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Slipping Through Time

© Megan McConnell

There comes a time in all re-enactors when they first realise that they have slipped through time.

When they look around and the modern world has retreated to leave them wholly and completely in the time of their re-enactment. This magical moment is the goal of all re-enactors, and the first time it happens is always remembered as being special.

But what exactly is it? New re-enactors find it difficult to understand, as this special moment occurs in many different ways.

To put it simply, this slipping through time signals a change in the way you think about re-enactment. It is the moment when you first are thinking like the person living in the time you re-enact. When your reactions are those of a different era and are subconscious - the difference between an "acted" reaction and an instinctive reaction.

The day it happened to me, it was not a special occasion at all. In fact it was at a medieval fair where we were doing a show. I was, along with a number of other ladies, wearing a low cut gown, and had been used to non re-enactors ogling my cleavage.

However, I then slipped unknowingly through time - Megan disappeared, and Madilayn manifested herself as I sat down on the grass. My skirt rode up showing my ankle, and a male re-enactor reacted to the sight of my bare ankle, foot and part of my calf. Madilayn was horrified that she would behave in such a manner, and rectified it. My friends chastised me, and teased me about being a bit wanton.

At that time, I forgot that the park was on a main road with traffic whizzing by - that there were people in modern dress wandering around. I had become immersed in my persona and reacted as such.

Throughout your life as a re-enactor moments like this will crop up - often it will be where there is nothing modern to be seen, where the whole area is solely your re-enactment period. Sometimes, a photograph can evoke them.

Again - I have seen this as well.

Some years ago, Australia hosted a large international event for the SCA (Kingdom of the West) in Gosford. Now, if you are in Australia, you will know that Gosford could not be called medieval by any stretch of the imagination.

However, a photo was taken and it also managed to slip through time.

There is a building in Gosford - very plain, made of stone with a gravel courtyard. In the photo, there was this building and 2 Ladies in Elizabethan outfit walking across the courtyard. Not one modern thing was to be seen in the picture. The building was timeless, and the ladies looked perfectly natural against the stone wall of the building.

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