Past Comes to Life for Sowers Students

Whether it was flinging dead cows over castle walls, baking tarts or quaffing flagons of ale, the seventh-graders at Isaac L. Sowers Middle School in Huntington Beach got into the spirit of the school’s annual Renaissance Fair on Friday.

Of course the cows were only beanbag miniatures, and the ale was apple juice, but the 400 students used the fair to bring to life the medieval history they’re studying in class.

“The kids get a big kick out of it,” said Ron Quick, whose 12-year-old son, Adam, was selling apple juice, grape Hi-C and lemonade with his friend Rory Schomburg, 12, at Sir Oswald and Rollo’s Ale booth. “It keeps them off of other activities that are less constructive.”

Principal Paul Morrow said the school has held the fair annually for about 10 years, with the students researching the costumes they make and the wares they sell for authenticity.

Matin Ebneshahrashoob, 12, said he and a friend spent hours in the library looking up medieval instruments before making the harps and bamboo flutes they sold.

And David Clifford, 13, built a catapult to duplicate the medieval practice of hurling carcasses into castles under siege as a way to spread disease to the enemy.

Using his 5-foot-long version, anyone who shot a beanbag cow through a hole in a model castle won a piece of jerky. If you hit the king, it was two pieces.

Some students sold garlands, candles and hobby horses. Others performed Shakespeare.

For Leah Glenn, 13, the fair had two highlights: “You get out of class, and you get to learn about the past.”