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grnvixenYears 6 and 7 at KCRF:
1982: 6 weekends, Sept 4 – Oct 10. First year we opened on Labor Day! Attendance: 144,000. King & Queen: David Archer & Susi Matthews as King James and Queen Isabella. Marco Polo’s (later the pub)built. Pirate ship built, originally as a shop for Ron Taylor’s pottery. Unicorn first 2 weekends! Seymour’s first year, as Sir Wayne of Owenshire? Marganna Rice now ED.
1983: 6 weekends, Sep 3 – Oct 9. Attendance 150,161. King & Queen: David Archer & Mary Margaret Lee as King Henry VIII & Queen Anne Boleyn. Wizard’s Tower, Chapel. John Mallery’s first year. Seymoure as Cemetary Keeper. Gale Tallis new Festival Director. Randal Spangler poster.
1982: my last year as a street character and I was really enjoying myself. We had some loose classes on building our characters, still on a rotation schedule, but also pretty independent. I remember spending quite a bit of time perched on the bow of the pirate ship :). The front gate was still one of my favorite stops as well. I also have a vague memory of earning some lunch money by letting the guys at Rainmaker's try and make 'deposits', in the form of quarters, in The Bank from their perches on top of their shop :). And while we opened on Labor Day, I don't seem to remember any horrendously hot days, maybe because I was younger.....
This was the year my mother started coming out to faire on a few weekends with her recorder students, she even came to the cast party year, fortunately she left before things really got going :). She's 77 now and only made it out to play one day this year but she was not about to miss it all together.
Speaking of the cast parties, I remember them as usually being in the Mermaid area at this time. And a lot of hugging and kissing going on :).
I think this was also the year we had two younger 'wenches' on the street and watching their experiences helped me crystalize some of my wench philosophy which boiled down to a lot of eye contact, witty verbal flirting, but keep touching to a minimum until you know what you are dealing with. The goal was to be able to handle anything I got myself into without constantly having to be 'rescued'. I think it worked pretty well. Drunks can always be a difficult call but most of them are out there to enjoy themselves and if you can keep them laughing they were fine. In fact, I don't ever recall really having what I would call a bad situation with any patrons while a street character.
I remember the 'unicorn' and some of the controversy that swirled around it (natural or created) and how supposedly one of the handlers had slipped up and seemed to confirm that they were surgically created. They built the whole theme that year around the unicorn (who later went on to star at the circus) and there was an enclosure built for it near where the Wizard's Tower is now). It was a friendly beast, probably a good thing considering how much time it had to spend around people.
1983: big year, I went from performer to crafter. Why? I had truly enjoyed myself on the street, and I would always be The Bank at faire, but I really enjoyed costuming and a shop was something I wanted to try. I think I also wanted to have a try at being my own boss at faire, having my own 'spot'so-to-speak. My shop was where T'gers now is and I started by selling shirts & hats, later added cloaks. I was still working full-time, trying to get enough sewing done on evenings and weekends. Had grand plans for X amount to be done a week that summer but that was also when DH and I started seriously dating so geee, there went that plan out the window :).
A lot of the first summer was also spent getting the shop built. There were no building codes back then, the previous 'shop' in this space had been some 2x4's and burlap :). I was fortunate to have access to lumber from an old barn on my folks' farm, some willing friends, and a father who kind of liked going out to site and puttering around. There was no easy electricty then so lumber was pre-cut, or we used the small chainsaw my dad had. Site was practically deserted in the summer, especially prior to August. A few of the dedicated rennie merchants were living in their booths but that was it. We built a rectangle shaped booth with open sides to take advantage of any breeze that would come our way. We had water-proofed fabric we could roll down when it rained. Turned out this is one of the best spots in faire for catching a breeze so we were usually pretty comfy on the hot days. When it cooled off however, that 'breeze' was just a bit nippy! We had a back 'porch' area behind the shop where we setup a hibachi for cooking and heating water later in the season. At this time, what is now the swill pond was actually part of the creek that wound through the area. We, and the shop next to us, were right on the edge of the bank, and loosing inches every year, eventually eroding right up to the back edge of the other shop and they had to take it down. We kept asking festival if they were going to do anything and kept being told anything we wanted to try ourselves, just go ahead. Yeah. Right.
I had had no idea what to expect business-wise out of the shop but was pretty pleased with the response, by the last-day-of-the-last-weekend I had one shirt and one hat left :). But boy, was I tired of sewing! I missed being on the street but since I pretty much still knew everyone, they were always stopping by. My friend Kay Johnson was still out there, plus Sony & her bagpipes. Charles made it part of his character to regularly stop in and check his costume in our large mirror:). We also kept a large cooler of weak ice tea for performers and some would grab a quick break on our porch. DH helped with the shop but was also down in the SCA dell a lot heralding or fighting.
Big year of change, I will probably think of more later.
Again, feel free to copy and post this in your own LJ. If you are not on my friends list, please let me know so I can share the memories.
1982: 6 weekends, Sept 4 – Oct 10. First year we opened on Labor Day! Attendance: 144,000. King & Queen: David Archer & Susi Matthews as King James and Queen Isabella. Marco Polo’s (later the pub)built. Pirate ship built, originally as a shop for Ron Taylor’s pottery. Unicorn first 2 weekends! Seymour’s first year, as Sir Wayne of Owenshire? Marganna Rice now ED.
