The Town Crier and me

 I love the video of the Town Crier announcing the British royal baby's birth.

When I was in the medieval group and would go camping at the Pennsic War in Pennsylvania -- and other medieval events where we would camp out -- we would rely on the Herald, our word for the Town Crier, for our news.

Sure, we were just fooling, but still, I have that experience now, a real-life experience of relying on a Town Crier. You would be awakening in your sleeping bag and listening to the outside noises of armies clanking past in armor and -- oh, there he was!

And he would start out, "Oyez, oyez!" Just like the Town Crier this week, Tony Appleton.

No one else knew what he was saying at the beginning there but I did! Because I was in the, ahem, Society For Creative Anachronism. I believe it is French for "Hear ye, hear ye." I never actually thought about it.

I love how Appleton ends by saying, "God save the Queen."

Our Herald, you would wake up in the morning in your tent and listen for him. There would be something you would have to find out, what time the Field Battle was, or where you were supposed to be if you were taking glass blowing class, or some other medieval matter. And you would shush your friends so you could hear the Herald. Or the Town Crier. Same thing.

That was before I was the authorized biographer of Leonard Pennario. When life was simpler.

"Oyez, Oyez!"

It brings back memories!