Renaissance Festival War Stories Sept 18/19, 2021

Saturday Morning, early, the riddle booth starts fairly slow. People walk by and no one stops for almost an hour to riddle. During that time a couple is walking and stops to take a selfie near us. I stop them and offer to take their picture. Of course, I flip the camera and take a selfie first, but that was not the point. I take several nice framed up pictures for them. I get the iron dragon in the background, no people walking in the background, and say things to make them laugh to get genuine smiles. They are grateful and thankful for the pictures, and the fact I took the time to get a variety. They are in regular clothes, then they tell me, today is their 31st wedding anniversary, and they are former Renaissance Fest workers themselves. They worked at Jacob's Ladder in their younger years. I was so happy to start their day on a positive note.

...

Late morning a father and teen-aged son come and riddle for a little bit. The son is quite sharp, he is solves the first couple riddles fairly quickly. The mother and the other teen-aged daughter approach and join in on the fun. The mother asks where the closest coffee is, but continue to answer riddles quickly with the other family members. Nestor and I throw out a more challenging riddle that has two animals referenced in it. When the family finally gets the answer, they are delighted and we gladly show them the closest coffee shop in visual distance of where we are. The mother offers to bring us each a coffee as a tip. We are shocked. After a several minutes, I begin to think they forgot about it and were just saying something nice at the time. Here comes the family with a mocha each for Nestor and myself. The names on the cup were not Nestor and Tinka, but the names of the two animals from the riddles. I professed my love for the family and told them I was available for adoption.

...

Saturday, during the day, we have so many riddlers come up and join us for the show. A four-some in that group have home-made and Halloween store-type costumes. They are having a great time. They appear to be two couples, as in I thought they were each romantically paired. I riddle and am my usual silly self; I don't even remember what I said. The man in the home-made kilt-look says something flirtatious to me. Because I thought he was with one of the other women, I am caught by surprise. Don't get me wrong, I love a naughty joke, innuendo, etc. I am usually ready and prepared to dish it when I hear it. However, in the last year and a half, I have turned 35 and had a double mastectomy. I don't dress racy in character while working at the festival; my clothes are rather conservative by comparison to what I used to wear as a patron. I am not the sexy-dressed, young thing I was even three years ago; at least, I don't think I am perceived as such. So, when this man in the kilt says something flirtatious and sweet to me. Something that sounded sincerely sweet and not over the top or raunchy, I have nothing witty to say back. I am genuinely flustered. This does not happen to me much. My wit is one of the things I pride myself on. I am in shade, under a large hat, and deer make-up, he says, "Is she blushing?" I can assure you; I absolutely was.

...

The day became non-stop with riddlers after that first slow hour. At one point late in the afternoon, there were three women and one man who were all quite sharp when it came to answering medium-to-hard challenging riddles. When they all decided to move on, all at the same time, I flew out of the booth and stopped them. I let them know they were all quite wise, but I wished them luck: I gave them each a four-leafed clover. The looks on all their faces were bright and priceless. The man dubbed it his new most prized possession. He and one of the women left.

The other two women stuck around for a few more minutes to chat. I told them I had found, as of that day, 140 four-leafed clovers this year. One said I must be the luckiest person in the world. I told them that I consider myself extremely lucky; that in the last couple years, I have had over eight surgeries, but I am recovered, healthy, and safe now. (even doing a little jig to show I am well) But when I came out of one of the surgeries, I became conscious performing riddles. They asked what ones I did. I remember it so clearly, and did exactly what I would have done had I been there in the booth: I did a baseline riddle to see how smart the room was, someone answered it quickly. On the surgical table, my left hand was free, so I did a riddle where the answer was 'puppet' and mimed a puppet with my hand. And since it was an appropriate place for it, I did a riddle where the answer was 'scissors.' The surgical team answered all of them correctly. These women were floored by me. One of them said, "You are absolutely flawless." Then I was floored. I once again glitched and went back and forth between shy-humility and keep-inflating-my-giant-ego.

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A little girl, maybe 4, Saturday afternoon: violet wings, cranberry dress, rainbow rose. She wanted to see the fairy forest, but it had already closed. It was less about the fairies, more about the forest. A patron dressed as a fairy came over and met with her too. We let her know the fairies were about. But it wasn't about the fairies, she wanted to see the forest. Great big innocent tears. With her and her father's permission, I gave her the last magnetic pin I had in my bag: a little red Starburst. I called it a glimmer of hope. Hope that we may meet again and that she will see the forest and feel better.

It doesn't offer her a ton of solace, but it was Dad who was now in tears.

He quietly tells me: Faith, Hope, and Love. But the greatest of which was love. And you showed her love. Thank you.

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This is now my second season working for the Riddle Masters. There are some acts at the festival that have die-hard fans. I was a big Riddle Booth fan, and for years, it's part of how they considered me for being a riddle master. That's a whole other story with way more factors to it. That is not what this portion is about. In 2019, I don't recall regulars much. This year, and by second weekend, it became clear who two of our fans were: Andrew and Ian. They make a point to stop by every day. They listen, they laugh and enjoy, but don't try to get IN TO the show like a bad, drunk weirdo. They are respectful and great. When they hear a riddle they haven't heard, they get excited. There are more fans like them: Verbina & Ember too. They make me want to be a better performer. I want to come up with new material for them. These patrons are so incredibly special. They spend their whole day out at the festival. They spend their free time with us. They tip their hard-earned money. They're not just fans, they are more than that. The festival brings all kinds: young, old, single, married, divorced, all genders, all loves. But it takes a special person who want to be intellectually challenged as part of their day. These people, our fans, the ones that we make a point to ask their name of, they are our Irregulars. Thank you for spending part of your day with us.

Additionally, two of our Irregular patrons at the riddle booth - chatting them up and the gentleman is positively glowing talking to this other lady. Both of them often come to the booth alone. They left the booth together for a while, when they returned, they had written a riddle FOR US to solve. They brightened each other's day, and ours. I 'ship them . I 'ship them so hard!

...

It's fifth weekend now. Our team of Riddle Masters are really becoming cohesive and harmonizing. We aren't perfect. We've had rough times, illness, and more. But this weekend, even with our directors and our other 'uncle' not feeling their best this weekend. I can't tell you how it feels to step up for them; in a good way. Then at the end of the day to be exhausted, sweaty, hoarse, hungry, eaten by mosquitoes and then have our director come up to the two newest members of the team and say, "I'm really proud of you two." This feeling makes me want to get up and go work for three more hours.

The only other people who can give me this feeling of pride, joy, and honor are my own parents. It used to be that when we were small children would leave our grandmother's house my father would look at us in the back of the car and say, "I am so proud of how you girls behaved." More than any gift or treat, those words would give me pride and accomplishment. It's why I call our directors 'Mom' and 'Dad.' My parents are amazing people. Even when I was a teenager, I didn't go through much of a rebellious phase. I didn't need to. I respected them too much. I respect and am so grateful for the Riddle Booth Directors. Thank you 'Mom' and 'Dad'. I hope I can keep making you proud.

For more Renaissance Festival War Stories: Labor Day Weekend, Last week, 2019

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