Fairy Godmother Mother of the Condom Fairies
A story in 2 acts
Act 1: Potrero War 2019
Midnight, near the stone privies in merchants
A group of scavenger hunters were complaining about not being able to find a hunt items. They hadn't found condoms anywhere and were especially unhappy that they couldn't find them available at Base Camp.
I asked if they wanted to know why Base Camp couldn't have them available; and went on to explain that back in the day the SCA had an official office of medics, called Chirurgeons. They were folks who had first aid certs or were medical professionals in mundane life.
In addition to providing first aid, they had a table of things that people might find useful, such as aspirin, condoms, etc. Folks were welcome to browse the table and take anything they needed.
Eventually the Board of Directors decreed that they were no longer able to provide condoms, even in that indirect method. I believe that reason was that there was a legally implied promise of freedom from unwanted consequences (pregnancy, STD, etc.) when condoms are provided by an official office of the organization.
The group was upset about this info and immediately started planning to fix that next year, they were going to get a large basket, fill it with condoms, and go from campsite to campsite distributing condoms.
As they walked off discussing their plan for next year, I realized that I had just become the Fairy Godmother Mother of the Condom Fairies!
Announcer voiceover: Due to Covid there was no Potrero next year. She was disappointed that she didn't get to see how the story would have played out
Act 2: After Potrero War 2024 A Facebook post with photo of a small tree with LED flowers and a colorful tree skirt including the following text:
- If your amorous pursuit
- Is about to bear fruit
- The condoms are free
- At Quixote's Safe-Tree
- The pockets of the Safe-Tree's skirt contain
- condoms for those in need.
- Camp Quixote urges everyone getting it on
- to be safe and consensual!
I thought about that post for a couple of days, and finally asked if they were the group that I had talked with in 2019 ... they were! And this post was the direct result of that conversation!
So I AM the Condom Fairy Godmother!
Besides that, the Safe-Tree makes me happy for another reason ...
One of my roles in the SCA is to tell stories of bits of our history.
Stories like this as well as things like: "We tried that once. It didn't work BECAUSE of [info to help them try it without the failure we'd had]." Or "We used to this thing and somehow stopped doing it. I sure miss it."
The Safe-Tree reminds me that the SCA is full of people that are ready to build on what we have and add more new and wonderful things and ideas.
It also reminds me that we all need to keep telling the stories and histories of our group and hope that they continue to fall on receptive soil and bear beautiful fruit!
And so we can help make the SCA better story by story!
