The Fifth Year

Second Part of Coronation Tourney
May 24, 1970

From The Page (May 1970):

FIGHTING, FEASTING, & SUN-WORSHIPPING FESTIVAL (the sun will shine!)
By order of HIs Majesty, King Steven of Black Eagle, subjects of the Crown of the West are invited to come to the airplane field (site of the March Tourney) on May 24th and disport themselves in al the various manners for which we had no time the second day of the Coronation Festival: the archery contest, javelin throwing, dancing and fighting with divers weapons.

From the History (by Wilhelm):

Held in the Airplane Field, Tilden Park, Berkeley, California. Stephen and Astrid reigned. King Stephen gave an Award of Arms to Questifor of Hightower.

Annotations:
“Questifor (Chris Hoffman, son of Ardis and Ugly Ron ) received his award for his work as a list page. He was 9 years old, but he had earned this award - it wasn't a cute gimme.
     "I saw him recently, at Ardis' memorial service. He looks just like his dad.” – James Greyhelm

“Jim is absolutely correct about Questifor's AoA - he literally propped Randal up during some grueling stints as Herald of the Field (the tournament at the playground in S.F. comes to mind). Those of us who were there (most of this group) will remember Randy collapsing before the finals, those with strong memories of the SPF 300 day still give him the benefit of believing that the heat and sun was the main factor (though Questifor must have hauled the equivalent of a keg of lager, tankard by tankard that day).
     “If it weren't for Jim's mention, Ron may have been missed in this verbal history entirely, since he wasn't a mover/shaker on the SCA forefront. He was a corner-stone of the Ardis/Siegfried axis for a big chunk of time, was a fantastic chef, if you were patient (mushroom soup ... yum!!!) and the first truly space-time impaired individual we had ever met (Ardis: "Let's go visit Pattiphil in El Cerrito", Ron: "Fine let's stop for fresh garlic in Gilroy and cilantro in Mill Valley on the way"). – Kevin Peregrynne - who is still waiting for Hagen to be King in this history so us youngsters can brag about how important we were.

"Questifor or Xtifr is not the son of Ugly Ron, his father is Charles Waters and Chris is Chris Waters not Hoffman." -- Carla Ellett (sister of Ardis Waters) (Note: this came to me well after the Annotated History was completed ... Hirsch)

From an email dated March 13, 2008:
"Carly is entirely correct. Ardis' first husband was named Charles Waters, and Christopher Waters is their son, born c. 1960 (I could ask him but don't quite remember). Ardis' maiden name was Thompson, but she took the name Waters upon their marriage and retained it after they divorced. Questifor was Hightower's page, a damned good one, and entirely earned any honors which came to him.

Ardis' second son is Aron Waters, determined to be the son of Ron Hoffman, generally known as "Ugly Ron". Aron was born c. 1966 and never had any particular SCA presence that I know of.

I can't remember that Ron ever had an SCA name but when he came to tournaments in the very early 1970s he wore a sharpening steel so he could "bear steel upon the field to salute the new King". Ron is every bit as time-challenged as Kevin remembers, if not more so. On second thought, significantly more so.

FYI Chris and Aron now share a home in El Cerrito with Ardis' third son, Justin David Michael Thewlis (Siegvald Siegfriedsson) and his wife and two children.

Don't know if you want to use this for anything, but I corroborate Carla Thompson ( now Ellett)." -- Siegfried von Hoflichskeit

Description of this event, © Copyright 1980 by William R. Keyes (Wilhelm von Schlüssel)
This is from The History of the West Kingdom, Volume 1 (the only volume produced). When reading this text, please keep in mind the following disclaimer:

Disclaimer: This history may have errors in it, as much of the detail is “remembered” history, or as one of the cover pages of the original type-written manuscript states “The material within is derived from the information printed in The Crown Prints and in The Page, and from the memories of the participants.” The original document was typed on onion-skin paper, with hand-written notes (often in the margins). All attempts have been made to reconcile the notes with the original document.

Annotations, when they are added, are from The Annotated History of the West, Volume 1, which is the same text as Master Wilhelm's mentioned above, with commentary from members of the SCA who were active at the time of the event, and are added to help clarify questions and expand on what happened and why. This volume is copyright © Ken Mayer (Hirsch von Henford).

The West Kingdom History Website was created by and is maintained by Hirsch von Henford (mka Ken Mayer).