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A couple of weekends back, I was working the Mobile International Festival as part of the SCA exhibit. As such, I wear my chain shirt and such to let the visitors see, and feel, what the armor worn in the middle ages looked and felt like.
For the most part, it's kids who stand in awe rubbing my shoulders or hem of the shirt, but many adults were amazed to actually touch it themselves.
But what made me feel a bit special was one visitor. It was an extended family (at least three generations), and I didn't realize at first that the eldest man there was blind. (He had no 'cane' or such, but had the dark shades and walked with his hand on the shoulder of one of the others.) The look on his face when his guide put his hand on my shoulder to feel the chain links was quite special.
I'm glad I was able to give him a new experience like that. I have no idea when he went blind, or if he ever had been exposed to pictures or descriptions of chain, but the touch was something completely new to him.
posted
I'm glad you got to make someone smile! I know chain is odd enough to touch when you can see what it looks like. I can only imagine how novel it felt to someone who couldn't see!
On a more glurgy note, when my neice was a few months old, my brother was working on making a chainmail shirt. She got her hands on a peice of it, and was absolutely enthralled. She carried that 3 inch square of chain with her for months!
-------------------- "I find in myself desires which nothing in this earth can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world." C.S. Lewis Posts: 57 | From: Texas | Registered: Sep 2006
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posted
Nifty, another Scadian here! One of the guys in my local barony regularly has chain mail exhibits for demos, even has a shirt & coif for the kids to try on.
Glad you got to share something you like with the guy, & also to share that moment with them.
-------------------- Behind every good man there is a good woman and behind that another man looking at her rear end. Posts: 35 | From: Maryland | Registered: Jul 2006
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That is so cool! Tuck that memory away and pull it out whenever you need a lift, I'm sure it'll make you smile.
Oh my, I've been reading too much glurge lately...
-------------------- God bless our Troops! If you can't stand behind our troops, please, feel free to stand in front of them. Posts: 380 | From: Ohio | Registered: Apr 2006
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Very cool. My DH does chain maille & its always fun for him to wear it & have people say 'Wow! Where did you buy that?' & he can say 'I made it'. I like the feel of it but not the weight!
-------------------- I cannot live without books-Thomas Jefferson *~* A child educated only at school is an uneducated child - George Santayana I'm going to pummel you with such zeal, Buddha will explode! *~* Never miss a good chance to shut up - Will Rogers Posts: 6585 | From: Dallas/Fort Worth, TX | Registered: Feb 2002
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I've done that when I'm working in Disney if a blind child comes up to me. I'll slowly take their hand and bring it up to my face, and guide them to all the "signature" attributes the character has. I've even seen a mother cry when I was friends with Chicken Little. I brought the boy's hand up to my glasses, and let him feel the rims, and he said "Look, Mom! Chicken Little can't see that well, either!"
It's the most amazing feeling in the world (kinesthetically and emotionally), to have a blind person "see" something they've never seen or felt before.
-------------------- My mom, about my nervousness with Jeopardy!: "Don't worry about it. Just get drunk and you'll do fine." Blog Just call me Mickey 2 Posts: 3295 | From: Radford, VA/Herndon, VA/Orlando, FL | Registered: Jan 2006
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