Monday, March 19, 2012

Agoura Rennaissance Faire 1972

Looking over the weekly newsletters and updates sent by the Faire organizers, I am impressed with their thoroughness – which is what made for their tremendous success at the venue. It was a kind of Hippie Disneyland where you could go dressed as Snow White or Mickey Mouse and be part of the park. Costumed revelers wandered the grounds turkey legs in hand ‘pritheeing’ and ‘forsoothing’, wearing the 60’s garb that already had medieval overtones, strumming lutes and blowing on flutes. Every weekend I tossed off my Big Boy apron and hat and donned a laced up vest, long skirt and bonnet created by my sister Chris - my medieval toga were just another work uniform to me. I carved out image after image onto wooden blocks during the week - teaching my ‘staff’ how to print them with wooden spoons. The booth was a yurt-like structure with billowing colored lining material attached to the framework for shade and a ‘festive’ look. Southern California was hot and dry day most of the year, so there was no need for weatherproofing against rainstorms like here in the Midwest where I live now. The Faire was situated on the grounds of the old Paramount Ranch movie set, where cowboys and Indians had chased each other on horseback since silent film days. You parked along a highway and walked over a hill into the locale - thus keeping all the nasty twentieth century vehicles out of view. My first day on the site I took in a load of two by fours and a few friends to help me dig and plant the essential center post – connecting it to a circle of smaller posts fanning out from it so that it was self supporting – all those years of building forts as a kid had paid off. We used brightly colored lining material for the roof sections and the walls -with one wall built out of plywood (disguised of course) to hang framed art on. I scrounged much of the lumber and other materials using old pallets and whatever other scrap wood I could find - keeping expenses down to a minimum. Chris even remembers us driving around the canyons collecting dried twigs to weave together for a rustic ‘wattle’ look on one side. Gunny sacks tacked on the other side of cross timbered railings easily created cheap walls. My wares - being paper - were strung on lines every which way like festive banners. We were ready for business.
Mom (wearing inappropriate sunglasses) and me in my booth

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