When I was the original Feral Land Child

[chantico]

I remember what Spring used to mean for me, way back in those olden golden days of youth. Spring meant school was almost done, spring meant new shoes, and spring meant time spent out Lothlorien, before we ever moved out there. In March the work parties would start, where we kids were released into the wilds while our parents and small groups of volunteers prepared the festival field for the upcoming summer season. Sometimes we were given duties, mostly picking up sticks along the paths through Faerie (also known as the valley, for the unfamiliar) or helping mulch and weed the gardens. When we were a little bit older, it became pruning orchard trees, mowing, making sandwiches for everybody and sometimes helping with construction, which was the coolest thing ever for most of us. Mostly, however, it was stretching our legs and our muscles in the new sunlight, helping prepare a place we loved for the invetible swarm of faces old and new. That, really, was what Spring was a herald of: Festivals.

Allow me to put on nostalgia cap: man, I miss festivals. When you're 6, 7, 8, 9, what on earth could be cooler than the several times a year when hundreds of strangers would throw up a tent city for three days, and you got to be there? It was magic, and I really mean that. I remember playing hide and seek in the endless sea of colorful tents and tarps, walking down Merchant's row and staring wide-eyed at goods that were exotic to my tiny self then as an alien bazaar would be now. Chasing each other through the woods and down to the swimming hole to join other revelers escaping the summer heat. The smell of cooking, wood fires and leaves. A whole world moved into our Lothlorien for a weekend, and when I play games Final Fantasy and other RPGs, and I see those little towns they design, I smile, because that is what it felt like to me then. A village-- naked hippies, community kitchens, space-rock bands and all. I guess it's not normal for most kids to have poignant memories of watching people covorting around a bonfire to drums, or leading tours to Ancestor's Shrine, or sitting in on workshops on where Buddism and Photovoltaics meet, but I can think of few things that feel so much like home.

I miss the days before the drama-- or before I was aware of it, I guess. I might be outed as a dirty hippy for saying this, but I will always remember and crave the feeling of being lifted off the ground, hand in hand with two strangers, as 200 of us spiral danced and called the directions.

Comments

[adorkablefae.livejournal.com]

Awe... I miss it too. Like really... And somehow it's not the same any more. *sniff*

But yeah. FLCs FTW. <3

Haha, I have this random memory of Katie making me do something a couple years ago and telling me that I could handle it because I was an original FLC. And I was all "Awweee... I miss the good old days of trying to find people old enough to take us to the creek." and all that jazz.

Anyway, my point is that I feel ya. :P

[iblis-kukl.livejournal.com]

[tooth-and-claw.livejournal.com]

I don't even know the recent stuff. What's going on?

[iblis-kukl.livejournal.com]

[d-c-m.livejournal.com]

I will always remember and crave the feeling of being lifted off the ground, hand in hand with two strangers, as 200 of us spiral danced and called the directions.
I think that is the best and brightest part about the hippie movement. :)

[ozziel.livejournal.com]

Hippy.

[tooth-and-claw.livejournal.com]

But a shaved one, at least.

[iblis-kukl.livejournal.com]

[laurelwen.livejournal.com]

If it makes you feel less crazy, I have the same sort of memories tied up in the Michigan Women's Music Festival. For something that happened only once a year for a week, it certainly left a lasting impression on my developing life and viewpoint. Really, just replace "people" with "wimmin" and you've got the same scene.

[tanah.livejournal.com]

i never got to be a FLC -- i was always jealous of y'all. but i SOOOOO agree with you here:

"A village-- naked hippies, community kitchens, space-rock bands and all. I guess it's not normal for most kids to have poignant memories of watching people covorting around a bonfire to drums, or leading tours to Ancestor's Shrine, or sitting in on workshops on where Buddism and Photovoltaics meet, but I can think of few things that feel so much like home.

I miss the days before the drama-- or before I was aware of it, I guess. I might be outed as a dirty hippy for saying this, but I will always remember and crave the feeling of being lifted off the ground, hand in hand with two strangers, as 200 of us spiral danced and called the directions."


i miss it too. if there ever was a golden era of my life, it was before the banishment of troll circle, before the long hall, before the new composters...chanting in song shrine, and having complete strangers emerge from the woods to join me...avoiding the scary snakes in the creek...sobbing (in a therapeutic way) at the tree of weeping and woe...steeling myself in heart tree to return to the real world...digging trenches in thunder to help divert the rain waters...

*sigh* i was just, last night, having a nostalgic moment with all this. thanks for your post.