From the Rear Echelon: Midhaven Ithra

Midhaven ran a small Ithra, but a fun one. Lunch was provided both days by a highly skilled kitchen crew.

First class Saturday morning I took an English Country Dance class and managed not to damage anyone. One of the dances was a circle dance which included several parts where all the guys move into the center and clap which we hammed up increasingly as we went through it. The ladies rotated between laughing at us and rolling their eyes at us.

Second class was persona development – the instructor spent part of it In Persona. Yes, she earned the Capital Letter Form. She’s a 12th century Moorish woman and simply did not acknowledge the males in the class who were not family. She expressed sympathy for women who had no children, and shock at the one who’s husband helped raise their children. She promised to pray for several people including me.

Saturday afternoon I took two classes on the new heraldry rules and submission process because I really, really, need to get moving on registering my name and device. I was, after all, given my AoA over two years ago (and by the hand of no less than then-Queen Miranda!). Luckily it doesn’t seem like much has changed and the few changes will probably make it easier or at least no harder.

Sunday I took a class entitled “Madonnas, Sluts, and Ladies” about female roles in period. This was a fascinating study of not just what the roles were, but why they were that way and how they came to be that way. I would like to emphasize that the SCA is very different from period in its ideas on gender roles, though we retain many of the more attractive parts (chivalry and such).

Cooking for large groups (basically about the difference between cooking for five in a fully stocked modern kitchen and cooking for fifty in the middle of nowhere) and another class on heraldry rounded out the event.

I was in quite august company for Sunday lunch – my table included a duchess, a baroness, and a double peer (knight and pelican) – more the crowd I’d expect at head table at a feast than eating with me. All three of them were people I knew at least fairly well and respected highly. I’m inherently a respecter of hierarchies, and know my place in the SCA (low, though by no means the bottom and with considerable potential to rise). Actually as of writing this I’m #5,708 on the Kingdom Order of Precedence (out of 6,129).