A Faire Love!

My one true love over the past four years has been the Renaissance Festival / Medieval Faire. I fell in love with it beginning in Muskogee, Oklahoma, where I resided for five years, but for one reason or another, I chose not to attend, until the last year I lived there.

I owned a Native American gift shop there, and one day a gentleman, wearing the most beautiful Apache style moccasin boots wandered into my shop to look for a Ribbon shirt for the Scottish Ceilidh, or Kaleigh? It was a party and dance being held at the Castle of Muskogee, where the faire was also being held. I inquired of him regarding his boots, as perhaps, I'd like to start carrying them in my store. He sent the gentleman to me who had made the boots, he and his partner invited me to the dance and the faire that weekend, and the rest became history! I attended the faire and fell madly in love with it, as I'd loved nothing before in my life. I'd attended Native American Powwows for over 20 years, and loved them, but even those did not make me fall madly in love.

There's something about the Renaissance Festival that just brings out a hidden part of oneself that perhaps, you didn't even know existed. Within one weekend at this faire, my entire life was changed, including my own name and identity! What magic spell had been forced upon me, unawares?

By the end of that week, I'd been given the name, "Jezebel", which quickly became "Jezzy". I was asked to work for someone at a faire in Ohio near Lake Eerie. Now, I had a store to run, but as I'd learned from doing a powwow one weekend and leaving my store in the care of even my very best friend, I could not trust anyone. So, I was faced with a dilemma. Stay and continue to operate my store, which did well, but wasn't really going where I'd hoped it would, or take a chance and accept this job offer. I'd decided to compromise. So, I called my shop landlord, told her I was closing for the summer, going on vacation to try my hand at this new experience and I'd be back to make my decision for the future.

It took only the first weekend at the Great Lakes Medieval Faire for me to decide that this was, indeed, what I wanted to do for the rest of my life! It was an easy choice for me, for some reason. By the third weekend, the people I'd come to love became so enamored of me, that they dubbed me, "Jezzy, their Pirate Queen"! I fit in with the vendors, with the entertainers, with the "playtrons"! I loved them, and they loved me just as much! So, I asked around for another "gig" at another faire, and was easily picked up to work a faire two weeks after this one was to end. I took those two weeks to go back to Oklahoma, close up my shop, put everything I owned into storage and trek quickly back to Ohio to work my second faire. I did this for a couple of years, just working two faires in Ohio, which was where my family lived, anyway, and a faire in North Carolina, until I was propositioned by another vendor to work full time, traveling from faire to faire. They offered me quite a lot of money and benefits, so I jumped on it! I got to work four faires in Florida, one in Tennessee and still work the two in Ohio and made plans to work in Pennsylvania, New York and Michigan, as well. Unfortunately, my mother's ill health forced me to make another hard decision, to continue working full time on the road, or give it up and stay closer to home. I chose, of course, to stay close to my mother.

The good thing about working the faires is that if you need to take time off, you can, and you can still go back to work when you're ready. It happened that while I was working at the Great Lakes Faire last year still for my full time boss, my mother had a heart attack and heart surgery. They understood that I needed to take time off from the faires to help her. Unfortunately, during this same time, I also injured my back pretty severely. So, after 7 months of much physical therapy and lots of meds, and being as my mom is in stable condition now, I decided I was ready to get back out there and do it again.

I just returned home from my very first weekend back out on the Faire circuit and I feel GREAT! I suffered through a great deal of pain, still, but I don't care, I know this is what I love to do and I will continue to do it until I'm actually physically unable to do so. It was wonderful to be working hard again, seeing my friends and tending to my loyal customers, who are just fabulous people! My heart was so happy and I'm full of joy now. I still have to take it easy to a point and I'm still on many drugs, but I can still do this job and as long as there is work to be done at the faires, I'm there! It is my chosen lifestyle, and until I die, I'm in Heaven on Earth at the Faires! Huzzah!