Alan's Skew

A Trip to the Higgins Faire

Category: My World

The product release I've been working on since mid-April has to ship on June 30th come hell or high water. Well the tide is high and the air above the water line is sweltering, so I'm pretty stressed. I've been working hard since my return from Italy at the beginning of May, having only taken two or three complete days off including weekends. It's part of the nature of being a technical writer in high tech--holding onto the tail of the dog (or in this case the cow) as it's pushed out the door as soon as the code is compiled and mostly tested.

In any case, I was happy to use my brother and niece as an excuse to take a few hours off on Saturday to go with them to the Higgins Faire at Higgins Armory Museum in Worcester, MA.   Here I am trying on one of the many medieval helmets--I think this one is from a Norman soldier. Luckly you can't see the security cable they've had to run through the helmets so that people don't steal them. This is a recent addition, since Pete and I visited the museum five or six years ago and they didn't have anti-theft devices on anything on display at that time. "Excuse me sir, is that a Norman helmet in your pocket, or are you...?" Even with the cable it was pretty cool to try this one on.

My niece wore her royal garb and was dubbed "Lady Rowan" by the King and Queen of Castle Higgins when we entered. We then went in and found a workshop where we could make a shield with a heraldic seal. Rowan's seal has a label (the square rook pattern at the top to indicate she is first born, then a unicorn and a crown because that's what she wanted and that's what she got.

After watching the shield making, I took over as Lady Rowan's court chaperon and led her through the faire while her father patiently waited in a long line for the artisan who was making swords, crowns, and other amusements out of balloons. Our young maident requested a pink poodle and was quite pleased by the artisan's handiwork.

Among the many other sights at the indoor faire, was a very educational demonstration of medieval rapier and dagger techniques put on by the Higgins Armory Sword Guild. Despite the little sock balls on the ends of the rapiers, they were quite impressive.

The trip out of the castle parking lot was amusing as it seems that several parties' drivers inconsiderately boxed in other family carriages to the point that I thought most certainly the sheriff might be dispatched. Luckily there was a member of the brute squad handy and he took care of the situation. We were fortunate to escape without incident.

Posted by alan at June 19, 2005 10:00 PM