[LMB] A VIRTUAL BOW-DOWN IN GLASSFORGE

[Victoria L'Ecuyer]

From: "Tora K. Smulders-Srinivasan"
[mondo snippage]
[4] A Bow-down is a real thing?  How have I never heard of such a thing? 

Me: 
Bow-down rhymes with hoedown (at least according to Lois) and makes sense for Lakewalkers. They put down one bow (the one used with arrows) to pick up another bow (the one used on a fiddle).  

Inserting spoiler space, just in case. The hoedown stuff continues below the spoilered bit. 
a
d
d
s
p
o
i
l
e
r
s
p
a
c
e
h
e
r
e
j
u
s
t
i
n
c
a
s
e

Having a Bow-down/hoedown in Beguilement (and I did pronounce it right even without the clue from Lois) fit. Two separate patroller groups finish a big malice hunting project that needed cooperation and coordination. Of course there would be music and dancing and food and drinking and ummm.... other stuff. It was practically required. Hard work always gets rewarded. 

a
d
d
s
p
o
i
l
e
r
s
p
a
c
e
h
e
r
e
j
u
s
t
i
n
c
a
s
e

A hoedown is/used to be a frontier-style party between friends and neighbors in conjunction with a barn raising[1], corn shucking[2] wedding, or any other group activity. Sometimes they were just planned for the fun of it. They're closely related to barn dances[3], only without the barn.  If you haven't heard about hoedowns it's becuase you haven't hung around people who either remember or re-enact such things. Hoedowns have gone the way of the horse and buggy [4] unless you visit dude ranches or local festivals that have it as a tradition. These days, people get DJ's or professional bands rather than providing their own music. Hoedowns have nothing but local amateurs jamming for their own amusment and others' dancing.



Victoria 

[1] A whole day affair where the family and/or neighbors would gather at dawn to build a new barn for newlyweds just starting out. (The foundations and such would have been prepared in advance.) The barn would be completed, roof and all, by mid-afternoon or so. The rest of the day, going well past sunset, was taking up with partying and socializing. 

[2] Generally, a type of fundraising for early churches and communities. Farmers would donate parts of their harvest (this was before combines and harvesters) so the farmers and the town dwellers would get togther, shuck and hull the corn and sell the seed to buy supplies to build whatever was needed. See footnote [1]

[3] A planned party of friends, family, and neighbors with music and dancing (food and drink optional but usually present) with the occasional bit of practical joking. These always took place in a barn because the houses were too small to hold everyone that was invited.  My great grandparents had a barn dance every weekend and my great uncles sold drinks (mostly sodas) in the hay loft. Grandma never said, but I think Great-grandpa wanted his kids "sowing their wild oats" where he could keep an eye on them.  In Dag's and Fawn's world[5] this would be the Farmer version of a bow-down. 

[4] Which takes me back to footnote 1. The movie "Witness" with Harrison Ford has a scene with a barn raising in it. 

[5] Is it too soon to come up with a -verse name? I heard either here or over on Baen's Bar that the follow up duology "The Wide Green World" is in the same "universe" as The Sharing Knife duology with Whit, Fawn's youngest brother, as a protagonist.