TIME LINE WORLD HISTORY/ALTAMONT FAIR

I had mentioned I may be going to a medieval fair over the weekend, unfortunately this did not occur. I however, was able to go to a Living History event and a Fair. This is my comments on both.

The Time Line of World HISTORY Weekend located at Schuler Flatts Park in MENANDS, NY.  Over the last several years I have tried to attend a Civil War Days here, this has now changed to include other periods of History.

I was able to visit a tent by the Civil War Medical Coalition. They displayed numerous artifacts used in medicine during the battles in that time. Although, medicine had advanced during that century, it was still unsanitary compared to today’s standards.

Also I visited the tents for the Watervliet Historical Society and the Historical Society of the Town of Colonie; this is the location of the event. Both groups are dedicated to appreciate and promote the history of the area.

This event featured different sections of history, I saw Civil War reenactors, and also one person dressed in Ancient Roman gear. While I was there I saw a skirmish conducted by several World War II reenactors.

One of the vendors was the Knowlton Sutlers. A sutler is a peddler who follows an army and sells his product out of a wagon or tent. Knowlton Sutlers had a wide selection of unique and historical items.

After visiting this event, I drove to the Altamont Fair. This is located just outside of Albany, NY.

This was a wonderful fair, which I enjoyed attending, it hosted many wonderful events and rides that you would associate with such a fair.

I was able to meet Daniel Crowler of Oak and Acorn Ancient Metalcrafts a blacksmith who also does historical reproductions with re-enactment equipment of the era. It was a pleasure to meet someone so informed and knowledgeable about medieval blacksmithing and hopefully I will be able to use his knowledge in upcoming books.

One of the best events I saw was  the Coronas Circus Hollywood.

The Coronas family is a multi-generation of circus performers. The show they put on there was spectular, every single performer was outstanding. These acts included a chair balancer, horse trainer and a performer on the Wheel of Death (also known as the Space Wheel). Before the circus began, Bibi the clown entertained the audience and got them motivated and performed between acts when they adjusted or changed the equipment.

The following are acts which I thought was particularly exciting and entertaining.

Aerial silk- This is a type of performance in which an artist performs area acrobatic while hanging from a fabric. This act was elegant and mesmerizing and was a joy to watch.

Hooping- The performer, Crystal Coronas, was very entertaining using hula hoops, some of her act was set to Afro Circus/ I live to move it, from the film Madagascar 3. The conclusion of her act she performed with more hula hoops than I could count.

Since I brought this up I wanted to mention about Hula Hoops. Many people think it was an invention of the 1950’s; this is mostly because of an episode of M.A.S.H. when one of the characters sees a Korean child using a piece of pipe made into a hope, and he tries to sell the idea back to a toy company in America. Actually the hula hoop, called simply a hoop could date back to around 1,000 B.C. in Egypt. These hoops were made of dried reeds. In the 14th century a fad of using a hoop spread around England, it was used as a form of exercise. The name Hula was added in the 19th century by sailors returning from Hawaii, who said the Hula dance resembled someone using a hoop.

The final performance was on a high wire act. The two performers were the best I have ever seen. The woman showed considerable strength holding her partner on her shoulders while on the wire.  Not to be outdone, he carried her from the high wire to the ground on a wire set at a 45 degree angle. This act concluded a wonderful circus and I hope I get the opportunity to see them again.

For those of you that are interested, my novel; Legend of the Mystic Knights 

is still on sale for $0.99 for the Kindle. If you do not have a Kindle, they now have a Kindle App which allows you to read the novel on any reading device.