Newcomers

[Ann Nielsen]

Greetings unto the (now) most prolific Rialto from Lady Therica!!

Whew!! It's good to 'see' everyone back -- for a bit there I thought that
everyone had gone on vacation the same week! (Or, as my paranoia shows through,
I thought that maybe they held Pennsic a month early and didn't tell me!!
Am I paranoid? You bet --- I'm a Seneschal!!)

As you will all recall, or as most of you recall, or as some of you might
remember...a few months back I posted a missive asking for a replacement
for the sometimes derogatory term 'newbie'. Well, I have adopted the
term 'newcomer', which works very well, for once a person is known well
enough by their name(s) and talents, they stop being a 'newcomer'. However,
we have noticed something rather delightful recently (with our newest
influx of newcomers) --- we can usually tell which ones are going to stay
and are now referring to them as 'keepers'!

'Keepers' are the ones who go, "Yeah! This is what I've been looking for
all my life! Can I do EVERYTHING?!?" (I was a 'keeper'...) (still am, I
think! ;-) ) 'Keepers' are willing to do anything and everything they can
to bring their version of the Middle Ages alive --- and their enthusiasm
is not only catching, but fetching, as well.

What's fun about the term 'keeper' (we have no opposite term --- you go from
being a 'newcomer' the first couple of meetings to a 'keeper', and then to 'one
of the gang'. Usually if someone is going to stop coming, they stop while in
the 'newcomer' stage) is that it's very flattering --- and when you become a
member in the sense you are integrated into the group, you get to help with
'keepers', too.

For instance, I was talking with some of our newest 'newcomers' last night at
our Stitch'N'Bitch. They were OOZING enthusiasm all over the landscape (making
everything extremely slippery...) and as we jumped from one topic of conver-
sation to another, I realized they were saying the same things I had said when
I first started. So, asking a trick question, I asked (oh so nonchalantly...),
"So...do you think you're going to like the SCA?" and they burbled happily,
"It's what we've been looking for all our lives!!" (Ah, nostalgia....) "Oh!"
I said with a grin, "then you're 'keepers'?" And they laughed and laughed
and said, "You BET!!" And they seemed to be thrilled with the idea that we
wanted to 'keep' them.

(For those of you who come to the Rialto to chat and not to fish, a 'keeper'
is a fish that's big enough to keep, and not throw back into the lake.)

Until later, my friends, I remain

Lady Therica

PS --- Don't forget the Rialto Party Tuesday night Pennsic Week, 7 pm on, my
pavilion in the encampment of the Iron Maiden!!! Be there, or wish you had!
PPS --- One of these days I'll post my story about the nun and the naked peer..