FAIRE Part The First: Stepping Onto Sacred Ground.

In the beginning, there was high school. Not actually high school, but the summer between my junior and senior years of high school. I had asked my parents about Renaissance Faire because one of my favorite comic artists had done a strip about her time going to one.

"We haven't taken you?" Mum says, "We have failed as parents."

Please understand that this is not my mother's commentary on any other parents who have not taken their children the Faire. This was simply a phrase that came up whenever my parents realized that I was a certain age and had not yet seen or done something that they considered to be a natural part of growing up, like watching Star Wars, or Brigadoon or, in this case, going to Bristol Renaissance Faire. After my parents took me the first time, I went back once more that summer with my friends. We ran around, saw shows, investigated every booth and shop, bought some clothes, and stopped in the Sun Garden to eat. That was the beginning I suppose. I was already having a great day, and then this Faire Character comes up. He scoops a still wrapped, unfinished turkey leg from the trash, and proceeds to eat it.

"EEEEEWWWWWWW! What are you doing?!" we cried. I don't know the name of this character. I don't remember why he was eating out of the trash, I don't even remember his sea cucumber joke. 

Eventually I even forgot that it was him who had encouraged us to come back and work at faire.

"he says we should come and work at Ren Faire next year!!!"
-image posted  August 2006 and forgotten until  it was rediscovered with caption August 2012

Over the next few years, I continues to return. I met and played with characters such as Jane the Phoole, Robin Hood, Little John, Will Scarlett, I had my favorite Fantastikals (fairies) who I would go visit and specific shops that I always stopped in to look at. In 2009 I managed to squeeze out the $100 for a season pass and spent every weekend that I could running around. Many times I was too shy to talk directly to people so I'd watch or play with the silent characters. Then next year, however, I was short on both time and money, and before I knew it, the season had ended. The next year, I was out of state and therefore was unable to visit. Each summer that I missed Faire winter would arrive with the disappointed feeling of something missing.