Medieval Time-Travelers
Muncie group re-enacts life in the middle ages
Eric Conrad thinks it’s perfectly normal to dress up as a medieval knight once a week. “You got all the Civil War re-enactors and Revolutionary War re-enactors out there. Then you have us, where we go out there and act like we’re from the Middle Ages,” the freshman Telecommunications major at Ball State University said. He’s a member of Muncie’s Society for Creative Anachronism, a group that’s turned traveling back in time into a hobby. The members wear outfits and re-create a lifestyle that occurred over a span of time that they feel gets neglected—roughly the years from 400 to the early 1600s. Conrad discovered the group in his first semester at Ball State. “I’ve always really liked the middle ages and stuff… As soon as my friend told me that he was doing a medieval re-enactment fighting thing, I just had to do it… Being a knight’s always been an obsession of mine,” he said. Sarah Klein, a customer service representative and the public relations liaison for the group, says she’s used to having people look at her family strangely. “They wonder if we’re in a play, if we’re rehearsing for a performance, if we’re doing a Renaissance fair,” she said. Klein brings her children each week. The family spends the two hours learning to dance and play medieval games. She says it’s important for her kids to learn about history in such a hands-on way. “We really do this. We really pretend to do this. We learn how to really make bread. Or how people really would have put up a yurt in the middle of winter,” she said. The Society for Creative Anachronism has more than 40 members, ranging in age from younger than one year to more than 70 years old. They meet at Center Stage in downtown Muncie on Monday nights at 6:30 p.m. Other events, like meals and celebrations, are scheduled throughout the year.
Muncie group re-enacts life in the middle ages
Eric Conrad thinks it’s perfectly normal to dress up as a medieval knight once a week. “You got all the Civil War re-enactors and Revolutionary War re-enactors out there. Then you have us, where we go out there and act like we’re from the Middle Ages,” the freshman Telecommunications major at Ball State University said. He’s a member of Muncie’s Society for Creative Anachronism, a group that’s turned traveling back in time into a hobby. The members wear outfits and re-create a lifestyle that occurred over a span of time that they feel gets neglected—roughly the years from 400 to the early 1600s. Conrad discovered the group in his first semester at Ball State. “I’ve always really liked the middle ages and stuff… As soon as my friend told me that he was doing a medieval re-enactment fighting thing, I just had to do it… Being a knight’s always been an obsession of mine,” he said. Sarah Klein, a customer service representative and the public relations liaison for the group, says she’s used to having people look at her family strangely. “They wonder if we’re in a play, if we’re rehearsing for a performance, if we’re doing a Renaissance fair,” she said. Klein brings her children each week. The family spends the two hours learning to dance and play medieval games. She says it’s important for her kids to learn about history in such a hands-on way. “We really do this. We really pretend to do this. We learn how to really make bread. Or how people really would have put up a yurt in the middle of winter,” she said. The Society for Creative Anachronism has more than 40 members, ranging in age from younger than one year to more than 70 years old. They meet at Center Stage in downtown Muncie on Monday nights at 6:30 p.m. Other events, like meals and celebrations, are scheduled throughout the year.
