Mom brought us to the Sterling Renaissance Faire & rented costumes for the children. When I worked there in the mid-1990s, all the workers were required to speak in funny accents and stay in Elizabethan-esque character the entire time. It was good fun! No anachronistic acts were allowed.

That is not how it is now. I asked some people who said they were old-time Ren-Fans, & they said the fair had always been this way— but that’s impossible! I asked if they knew anyone who’d been working here for over 30 years, & they pointed me to and old man slouched over a gaming table. I told him what I remembered and asked when it changed. “When it stopped being important to the owners,” he said. “Sometime in the 90s.”

“The original owners sold it?” I asked, & he nodded. He had nothing else to say.

My children, putting on some nice faces—

My children. Still nice faces. Expressions are a bit silly, tho.