Rising expectations

There is a big campout every year here, and the first time I went was in 1976, but I didn't camp. I came in costume and visited for a long afternoon.

The year after that, thirty years ago, I came with a group of eight people, six of whom I had costumed medievally (oh... I didn't mention it's an SCA campout called the Grand Outlandish Tournament, and in recent years just "Grand Outlandish"), and had a tent and two coolers full of food, and two banners.

I still have those banners. It's a tribute to trigger cloth. "Trigger" is short for "Outrigger" but it wouldn't fit in the field when early computer inventories came along and the beginning fell off, I hear, which is ia good story if it's true. So this trigger cloth, I can attest, can last a long long time in the desert of New Mexico.

This year our camp will have fifteen people or so, fifteen tents or so, (some we made), ten or twelve coolers, probably ten banners, wooden tables and benches made by my husband, we'll have candle-lit dinners in a dining hall (a tent with those tables and benches, with table cloths and cloth napkins)... it's a weird, weird, hobby, I know. There's a photo of our dining hall some years back. I still have most of those dishes. I was at a feast with the guy in the middle just last Saturday (Martino, who used to live here and now lives in Calontir).


Here's a photo of me in 1985, with two tents I made, one of which (the striped one) is still functional and will be used in our camp this year. That's made of "trigger cloth" too, now that I think of it.

That's me in the green, before I was ever even pregnant with Kirby, in my pre-mom days.





What used to be good enough, for me, for my camp, has escalated gradually over the years, and I guess that's how it goes with lots of activities and hobbies. It seems an inavoidable human trait, to try to do the best we can do under the circumstances, and expecting that we can do better. Luckily, I have a team. Sadie/Beatrice helped me cook. Kate is cooking for Saturday and Sunday. Keith/Gunwaldt can make tents from ropes and poles on the spot, and has the engineering urge and ability to have created a dining hall tent and furniture for it. We have friends and offspring who are energetic and strong and can put the camp up and help maintain it. I couldn't begin to even WANT to do it myself.

And so I'm back now to sewing and cooking so those people who can do the things I can't do will look a bit more marvelous doing it, and have some food afterwards.