Tales from the faire

[fbhjr]

Photos here: https://phoenixswords.dreamwidth.org/20394.html

We took Friday off and drove down to NYC fairly early. We wanted to go to the Frick Collection: https://www.frick.org as it had been a VERY long time since I had been there, and my wife had never been there.

We parked at the Metropolitan Art museum, a few blocks away.
As we drove up to the garage, I saw they were searching cars. After the robbery in Paris, who could blame them?
As instructed, I popped open the trunk.
The guard looked at the halberds, pole axes and bags full of swords and books on sword fighting sitting in the back of the car.
I saw him look at me in the side mirror.
I smiled.
“Yeah, go park,” he said.

The Frick is a nice place. A mansion in NYC of a super rich guy more than a century ago. He had good taste in art.
We bought some stuff in the gift store, mostly books on the art.

Then, off to Delaware.

Over the week between our last show and this one, I had been contacted by someone who came to our show and his son got one of our 500th show pins.
But, he had worn it to school and lost it. He was very sad.
So, I agreed to meet the father at a Starbucks near where they lived to give him some new ones so his son could still wear them and hopefully not lose them.
He was worried I’d think him some kind of scam artist so sent me his work information, he’s a lawyer for the consumer protection division of the State of Delaware.
You’d think he’d know most scammers don’t start with “my son lost the thing you gave him, can he get another?”
But, it was good to know who we were dealing with.
We met him, I gave him the pins. He gave me the thank you note his son wrote us. It was very nice.

Over the week in Delaware they had been gale level winds. The new metal center pole I had installed the week before held, but some of the bottom retainers tore out.
We agreed that although the tent has been great for the last 13 years, it’s time to get a new one.

We’re faced with the choice of the folks in Alabama who made the current one, but for the last 13 years have ghosted us every time we needed new parts or had questions, but not want to sell us a new one, or the guy who fixed the tent the week before who is clear he’s never built one before. But, he does repair them and make boat and car covers of a similar construction.

We’ve decided to go with the new guy given the other folks ghosting us for 11 of the last 12 years. It’s hard to have full confidence this would be different.

The shows went fairly well. Saturday was warm and sunny with big crowds. Sunday was cool and damp and the crowds were less.
Sunday was my birthday. The entertainment director announced it at the morning meeting, so lots of folks wished me a good one.
We weren’t doing a show at my actual time of birth, unlike last year, so i wasn’t sword fighting right when I turned 62, but was 15 minutes before.
Because Sunday was damp we didn’t bring the books out and left off the small sword, which I don’t want to get wet. We paid a lot for them, and will never do business with the folks who made them again, so I tend to be more protective of them.

There was one little kid (probably about 10) who came up to me and told me my swords weren’t real. I let him hold one, he said they still weren’t real. I asked how he’d feel if he got hit with one and he turned and walked off rapidly. It was suggest I not threaten under age customers by some of the other troupe members.
But, next show the kid was there and brought a bunch of people with him and insisted on introducing me to all of them (mother, father, brother, younger brother, mother’s other husband, uncle and that guy who thinks he’s in their family, but really is just the guy who lives down the road) and telling them we were his favorite act.
Maybe I need to threaten more audience members…

One of my coworkers came to the show Sunday, so that was nice too. They live in Washington DC, so where much closer than my actual office. And, they drove the 2 hours with their significant other to come see us. That was very nice of them.

For reasons not totally clear to me, one of the big themes this weekend was people dressing like the entertainment director.
One person did it Saturday. About a dozen people Sunday. Including some patrons who joined the costume contests.
Most even did the face painting.
I thought it very amusing.

We left the fabric of the tent with the guy who is going to try and make a new one. Hopefully that will work out.

The drive home was surprisingly good with almost no traffic. Not sure what went right that time, but I’m glad it did.