Pennsic in Black and White

I found this photo last week; I think it's from 1994*, and I have no idea why it was taken in black and white film. J is on the lower left, wearing the chain mail neck protection; Luke, a Gulf War vet, is kneeling next to him; the guy in the cloak is Jim B, the master of the Halloween Haunt and the first person to show me how to do 3d art and Poser (he walked me through a Poser file and I was hooked); counterclockwise to Jim is MacSeamus, (the guy who looks like Tom Selleck) who used to own a furniture store in Woodbury, and I am sorry to say I never knew the names of the other two Iron Guard members, though I sewed most of the cattail tabards they are wearing. You can Wikipedia the Pennsic War--it is held annually at Cooper's Lake, Pennsylvania, north of Pittsburgh. Here is a battle photo from the same roll of film (clicks up large)

I also found my hoard of "Pennsic Tags", which is pretty small compared to some people's.

The tags are your ID tag issued at the gate, and you wear it the whole time you are there; people make bandoliers of their past tags and wear them like ornaments, so you will walk past someone wearing 14th century garb and they will have a glittering, clattering belt of tags. The armor the fighters wear often clatters, too, so those sounds: drumming, ocarina music, (and distant shouting), and the smell of woodsmoke and chemical toilets all make me think of Pennsic. I kind of miss going, though packing is a monumental hassle.

* When I looked again at the photo on top, I realized that everyone is wearing those little ribbons ("favors") with an M on it, so to find the exact date all you'd have to do is find out when in the early 90's "Margaret" was Queen of the East during Pennsic. (I think the reigns are 6 months long...I'm embarrassed not to remember for sure!)