Re: A "Brief" Introduction--Of Swords, Tomahawks, and How I Found My Way to This Strange and Wonderful Place

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: Thanks for the welcome, Theresa.

: As far as the fifty thing, I'll be interested to hear what you say when you get to the other side of the great divide.

: The U.S. just turned 225.  It gave me some pause to think I've been around for more than 1/5 of it.

: Seriously, I think it has partly to do with my son hitting adolesence at the same time.  He can (almost) fill my shoes.  there's nothing like seeing your "replacement" come along to cause one to feel a little of that chill wind on the back of the neck.

: Jon's mother took him to buy sneakers in May (usually my job).  He needed them one size away from mine.  He told her:  "You know Mom, I thought when this day came I'd be really happy...but it's kind of sad."

: The sneakers are getting tight on him.

: : ~~~~~~~~~~~
: : Hello Scott,

: : I did manage to read your post and may I say you sound like someone who would fit right in here.  Welcome.

: : By the way, what's this about being "an old guy"?  The husband and I are looking at our fiftieth year coming up, his in October, mine in February.

: : Theresa
: : ~~~~~~~~~~~~~

: : : I should warn you all up front that this is going to be long and rambling, but I'd like to beg your indulgence, if  I may.

: : : On Thursday, I unwittingly became involved in what turned out to be a controversial thread here.  My post may have been the instrumental one.

: : : The thread was deleted by Rich.  (See the "Um...What Happened to the Tomahawk Thread" thread below.)

: : : First off, I'd like to make it perfectly clear that I absolutely understand Rich's decision, bear no ill feelings about it whatsoever, and in fact might well have done the same thing in his position.

: : : But I did have this reaction:  "How could Rich think this, doesn't he know me better than this?"

: : : But then I realized that of course neither he, nor any of you, would have any way of "knowing me better".  I have posted here several times and did say a bit about myself in my first posts, but I'm certainly not a "regular" member of this community and neither Rich nor you can see me through the monitor screen.

: : : So, I'd just like to say a little more elaborate "Hello".

: : : I'm an old guy.  Three days after the anniversary of Jumonville this past May, I reached my fiftieth year.

: : : I live in a city in southwest Connecticut with my significant other, who prefers to remain a woman of mystery, and our 11 year old son Jonathan.  Jon's older half-brother joins us during college breaks.

: : : I work in the health-care field. 

: : : I've lived in this area most of my life, but was born in Brooklyn, and moved out here when I was 5.

: : : I was a rather bookish kid, often preferring the past to the present.  I'd pick a period and immerse myself in it, with the periods competing against each other.  King Arthur, Robin Hood, the Vikings, the Crusades, buccaneers, the age of exploration, the Celts.  Books were my refuge, both fiction and non-fiction.  Sir Walter Scott, Rafael Sabatini, Robert Louis Stevenson.  "The Scottish Chiefs" was my "Braveheart".  I guess you get the picture.

: : : But these obsessions weren't confined to books.  I made armor of brown paper grocery bags from patterns found, I believe in "Boy's Life".  And I roamed Sherwood Forest with that old green fiberglass bow.  

: : : Then there was the American stuff.  Had an absolute infatuation with Indians.  Now remember, this was the era of the Western, and the plains Indians were the coolest, but I remained true to my eastern roots, and researched the woodland Indians.  Made leggings out of brown broadcloth.  Had a number of loincloths.  Anyone remember Ben Hunt's admonition that if you wore separate leggings and a loincloth, you'd better wear bathing trunks underneath--"Yessir!"?  I understand some of you don't feel that way about it at all.

: : : When I went for the Algonquin look, a skein of black yarn supplied the proper hair style.  Whan I went Iriquois, a strip from an old fur coat sewed to one of my mother's old nylons provided the proper roach.

: : : When I hit 7th(?) grade, I was delighted that a pair of white jeans, fitting skin-tight as was the style then, were like the trousers (slops?) of the Continentals.  My loafers didn't have buckles, but what the heck.  (One or two pair of trousers lasted the school year in those days.)

: : : But back to the books.  Kenneth Roberts.  I guess my favorite was Oliver Wiswell.  Really put things in a whole different light.

: : : But coming in a real close second would be Northwest Passage.  As I got older, worldly matters did catch my attention.  There was a war going on, new ideas; possibly a new paradigm, the Woodstock gathering of the tribes (up there in Cooper country).

: : : This is getting a bit long, so let me fast forward a bit.

: : : I kept up these interests a bit during my twenties, if only the reading.  I remember the BBC series on our leatherstockinged friend back in the seventies inspired me to read/re-read the tales.

: : : But by and large most of these interests went more or less dormant.

: : : Until, that is, Christmas of 1998, when I gave Jonathan his first pocketknife.  For some reason this triggered that old interest in swords, and I soon found myself out on the internet, visiting "sword sites"--chiefly NetSword, where I post as "Sikandur" (www.netsword.com); SwordForum International (swordforum.com); and The Medieval Sword Resource Site/Ethnographic Edged Weapons Site, aka Vikingsword (www.vikingsword.com).

: : : I'm afraid I became a bit addicted to a couple of these sites (perhaps some of you can relate to that), and would spend hours obsessively researching various historical, metallurgical, sociological, archaeological aspects of swords not only in print media, but out on the internet.  Not in a scholarly way, but for my own interest and curiosity.

: : : Well one day perhaps a year or more ago I was doing a search on "hangers" (a rather generic term for a class of swords) and found myself on one of the "Mohican Musings" pages reading about Duncan's sword.  I poked into the various nooks and crannies here and wound up looking at this board.

: : : What the heck were these people talking about?

: : : Well, I had to figure it out, so I kept coming back, and soon found it had somehow become essential to my mental well-being to check in here at least on a daily basis.

: : : The thing is, I felt like a voyeur.  Or like the poor kid looking in the window of the rich folks house while they're eating Christmas dinner.

: : : I had a hard time figuring out how to worm my way in here without feeling like I was crashing a family reunion.  You're a pretty close-knit bunch.  But I decided to start making a few tentative posts anyway, and have tried to be helpful to those seeking information.  Which is how I came to post on the deleted thread Thursday.

: : : Well, that's pretty much it--the whole sordid story.

: : : Except for one thing.

: : : I'd like to go on record as saying that I have no conection to, or financial interests in, any organization making historical replicas, or for that matter anything that is likely to come up for discussion on this board.

: : : (Although come to think of it, computers are discussed here a bit, and my Apple stock could use a little boosting!)

: : : The only remotely possible exception to this is the fact that I am a "member" of the forums community at SwordForum International, in much the same way that some of you may see yourself as "members" here.  SFI has recently launched a sword-marketing venture in an effort to raise some cash for the organization.  However, I have not direct connection to this venture, am not on the SFI staff, and in no way stand to gain materially from the venture.

: : : To any of you who have managed to read all this, I'd like to thank you for your patience.  If it's any consolation, I am not normally so wordy.


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