Society for Creative Anachronism

Society for Creative Anachronism is the long name. More commonly referred to as the SCA.

The SCA is an international organization dedicated to researching and re-creating the arts and skills of pre-17th-century Europe. Our "Known World" consists of 19 kingdoms, with over 30,000 members residing in countries around the world. Members, dressed in clothing of the Middle Ages and Renaissance, attend events which feature tournaments, royal courts, feasts, dancing, various classes & workshops, and more.”

That is the official description given by the website for the SCA. I suppose for those people who take it very seriously that about covers it but for those of us who are playing, LOL, it is more along the lines of going to a Ren Faire on steroids. In the kinky comparison it would be like the difference between a fetish event where it is all about the costume and a leather type event where people enjoy the costume but the fun is really in the doing. At SCA events people camp, they go to war and fighters beat the hell out of each other with rattan swords. They were armor, carry shields and all that good stuff. Besides the fighting stuff there is also other competitions for thing like arts and sciences, archery, jousting and on and on. 

Master used to belong to the SCA long before I knew him. By the time we met he had quit going. The reality is that when you have young children it can be a difficult hobby and on top of that it isn’t a cheap hobby either. Between all you need for the camping and equipment, there is all the clothing and if that isn’t enough there is the time…and yes it can take all your time if you let it.

We talked many years about joining the SCA, I am after all a costume junky and love a good reason to get dressed up, LOL. It took until we moved back to Phoenix before we finally jumped off the cliff. A few of our FOC folks are also in the SCA and we decided to go for it and attend the Estrella War. It took us months and a ton of money but we went to our first war together. We also took our kids, Michael and Natalie and our poor old dog Mocha. We also happen to pick the war that would later be called the mud war, LOL. It rained almost the whole week of the war. Mud was caked on everything! It was cold and wet and we still had a great time. LOL Yeah I know we are weird people. Michael pretty much took off right away after the tent was up and spent the time making friends and looking cool in his pirate outfit. Natalie spent time with us or hanging out with other kids and goofing off. We shared the job of taking care of Mocha and she too had a great time. 

Along with the wet we got to be there for the unveiling of "The Beast" for the Topless BBQ. Let me just say this Topless BBQ has been going on for years and is something of an event. It started with a few guys drinking and BBQing, and taking their shirts off cause they were hot. The joke got bigger and grander…so much so that they actually built themselves this huge BBG grill to cook all this crazy meat on. They have this giant fire lighting moment, huge fireball, followed by hours of cooking meat. Thankfully by the night of the BBQ the rain had stopped finally but it was still cold as hell and we were still covered all in mud.  Really have to say the worst part of the mud was trying to make it to and from the port-a-potty's and slip and fall.  It did make for some good entertainment, if a little sadistic in nature.

In the SCA tradition, we did not loose our war virginity. It would appear you must consume a great deal of booze and get drunk in order to loose it. That first War, we were too wet and cold to drink, LOL. It took me a week I think to finally wash all the mud off of everything after we got home but it was a good enough time that we decided we would go back again.

We went to the Highlands War, outside of Flagstaff. I lost my virginity and it was all my friends fault, LOL. Master left me in her care as long as she promised to make sure I made it back to the tent. The biggest lesson I learned is that you should never allow other people to get drinks for you. I think by the end of the night my drinks had turned into 90% booze. I suppose really I was pretty silly to be near and open flame at that point. LOL While I will admit to being pretty drunk by the time we headed back to our camp, by the time I got back I was way more sober. The site of Highlands has to the most hole filled place I have ever seen. Trying to walk around there was just an exercise in trying to break your ankle. Master who had gone back to the tent earlier to go to sleep but still woke back up when we came back. It was pretty funny since my friend by that point was a little concerned if she would be in trouble with Master for getting me that drunk. Thankfully he found the whole thing funny; we all shared some hot chocolate and headed to bed.

