Month: October 2023

Faires and Festivals

/ ronnyjames / 2 Comments

Years ago, many years ago, back during the early 1970s, my younger brother and I took a road trip in the MGB over to Blackpoint Forest in Marin County, California. It was our first encounter with a Renaissance Faire in the wild as it were, nestled back among the scrub pines and coastal oak trees of California. As I recall, this was during the gas shortages of the early 70s and though Novato was roughly 200 miles from Reno, we must have thought the gas mileage in the MG would allow the trek over the mountains. It did, but the sight of long gas lines was something I remembered to this day. 

My brother searched through his collection of slides from that time and came across these photos of our visit to the Faire. It looks much as I had remembered it.

California’s Renaissance Pleasure Faire originated in Agoura Hills in Southern California in 1963. The one we had attended in 1972 opened its Northern California location in 1967. An interesting article on the history of the faire can be found online here.

Today Renaissance Faires, or Festivals take place across the US, many of the largest being held in North Carolina, Maryland, Texas, Ohio, Wisconsin, New York, Arizona, even Georgia. The Renlist has a great website with listings by state and date. Maryland’s festival at Crownsville is one of the largest, many of which attract over 200,000 visitors over their season.

Apart from the lack of period costumes–nearly everyone was in modern dress– and the white tents set up in the field, the Fiber Festival and Sheep Dog Trials we went to recently had much the same feel as the Renaissance Faires I’ve attended in the past. The emphasis here was on homegrown/raised sheep, alpaca, and angora rabbits and the yarns produced from their wool. Whether knitted crafts or woven fabrics, the exhibits and demonstrations would have been right at home with the Renaissance faires and festivals so prevalent across our land. 

There seemed to be a greater emphasis on rich colors in the products being sold compared with the muted tones I remember seeing. In the morning sunlight, knit shawls and scarves shimmered and glowed in jewel tones; yet there were many vendors selling natural or un-dyed yarns for a more traditional homespun-look.

The two-day event was held at Montpelier and attracted quite a crowd. The sheep dog trials were a lot of fun to watch and I can see now where my son’s border collie gets her energy!

 

KPIX-TV news footage from September 2nd 1972 featuring a visit by reporter Ed Arnow to the Northern California Renaissance Pleasure Faire, based at the Blackpoint Forest in Novato, Marin County. You can watch the video here, or click the image above to access the San Francisco State University Bay Area Television Archive.

Overwhelmed

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overwhelm, v. transitive. To bury or drown beneath a mass of earth, water, etc.; to submerge completely; to destroy or obliterate by covering with something.

“Sure I can stop by and pick up a few boxes; photo albums, slides, nicnacs and some family memorabilia? No problem!”

It had been four years since my father-in-law had passed away and his wife was feeling like now she could really go through his things and separate out what his children might want to keep. There were the photo albums, of course, and what turned out to be more than 75 boxes of Ektachrome slides: family and work activities captured over the span of thirty years. There were also boxes of framed photos, graduation certificates and medals of accomplishments, the many small items accumulated from a man’s career in the US Army. 

There was..a lot.

As she and I talked over coffee, it was apparent she had felt overwhelmed by all of it, was still feeling some traces of emotion even as the relief of saying goodbye to all of it became more real. 

When we went downstairs to begin packing my truck, I could immediately understand her feelings: I was overwhelmed at the number and sizes of the boxes stacked in the carport! 

They had been married nearly 17 years before he passed away. As much as I had grown to know him, one thing I understood was that he loved his family and he loved documenting everything. And he saved everything. She must have felt swamped to even begin sorting through it all.

I’ve written before about planning ahead for what we will inevitably leave behind (Memories & Mementos). My plan for most of this is to scan the photos and post them in a group album online, ideally a Google photos https://www.google.com/photos/about/ And then, tentatively, dispose of the originals. We bought an Ion Pics2 SD slide scanner thru and online estate sale (I love those!) and so far it has worked well for this project. Here’s the link if you are interested.

As I’ve worked through scanning these, arranging the boxed slides into sets, it seemed easier to group them by year rather than subject matter as I had originally intended. But I’ve found in the past with overly large or complicated projects, the satisfaction for me has come in just getting started, grouping and arranging the subject matter or tasks into smaller goals has brought it’s own sense of accomplishment. And as the stacks and stacks of photos gradually decreased in size and number, the satisfaction of nearing the end of the project has increased dramatically.

To date I’ve scanned over 1,700 slides; there remain approximately 1,000 left to scan. But I’m more than half-finished! I won’t be feeling overwhelmed trying to figure out what to do with everything that we’ve accumulated over the years: as long as I have a plan, I’m content. It’s just going to take some time.