Society for Creative Anachronism

I'll likely never get into the habit of posting/writing regularly. I've had this problem with all of my past attempts to document my life. Either nothing is going on, so I have time but nothing to write about, or everything is happening rapidly giving me lots to write about, but no time.

But that all aside, I recently (in the past two months or so) re-discovered the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA). I had run into the group originally when I was a teen in Germany (dad was stationed there with the Army). I expressed interest. Mom, Dad, and I had one meeting with one person. After the meeting they took one look at me said, "You'll get obsessed. You can't do it." and that was that.

So, 10 years or so later, I finally started putting out feelers to my local SCA groups. I live almost exactly between two groups and I started doing things with the more active group. Everything has been off and running since then.

Okay, so maybe you don't know anything about the SCA. Let's start with the fact that it is more or less a medieval reenactment group and then work from there. It isn't TRULY reenactment. It's more of a way to explore various interests in the medieval time frame (600 to 1600) surrounded by others doing the same.

There is a wide variety of people in the SCA for a wide variety of reasons. Some are very particular about pursuing their interest in as historically accurate a way as possible. Others are merely there to socialize and make only the broadest of attempts at being historically accurate. And of course, there's everything in between these two mind sets.

If you attend major events, you are asked to make an attempt at period clothing (no blue jeans and polo shirts). But there are many local activities that are done in "street clothes" or "mundane clothes". Some people focus primarily on the combat (which is governed by many safety requirements) and others focus on garb (clothing from the period). Some focus on cooking, some on the bardic arts (poetry and singing), others on "arts and sciences" (metalworking or spinning or weaving or the like). The group allows a wide variety of interests to fall into the same basic interest (medieval life) and seems to be quite popular.

Also, you can participate in the SCA very inexpensively (if you mainly borrow or make items) or very expensively (if you buy or commission the manufacture of items). It can be time consuming (if you attend all the events of an active barony) or take virtually no time at all (if you attend only select events or participate with a fairly inactive shire).

Anyway, it's been an interesting diversion to get me, my husband, and my son hooked up in this group. We're still working on determining our level of participation and interests and such. But we're finding Marinus to be a very happy home away from home.