Our second time of attending Estrella thankfully wasn’t the wet war from hell. The climate was much nicer this year. Master got the new tent he wanted so we had way more room for out stuff and for standing up. Being tall means most tents are a pain! Because to put on the all the layers of garb for the SCA you need room and doing that in a cramped short tent just doesn’t work. After lots of days of watching battles, hanging out with good folks, and no I didn’t let them make me drinks it was feast night time. The households decide a night to call a feast during the war and the household and their guest gather together to enjoy food and fun. Master was asked to help with the Topless BBQ. Master spent the evening cutting all the cooked meat and serving it up to the tons of people waiting line. He wore himself out but the funny part was that it was the first time in his 46 years that he had ever been drunk! He just never drank much and it really never effected him all that much when he did but I guess if you stick him a behind a BBQ, where it is hot. Get a bucket of booze passed around and don’t eat dinner, well you will finally push him past the sober controlled Master we all love. The scary part for those that love him is that we had no idea what kind of drunk he would get. Oh dear god there was some serious fear that he might be an angry drunk…yikes run for the hills moment. Thankfully it turns our Master is in fact a very cute, charming and funny drunk.

 We hardly saw Natalie in the last war, with no dog to take that year, she was free to enjoy.  Off she went to merchant row where she made some money doing errands for them.  Michael didn't get to go with us this year as his work wouldn't let him take the time off.  We went out for more days this time, in fact Master spent almost the whole war out there and I got to go in the middle.  The rain pretty much stayed away and it wasn’t even that cold. One of the great advantages to living in Arizona, February can be a very nice time of year.

As we set about planning to attend again in 2010, we have been invited to camp with a dear friend’s household, which should be lots of fun as really they are a hoot. Other friends have also been invited so it should be an even bigger crowd of good friends along. I volunteered to help this dear friend with some garb issues. It was decided that she was well past due for some better garb. Because she gives everything to take care of her fighters and household and as a result tends to ignore her own needs some.

If you like to sew and are a costume junky the SCA is a great place to play. Since we have been attending I have sewn more than I even thought possible. I have made garb for all of my family and for a few friends too. It can be totally insane what vendors will charge for garb and I am certainly a big believer in do it yourself. I also find that a lot of the commercial clothing isn’t made all that well and really if you are going to hold up in the long term. Master tends to build things to with stand a hurricane, and I tend to sew things to last forever too. I am also a detail junky about my sewing like I am about my art. Thankfully Master is just as supportive of those efforts as he is of the art. This year for my birthday I got a new serger that I am in love with. Over the years we have been together he has always made sure that I had good machines to sew with. I have sewn him two kilts that he totally loves and many are envious of. I used to think it would be very hard to do but found it wasn’t nearly as impossible I thought it was. Biggest problem actually turned out to be getting all the fabric under the machine.

Master has also started a new SCA hobby himself. He purchased a long bow. Have to say the funniest part of it was when he told our friend about his purchase and she asked where he was going to practice. He responded that he would practice in the house. At which point she lost her mind because all she could envision was arrows sticking in my couch and in one of my cats, LOL. To this day she will still fall over laughing thinking about it. Truth to tell it was the same picture that came to my mind when he said that. Thankfully it turned out he is actually not poking holes in the couch or the cats but has instead blunted arrows that he shoots at a blanket hung in the door frame. Whew! Although the dog doesn’t like the noise at least we don’t seem to be in any major danger. 

Natalie has said she would like to do fencing but we discovered that is damn expensive to get the equipment for it before you even find out if you are good at it or even like it. Arthur wants to do the archery thing like his dad. I think I will stick with the sewing but the nice part is that you can compete with that too in the arts and sciences. I also want to see about creating some artwork in the style of the Renaissance being a huge fan of the Italian Renaissance artists. So folks if you love when the Ren Faire is in town and wish you could participate and not just watch, then I suggest you check out your local SCA, as they are all over the world.