This year, the Olde Tyme Frolic was interesting. Although it did not officially start until Friday, we will start by talking about Wednesday. I, Gabi, the Booshway, got there bright and early Wednesday morning. I was exited to greet each family as they came, but to my surprise, we already had about ten camps up. I met with each of them briefly before going and setting up my camp. Once that was done, I enjoyed a nice, relaxing day getting people into place, and may I say, by Wednesday evening there must have been about fifteen to twenty camps. I feel that every year, people come earlier and earlier. Since space is limited, we have all learned hat getting there early is really important.

I figured that Thursday would be similar, just a few people coming in. Well I was wrong! I took a blanket and sat by the entrance because there were so many people coming in that I could not sit at my camp and see all of them. By Thursday night, I could count our left over campsites on one hand and they were really small. I was worried that if we had more the next day, we would have to turn people away, which I did not want to do.

Friday was wonderful. The weather was amazing. For the most part, those who came in to camp, I already knew were coming. It worked out really well. We did the men's golf game that evening as usual, but they had to dress in their men's finest. I had a lot of complaints and plan to go back to the way it was before, where they dress in women's finest. We did the candle shoot and had a great night in camp.

Now, there is no other more beautiful time that after the sun goes down and everyone lights their lamps and the socializing begins. There is one camp where the musicians meet and play and sing and it is so great. Everyone is welcome to come and join in. I really believe the greatest thing about our camp is that whether someone has went there since its inception or it is there first time there, we are all family. Caring and sharing with each other. It was really gearing up to be a spectacular weekend in Forest City.

Waking up to Saturday morning this year also meant waking up to rain. Although I realize cellular phones are not period correct, I pulled mine out to see my live radar. It looked like the rain was moving south. I told everyone we would be in the clear by noon, no later. Well the storm shifted to heading straight west and it rained till nine that night. We did the Round Robin, which was so fun. I brought a leather dress to trade, although I figured that I would not trade it. After a couple rounds, I decided to lay it down. There were two sisters (about eight and ten) trading on the blanket and the dress was perfect for their size. They put down everything they had to trade. Someone else put down a full bone and bead breast plate and Laurie put down a Swiss Blanket Capote, which looked like it would be big enough for my husband (He is no little person). I was a little confused because the dress was for a big child or young woman. Laurie would not really fit into it and besides, she makes her own leather dresses. But I thought, okay, there must be a reason for this and it just felt right, so I traded with her. She than stood up, walked over to the sisters and told them to stand up. She asked if they were sisters, the y said they were and she sized the dress up to them. She handed it to one of them and said, "share it." I was speechless. That was the coolest thing I have ever seen anyone ever do. The rest of the evening went on under that awning and we traded for hours.

Sunday it rained all day. We had no shooting events and minimal other events. There was not a whole lot of public, which was bad for the Fort. Even though nothing got done that weekend, we all had a lot of fun, going from one camp to another and just socializing. We all tore down in the rain and headed home. We are hoping that next year, we will be able to do the events we planned this year and maybe it will not rain quite so much, but if it does, we can remember how relaxing the rain made this rendezvous.

We are all looking forward to the Mike Fink Shoot coming up in May. We are going to do shooting, as normal. We will also be doing a hawk and knife throw. Back by popular demand, we will be doing a live clue game. I have come up with some very hard riddles for everyone to figure out. It should be fun and the prize is really cool. We are planning a bon fire on Saturday night for the whole camp, if the weather permits. I will bring popcorn! There is more wood cut than we could ever possibly use, so we will all be warm. Like I have said before, Mike Fink is a free event and a great place to blow the cob webs out of those barrels and get geared up for another Rendezvous season. There is a low fee for shooting. It will be held at the historical Forest City Fort, as usual.

So we are all hoping we will have good weather and look forward to seeing friendly faces!

During the Olde Tyme Frolic, Saturday night, the Bourgeois tells scary stories to the youngins. She is looking for some good, true, very scary stories. If you have one, please drop us an e-mail. The kids really love them! (Of course, they don't sleep so well that night!)