To continue the story of the Great Power and Water Outage of Pennsic 53:
While I was teaching dancing that evening, the head of the Blue Feather Ball and I had a young man serving as a "runner" between the Great Hall and the dance tent to help us figure out what to do.
When I called an end to the dancing, I dismissed the musicians, but then I headed over to the Great Hall. I wasn't sure what to expect -- maybe a few dozen people standing outside the building and noshing on whatever they could grab in the near-darkness.
Instead, I was amazed.
During my dance lesson, Joshua (the fellow running the ball) had sent word out through various Facebook groups and (probably) other social media: Bring Lights!
And people did exactly that! Ball attendees brought every sort of battery-powered illumination imaginable. Flashlights. Lanterns. String lights. Little LEDs embedded in plastic tubes. Faux torches that gave off a flickering yellow glow. Artificial candles. I saw a string of multicolored lights wrapped around the frame of a rollator.
Tamerlane Yurts, which sells a lot of beautiful metal-and-glass lanterns as well as Mongolian gers, donated dozens if not hundreds of strings of battery-powered "fairy lights," and a young woman handed them out. I gratefully took a string to join in the fun.
Here's what the scene looked like. I hope I'm not invading anyone's privacy with this photo.
And here's what I looked like at the event:
Photos don't really do justice to the event.
Beyond the obvious -- rescuing an event that might have disintegrated into a disaster -- I was thrilled at witnessing a marvel of chivalry, cooperation and teamwork ... dare I say The Dream that we in the SCA all revere?