1983: 6 weekends, Sep 3 – Oct 9. Attendance 150,161. King & Queen: David Archer & Mary Margaret Lee as King Henry VIII & Queen Anne Boleyn. Wizard’s Tower, Chapel. John Mallery’s first year. Seymoure as Cemetary Keeper. Gale Tallis new Festival Director. Randal Spangler poster.
1982: my last year as a street character and I was really enjoying myself. We had some loose classes on building our characters, still on a rotation schedule, but also pretty independent. I remember spending quite a bit of time perched on the bow of the pirate ship :). The front gate was still one of my favorite stops as well. I also have a vague memory of earning some lunch money by letting the guys at Rainmaker's try and make 'deposits', in the form of quarters, in The Bank from their perches on top of their shop :). And while we opened on Labor Day, I don't seem to remember any horrendously hot days, maybe because I was younger.....
This was the year my mother started coming out to faire on a few weekends with her recorder students, she even came to the cast party year, fortunately she left before things really got going :). She's 77 now and only made it out to play one day this year but she was not about to miss it all together.
Speaking of the cast parties, I remember them as usually being in the Mermaid area at this time. And a lot of hugging and kissing going on :).
I think this was also the year we had two younger 'wenches' on the street and watching their experiences helped me crystalize some of my wench philosophy which boiled down to a lot of eye contact, witty verbal flirting, but keep touching to a minimum until you know what you are dealing with. The goal was to be able to handle anything I got myself into without constantly having to be 'rescued'. I think it worked pretty well. Drunks can always be a difficult call but most of them are out there to enjoy themselves and if you can keep them laughing they were fine. In fact, I don't ever recall really having what I would call a bad situation with any patrons while a street character.
I remember the 'unicorn' and some of the controversy that swirled around it (natural or created) and how supposedly one of the handlers had slipped up and seemed to confirm that they were surgically created. They built the whole theme that year around the unicorn (who later went on to star at the circus) and there was an enclosure built for it near where the Wizard's Tower is now). It was a friendly beast, probably a good thing considering how much time it had to spend around people.
1983: big year, I went from performer to crafter. Why? I had truly enjoyed myself on the street, and I would always be The Bank at faire, but I really enjoyed costuming and a shop was something I wanted to try. I think I also wanted to have a try at being my own boss at faire, having my own 'spot'so-to-speak. My shop was where T'gers now is and I started by selling shirts & hats, later added cloaks. I was still working full-time, trying to get enough sewing done on evenings and weekends. Had grand plans for X amount to be done a week that summer but that was also when DH and I started seriously dating so geee, there went that plan out the window :).
A lot of the first summer was also spent getting the shop built. There were no building codes back then, the previous 'shop' in this space had been some 2x4's and burlap :). I was fortunate to have access to lumber from an old barn on my folks' farm, some willing friends, and a father who kind of liked going out to site and puttering around. There was no easy electricty then so lumber was pre-cut, or we used the small chainsaw my dad had. Site was practically deserted in the summer, especially prior to August. A few of the dedicated rennie merchants were living in their booths but that was it. We built a rectangle shaped booth with open sides to take advantage of any breeze that would come our way. We had water-proofed fabric we could roll down when it rained. Turned out this is one of the best spots in faire for catching a breeze so we were usually pretty comfy on the hot days. When it cooled off however, that 'breeze' was just a bit nippy! We had a back 'porch' area behind the shop where we setup a hibachi for cooking and heating water later in the season. At this time, what is now the swill pond was actually part of the creek that wound through the area. We, and the shop next to us, were right on the edge of the bank, and loosing inches every year, eventually eroding right up to the back edge of the other shop and they had to take it down. We kept asking festival if they were going to do anything and kept being told anything we wanted to try ourselves, just go ahead. Yeah. Right.
I had had no idea what to expect business-wise out of the shop but was pretty pleased with the response, by the last-day-of-the-last-weekend I had one shirt and one hat left :). But boy, was I tired of sewing! I missed being on the street but since I pretty much still knew everyone, they were always stopping by. My friend Kay Johnson was still out there, plus Sony & her bagpipes. Charles made it part of his character to regularly stop in and check his costume in our large mirror:). We also kept a large cooler of weak ice tea for performers and some would grab a quick break on our porch. DH helped with the shop but was also down in the SCA dell a lot heralding or fighting.
Big year of change, I will probably think of more later.
Again, feel free to copy and post this in your own LJ. If you are not on my friends list, please let me know so I can share the memories.
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no subject
Date: 2005-11-02 07:50 pm (UTC)D.
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Date: 2005-11-03 01:34 am (UTC)And yes, I remember stopping by the booth to look in the mirror and to get drinks. That was so very much appreciated!
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Date: 2005-11-03 07:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-11-03 02:07 pm (UTC)This poor building went through a lot of incarnations, surprised it lasted as long as it did. I think the '94 cast party was held there due to the rain, and that was either it's last or next-to-last year. I don't remember it ever really being moved down the hill though. The 'tea' room kind of grew off of the back and it stayed when the pub was torn down & they built the deck.
Thinking back I still can't believe how bare that area was, and how fast the trees seem to have grown in.
no subject
Date: 2005-11-03 02:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-11-03 07:18 pm (UTC)D.
no subject
Date: 2005-11-05 10:42 am (UTC)