Wednesday, October 8, 2003
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Wednesday, October 8, 2003 |
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Time travelers come to Peachtree City Library "Back in the day" as they say, when I was in school in the early 1970s, it was all I could do to keep awake in those boring history classes. It seemed that it was always about dates and documents and government and wars. Bleh! who cares? It sure didn't seem to have much to do with my life at the time. These days, there seems to be a real effort to put the life back in history really put the life back in it. Most of us in the South have had occasion to see Civil War re-enactors; some have been to Virginia's Williamsburg to experience Colonial times with historic interpreters, and it seems that many museums around the country have discovered the value of docents who act the part of the people of the past. Also along this vein is the Society for Creative Anachronism. "Creative what?" you say. Anachronism, according to my Random House dictionary, is a person or thing that is chronologically out of place. And for the Society, or SCA, they just happen to be creatively out of place. The SCA encourages its members to delve into any period in history between 500 A.D. and 1600 and emerge with a character intact. The organization was founded in 1966 in Berkeley, Calif., by a group of college students but since that time has grown to over 30,000 members of all ages all over the world. The organization is entirely recreational but those who engage in the play take it very seriously. Authenticity is important to these people. Their curiosity about how best to portray the character of the time they are interested in drives them to research the details. What was the clothing really like what colors did they favor and what materials? How did they defend themselves and fight their enemies? How did the people behave? Were they genteel or rough around the edges? What made them proud or sad? What did they eat and how did they cook it? An SCA member creates a new persona (or is it an olde one?) with these questions in mind and sets out to become as authentic as possible well, short of getting the plague, anyway. The Barony of the South Downs is the local group of SCA which includes the Atlanta area. They will be on hand at the Peachtree City Library Oct. 11 from 1-4 p.m. to present their living history demonstrations of the arts and sciences of the Middle Ages with swordplay, dancing and more. The event is free and will be staged on the plaza in front of the library. For more information, contact Rebecca Watts at the library (770-631-2520) or Miramah and Guillaume (AKA Heidi and Sam Wallace) at 770-253-0549. Rebecca Watts Reference Specialist Peachtree City Library |
