First Meeting
Steve has worked at the Michigan Renaissance Festival for a number of years. He started out in 1994 as a Toylet Troll with the simple job of helping to keep Privy (portajohn) lines short. Two of the four trolls he worked with that first year, Brett and Tom have gone on to fame and fortune on the Renaissance circuit. A year later he and Joe were joined by Debra who also went on to achieve great glory.
By 1999, there were just two toylet trolls, Joe and Steve, and four sets of privies. Things had settled down pretty comfortably, with Joe working the front gates and Steve working the Crown. That's pretty much how Kristie and Steve first met.
Kristie had met Joe a few times and he had told her she should come to the Fair (for some reason, Joe always says "Fair" even though most people say "Fest"). She decided to come out there all by herself and see what she could see. Being Kristie, her first stop was at the privies and that's where she bumped into Joe who decided to play tour guide (trolls are pretty much their own bosses <G>).
They wandered across the grounds and ended up at Crown Stage, where Joe told Kristie she should go to the privy. Being Kristie (and a grown woman) she objected to being told when to go the bathroom. A disagreement broke out and, after making Joe break character (shudder!), Kristie finally went into the privy area.
She came in and saw Steve sitting on a bench, talking with the hugging girl1. She asked if she could take a picture of the pair and then said "This is the highlight of the whole day for me". Steve, not knowing who she was, expressed some sadness for her condition and told her he hoped she "hadn't seen Don Juan and Miguel yet".
Accounts vary from there - Kristie insists that Steve flirted with her at that point, Steve says he never flirts2 at Festival, especially not with patrons. Either way, Kristie left with her picture and a smile on her face.
- So named because neither Joe nor Steve can ever remember her name and because she insists on hugging dozens of people (including Joe and Steve) at the start of each Festival day
- Both Joe and Debra insist that Steve flirts outrageously and further insist that he is oblivious to some very obvious attempts to flirt with him.
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