Although rain kept many of the sword fighters away, Joyce Baumann of Coahoma, a member of Carrefour, of the Kingdom of Levant, said the wet weather was a welcomed sight.

“It kept our sword fighters from coming down from Abilene but we are very grateful to see the rain,” she said.

Carrefour, of the Kingdom of Levant, consists of members who have a passion about history and how people lived during that time, said Walter Ward, group spokesperson.

“The Kingdom of Levant is based on the Kingdom of Jerusalem, which actually happened,” said Ward. “It lasted from 1099 to 1291, then the Arabs kicked us out and the crusades were over. We research and try to re-create life as the upper middle class experienced it.”

Ward said there is very little historical documentation and record-keeping about the every day life of the peasant, which is the main reason the group focuses on the upper middle class.

“It's the little details in the back of the picture of the noble man that tells us what we want,” he said. “Like how they were ... like the kind of clothes they wore, what they did to decorate a horse. It's those kinds of details we look for and after doing the research we try to re-create it.”

Ward added that the re-creation itself is an extremely important part of the learning process.

“In defining how they did certain things, you can only do it by practicing it yourselves,” he said. “It's the only way to figure it out. You can read all the books you want and you still won't have an understanding of needlepoint until you actually pick up a needle.”

Although the group attempts to stay factually as close to the period as it can, Ward admits it's impossible to completely re-create every aspect of their life.

“In many cases we can't even come close because of the expense,” he explained. “They had entire populations at their disposal, and they were not above just basically ripping off their people, which they did. That is why there were so many peasant revolts throughout history.

“A lot of things we take for common either didn't exist or were in short supply and they were terribly expensive,” he continued. “Like cotton. This is cotton country but at that time cotton was very new and it was done in very small acres. It could only be processed by hand so it was terribly expensive. Silk and gold cloth were cheaper than cotton for many, many years. In coping with that, we use a lot of cotton today (in their re-creation clothing) because it's dirt cheap.”

Members of the group were originally part of the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA) chapter in Big Spring which is now non-active but Ward pointed out this is a local group, not affiliated with the SCA, a world-wide organization.

“The SCA covers a time frame from 600 to 1600 A.D. which allows for a lot of variation,” he said. “You can have a 16th Century nobleman from Italy standing side-by-side with a 6th Century Viking which would have never happened in reality,” he said. “We're much more focused. We've taken this 200-year-period which is rather homogeneous from beginning to end. You couldn't tell by looking, the difference between someone from 1099 and someone from 1291. They wore basically the same clothes. We're a little more tightly focused.”

With weather permitting, the group plans to have a sanctioned event  at the Old Settler's Pavilion in November, featuring sword fighting, fencing, archery displays and demonstrations in arts and sciences.

“We'll hold a feast,” Ward said. “We'll hold court where we give out awards. It's a bit of pomp and pageantry and a lot of fun.”

Baumann, a teacher for Coahoma Independent School District, added that members of the group are willing to visit various organizations for educational purposes.

“It's a lot fun,” she said. “It's a fun way of learning history. We'd be willing to go into the schools to let people know what we do.”

For more information about the group, call Ward at 935-6455.