From: aryk@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca (A.J.S. Nusbacher)
Subject: Re: Smelly steel wagons at Pennsic
Organization: University of Toronto -- Hart House
Date: Fri, 28 Aug 1992 16:18:56 GMT

I had a few unpleasant car experiences this year at Pennsic which gave me
pause to ponder the matter.

The laneway which led to our little camp on Willow Point was just wide enough
for a formed body of infantry to march through, and for a car or van to pass
through.  And since it was not immediately visible from the road, folks from
the neighbouring camps took to parking their vans there for a day at a time.
They moved their vans an hour or two after we asked--not with ill grace, but
not with good grace.

The day I was packing up to leave the War, I brought my faithful old APC down
to my camp.  I walked out of my tent to see a man in a golf cart with a radio
in his hand telling the security comm person to call in a tow-truck strike on
my car.  I asked him why, when people had been able to park their vans in our
laneway for a day at a time.  He replied that since my tag identified me as
having been on site for a week and a half, I had obviously kept my car in camp
for a week and a half.  Now, since I was enough of a bastard to so abuse the
rules of War, he was going to see that my car was moved for me.

I explained that my car had been in the parking lot for a week and a half,
and that I had brought it down that morning for packing.  He took my word for
it, and called off the tow truck--not with ill grace, but not with good grace.

Angharad suggested that rather than charging a user fee to bring a car into
camp, the automobile regulations should be enforced by means of courts of
chivalry and as a matter of honour and reputation.  The issue of the number
of traffic violations such a court would have to decide is a matter for the
planners of the War.  I would instead address the fact that honour is not a
universal currency at the Pennsic War.  In my years as a Pennsic goer, includ-
ing years as a land baron (slumlord), I have encountered behaviour that would
shock any modern user of a campground, committed not by furry barbarians nor
by uneducated newbies, but by kings and kingdom seneschals -- mostly involving
land allocation, but also involving car parking, garage tents, cars with
unattended telephones parked near people's sleeping accomodations.  The last
word on these matters is always that 1.  a king can do pretty much what he
wants as long as the other authorities are on his side, and 2.  the king of
Kingdom A is going home in two weeks, and doesn't care what the people in
Kingdom B think of him.

Also keep in mind that not everybody at Pennsic is a socialised Scadian.
There are a lot of people who are not in the SCA during the year who come
to Pennsic.  This means that there are a lot of people to whom an SCA court
of chivalry doesn't mean much.  I, for instance, can easily respond to things
like traffic laws, user fees for driving my car in camp, or even a rule which
gives me two auto entry tokens for Pennsic--one for driving my car in to
unload my camp, and one for driving my car in to load up my camp.  I can
understand a tow truck coming to move my car (at owner's expense) if I park
it in a forbidden place.  All of that is within my mental vocabulary, and
it is just so in the mental vocabulary of Joe Scadian, Johnny Tuchuk, Joan
Merchant, Uncle Tom Cobleigh and all.  Tell me that if I don't move my car,
my name will be mud throughout the Thirteen Kingdoms, tell it to Johnny
Tuchuk, tell it to Dawnstar Shadowdancer (whose persona is chaotic neutral),
and we'll nod politely while sniggering into our sleeves.

The root of the car problem is that there is no consistent policy, and 
enforcement is very spotty from one year to the next, even from one week
of war to the next.  Are cars allowed on site?  Yes.  Are they allowed to
stay in camp?  No.  How long is a car permitted to stay in camp?  An hour?
A day?  Two days?  Nobody knows.  If you come to war early enough, you can
keep your car in your camp every day for the first week, and maybe long into
the second.  Then suddenly you find a piece of red tape on your window,
and maybe they'll tow you.  Or maybe you'll take the tape off and move your
car to the other side of your camp.  Are you allowed to have a garage tent
in your camp?  No.  Is it routinely done?  Yes.

I say:  Set a policy, make it workable, make it enforceable, then make it
work and enforce it.  User fee?  Why not?  No cars on site during the war?
Just make the carts available.  But for gosh sakes make it consistent.

Aryk Nusbacher

From: Beth.Appleton@f4229.n124.z1.fidonet.org (Beth Appleton)
Sender: FredGate@ocitor.fidonet