Jousting society keeps history alive on high rise field

It makes for a curious scene amidst the normal activities of Superblock -- two men dressed in medieval garb attacking each other with wooden swords and lances. The scene is, in fact, so out of context that observers may momentarily feel as if they have been transported into the plot of Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. It's almost as if they've returned to the days when real men practiced chivalry and upheld a stringent code of honor. It is exactly this feeling of time travel that the members of the Society for Creative Anachronism attempt to create in the field next to High Rise North on Monday evenings, as they practice for local bi-weekly tournaments. Indulging their interest in the Middle Ages, they emulate, as best they can, the experience of medieval warfare -- right down to putting on the 40 pounds of armor that knights once wore. "We all have a great interest in medieval life," 1990 1990 School of Engineering and Applied Science graduate and SCA member David Goldfeather said. "We believe in doing by learning." To heighten the reality of their experience, the SCA members each create a medieval persona to step into. Philadelphia resident and long-time SCA member John McLoughlin, for example, said he becomes 12th century crusader Tristen Von Halstern. "I'll go to one and talk to a Scottish knight about what it was like to be in the Holy Land during the Third Crusade," McLoughlin said. "It's a great framework for learning." Documentation of what medieval life was actually like, however, is hard to come by, Goldfeather said. "Most of population was illiterate, so no one wrote down what life was like back then," he noted. "We just have to figure it out for ourselves." This trial by error approach often interrupts the sword play, when, for example, the knights stop their battle to discuss why a certain blow was so successful. "That's what makes it so much fun," Goldfeather said. "We don't know what it was like back then," he added. "We just assume that medieval fighting hasn't changed much so what worked then probably works now." This attempt to reclaim the past extends beyond medieval fighting in Superblock. The SCA is a national organization that began in the mid-1960s at University of California at Berkeley, when a group of students held a party for their favorite professor with a medieval motif, Goldfeather explained. "They had such a good time that they did again and again," he said. "Eventually it grew into this." SCA members also pursue interests such as the reproduction of dancing, tailoring, metalworking, cooking and calligraphy. "They will find something to fit your interest and talents," said McLoughlin, who has been a member since age 17. "I got off my the phone with my mother the other day and she asked me if I hadn't outgrown it yet," he said as he fooled with the straps of the cast-iron helmet he was to wear for his next battle. "I told her I guess I hadn't in my 30s and I don't think I will in my 40s," he added. After all, what's the harm in indulging that little part of one's self that still enjoys pretending? "You'll never know what it was like for a knight to try to walk down steps with eight-inch spurs on until you try it yourself," McLoughlin said.