The Armour Archive

Hi,

Well I’m not Winterfell (Squire Connor Sinclair) but now I have personal experience similar to the well known squire, except I’m not a squire and I wasn’t naked.

Sean Powell invited me to a wonderful tournament up here in Pennsylvania where two armoured tanks could engage in combat with great joy and enjoyment of being armoured cap-a-pie.

My wife, daughter and I arrived at Sean Powell’s house late Friday night and enjoyed a nice night of hospitality, blissful baby watching (Elanor is SO cute!) and lots, and lots of dog petting. It was a great night and reminded me of the time Maureen, Nicholas and I went cross-country and visited Val Borne of the Armour Archive in Idaho. We’d never seen Val Borne or Sean Powell before face to face, but it was like meeting a kindred soul and good, long-term friend.

The morning was misty and the breakfast was grand. The caravan of vehicles headed out to the Greenlane Celtic and Irish Festival, with a sky that promised not to cause eyestrain and sunburn due to it’s shrouded nature, obscuring the punishing sun that hurts Aaron’s eyes and skin.

Sean Powell and Aaron clashed with polehammers, spears and longswords and two other fighters joined in while the mist turned to a light rain to a stronger rain. A trebuchet fired potatoes into the lake, at the direction of Sean Powell. No fish were hurt in this demonstration.

We fought and had fun.

It was a clash for the ages and I felt years younger. It felt like a good day in Japan.

The armour and dayshade boxes Aaron had brought served as the foundation for an inflated bed and Aaron got to rest on the bed, in full armour, and eventually Maureen took her turn resting on the bed.

The rain hammered down, but the dayshade held.

Many visitors to the Greenlane Celtic and Irish Festival tried on Aaron’s helmet and read about “Blood Red Rosesâ€

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YOU TWIT! You were half an hour from my house! ARGHHHH!

I -was- going to do Green Lane this year, but a planned (then aborted) trip to the shore, as well as a tropical storm coming through kept me from doing the camping thing.

*sigh*

RATS!

Glad you had fun though.

Dude. Y'all look eerily similar.

Baron Alejandro wrote:Dude. Y'all look eerily similar.

Kermit Wars?

Hi Maeryk,

I'm still here.

My phone number is 410-562-7543 and Maureen's is 410-562-7663. Call us when the sun is up.

We're heading back to Greenlake this morning after the non-Army people wake up. Maureen and I woke up at 0530 on a Sunday morning and couldn't get back to sleep.

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Aaron wrote:Hi Maeryk,

I'm still here.

My phone number is 410-562-7543 and Maureen's is 410-562-7663. Call us when the sun is up.

We're heading back to Greenlake this morning after the non-Army people wake up. Maureen and I woke up at 0530 on a Sunday morning and couldn't get back to sleep.

That's not gonna work. I'm off to Hershey Park in about 10 minutes.

We'll get you up here some other time!

this thread is full of win!!!

My camera is AWOL and I don't have the pictures and video from the next day.

The final event was a "counted blows to one" grand melee with every SCA weapon available. Kids held weapons on the sidelines and fighters went to pick them up after they got hit and turned in the weapon to the "used weapon pile". It was like the Tuchux Charity Tournament but with everyone going at once.

And the first bout was all using daggers! Smiles all around.

-Aaron

It was an exciting, wonderful and EXHAUSTING weekend. Aaron is a wonderful houseguest as he knows how to keep quiet at 5:30 so I can finish sleeping. He is also a consumate fighter who knows his history and his armor. It was an honor and a privledge having him grace our demo with his presence.

We had a GREAT time playing to the crowd. It's a wonderfull feeling to fight someone on a level playing field (meaning not in SCAdian minimums and 6 times faster then I am). It's also wonderful to be able to go 'WHAM' on someone with no fear of hiting them in an unarmored location.

Would that we had had 2 days to play instead of one. Hanna arrived late enough for us to get in 1 set on Saturday before it got too bad. Then a tent blew down and kind of started the end. Sunday was much nicer, not too humid (surprisingly) with a plesant breeze most of the time. There were a number of other good kits there as well and the SCA showed a good presence for fighting, fencing, siege, A&S (lots of it!) and general good character. Plus the background celtic music was fun to fight to at times.

Sean

P.S. Maeryk, you're a goober for missing this. We would have liked to have seen you. Swing by next time (or invite us to Hershey park instead, I like roller-coasters )

Hi Sean,

I enjoy a new thrill as much as the next person, but I think a poleaxe fight while on a Hershey Park rollercoaster might be a bit much.

But, it would be fun!

-Aaron

Hi Sean,

Yep, fighting a fellow armoured opponent is GREAT fun! And you have style!

If you ever want to know one BIG reason I miss Japan, is imagine a ten-counted-blow, Grand Melee, with FOUR people armoured like we are, almost every weekend and sometimes on the weekdays too.

The armour does make the man. If you notice I'm not that great of a fighter, but BOTH of us got so many photographs...I was amazed.

You made the weekend truly fun and I had a blast. It felt like Japan, but not as humid but also not as much sushi and tempura soba. But I didn’t think sushi would be available at a Celtic Faire anyway.

-Aaron

Baron Alejandro wrote:Dude. Y'all look eerily similar.

Oddly enough, I think we could have my dad stand next to us and people would think we're brothers. It's weird.

Looking at Sean was like looking at a younger me who didn't join the Army but instead went on to brilliance in the civilian world.

I still like being in the Army, but it was fun to see what could have happened.

Sleeping in until 0530 hrs was fun and I look forward to doing that again some day.

With respect,

-Aaron