setting  up and was delighted 
to have someone from the SCA there. He lamented that SMU  doesn't advertise the 
Faire more strongly, when I said I never knew about it  before.  The demos 
have been done for many years he said.
 
I chose to ride the bus due to parking worries, but the club had a large  
fistful of parking permits for participants.  The bus took me to  Mockingbird 
Station (5 blocks from univ.) and I caught a  free SMU shuttle whose route 
concluded at the flagpole.
 
They even had free food - lots of it!  Everyone was invited to  eat barbeque 
sandwiches, oranges, apples, grapes, tea, candy and  donuts!
 
Carter Blood center had two bus/labs there and they had free pizza!
 
The Celtic dancers taught a dance to the crowd, and there was a  bobbing for 
apples competition with a nice (peach?) pie for the winner. There  was a cake 
which I am guessing was the prize for another contest.
 
The demo participants were few this year -  maybe 20 total. The  Renn faire 
folks had to cancel at the last minute. 
 
This is a great recruiting opportunity for the SCA. The club members are  
excited about the middle ages and so were students, parents with small children,  
and professors in the crowd.
 
If you can attend next year you really should. I had a  blast!.
 
YIS
 
Ciard