Brian and the Tribe

It’s all Sandy’s fault. After we completed production on her student-film-that-really-wasn’t “The Faire Nerd”, Sandy’s ambitions led her to Solvang to produce a new Renaissance festival and bring something unexpected to the Scandinavian tourist trap. She somehow met up with Brian, who was introduced to me whilst he was busy organizing festival participants  and trying to find a place for us to set up our encampment.

Later that evening we made a food run, with four of us (I think) clambering into the single bench seat of Brian’s truck. It was no coincidence that Juli sat next to him as we sought out the pinnacle of Solvang cuisine, Taco Bell. The thought occurred to me that although we had only met Brian recently, hanging out with him seemed like something we’ve done all along. That’s one of the cool things about the Gypsies–you’re absorbed into the Collective as if you were always part of the Collective. Brian quickly became in integral part of the Tribe’s hive mind.

At that time, Tribe Roman Morga was going through a crisis where some Gypsies were threatening to split away and other Gypsies were questioning whether the time, money and effort was worth whatever it was that the Gypsies were doing. That’s another cool thing about the Gypsies–it really did not matter what it was we were doing as long as we were doing it. Brian’s assimilation immediately enhanced those cool Gypsy attributes and much more. We suddenly had new focus and purpose, and within the year the Tribe was building its new garish encampment and Brian was devising many evil plots to thwart Gypsy inertia.

To use one example, Brian solved the riddles of storing and transporting the Gypsy encampment. As you may recall, the encampment originated from the rafters of the Laudermilk’s garage, then it found a home in Trish and Brett’s storage unit, Ray commandeered it into his rapidly dilapidated storage shed and, after Brian and Juli acquired their first house, the encampment found its way into their garage and later to its current home at the large shed adjoining their new house. Before Brian, we had to determine the best ways to load all of the encampment pieces into our various vehicles, sometimes with major compromises to vehicle integrity and/or safety. Brian rigged his truck to be a mobile encampment storage unit, and eventually made it so that his truck would become part of the encampment itself.

This is of course only one of many ways Brian made life easier and enjoyable for the rest of us. For the Gypsies, Brian’s incredible spirit of fun and generosity infected the Tribe and brought us all a little closer (and then some). My marriage to Sharon would not have happened without Brian (a subject for another post). As Sandi Laudermilk mentioned in a Facebook post, Brian provided Chris the example and tools he needed to become a father when nobody remotely expected it.

When we hurried off to Seattle over ten years ago, we missed watching Brian and Juli start and raise their family. We were always made welcome during our occasional visits to the “Gypsy Pits”, and we were always reluctant to leave. Brain and Juli provided a place of solace for Sharon when her mother was in the hospital and passed away. Upon moving back to Orange County, we were looking forward to spending a lot more time at the Pits and involving ourselves in Brian’s current and future exploits. We thought we had all the time in the world and took things slowly. We were very, very wrong.