Ransom

Thanks, everyone! It's good to be back! Missed the old Pub, I did!

Okay, I feel suitable embarrassed. Been a long while since I checked in, and then I found all these brirthday wishes. Thanks to all of you fine mates, and yes, Lady B, that tornado experience is one I will never forget. But it was still a fun weekend! And yeah, Jill and I are twins in spirit, even if a few decades apart in years.

I like the idea of submissions, just so you would have the honor of hearing, "And the winner is.........(insert your name here)!" Maybe a different one each month? But if we use Patrick's character Stinky, then do it during the summer when we can open all the windows. Remeber what effect he had on Port Royal? Nuf said.

For Halloween, you could make the skull look like a decorated Day of the Dead sugar skull? Just a thought.

With the holidays coming up, I am reviving this thread. Many of your pirate friends have Etsy sites, where they sell their wares. Please look over what they have before you buy retail from the Big Box stores. The hand-crafted items you buy from your friends helps them pay for events they attend, and the clothes that they wear. Anyone wanting to add a link to their Etsy site, please do.

I've gone back to reading my copy of The Annotated Sherlocke Holmes.

Jib, my experience at Pt. Washingtin had nothing to do with the event itself, but everything to do with the people I had flown across the country to hook up with. The event itself was fun, although getting stuck in the basement of a bank for an hour waiting out a tornado was...interesting. I did meet some wonderful folks, Merrydeath, Mary Diamond (the three of us had a blast dancing on Saturday night), Lady B, Cheeky, and Rats. However, the rest of the group, whom I didn't know, and had not interacted with on the Pub, basically ignored me. And as stated, the one person who had been begging me to come, who I had interacted with a lot here, barely gave me the time of day. I would hope any group would keep a newcomer from feeling so left out. I know the years I spent with Tales of the Seven Seas were wonderful, and they welcomed my husband and myself with open arms. By the end of our first time at Ojai, we felt like part of the family. Thier hosbitality kept me in the game. So, no bad feelings about the Pt. Washington Festival itself. If I could go with a totally different group I'd probably have a ball. Should I ever get that oportunity, I will for sure look you up.

Someone needs to post a picture of Patrick Hand. He's a classic, and has helped a lot of others get gear together...including Mission's hat.

My very first pirate event was years ago at Port Washington, WI. With a few very notable exceptions, I felt like an outcast, and the person who had been begging me to attend, barely spoke five words to me the whole five days I was there. I felt cheated and had dropped a lot for money for nothing. Had I let the experience of that event influence my decision to bail out of pyracy, which I almost did, I would have missed out meeting a whole new group of people whom I just love and respect, and would have missed out on being part of the crew of the schooner Aldebaran for four years. I gave pyracy one more chance at Ojai. Ojai was always a heap of fun, and I was very sad when they closed the doors on that event. At first, NorCal was just a huge bit of fun. But now it is soooo chaotic and crowed with people (30K over the two days) that by the afternoon, you can barely move around the event site. And the group we had hung with for so long, slowly morphed into a group of loafers. So again, a group of us split off (Red-Handed Jill, Iron Jack, Lady Jaxx, Wheezer, Captain Vortex, Wicked Wench and a few others), created a new group (The Seacats), and attended the smaller venue of Brookings, OR. We all did stuff, interacted with the crowd, and had a grand time. LOL So, I guess the bottom line is, a person's particpation in pyracy may evolve over time, but you never really let that pirate spirit die....you just move on and find new friends and places to play. If money and a horse-sitter were not an issue, there would be lots more events on our clanedar.

I think that's very true. When you compare the piracy world with other reenactment groups, the lack of regimentation is a huge factor in how much fun it is. The only thing that could kind of compare, is maybe Steampunk, which also has little to no regimentation or rules other than stick to the general idea of the genre. I enjoy the SCA, but it's a relief to come back to the pirate world and the pirate in me, with no one to bow down to or kiss up to.

After about five or six years of driving long distances to play, it was the expense and logistics that made me and my husband cut back. Ojai closed, and NorCal has become a scene of chaos that, other than time spend on the Aldebaran, was becoming more chore than fun, and costing us upward of $1000 or more—and we always drove. Also, we have horses, and the lady who used to feed them for us while we were away moved to another town. We haven't found anyone we trust to take her place. Also, burnout played a part. So, this year we attended only one event in Brookings, OR, afflieated ourselves eith a new group, The Seacats, while also envolving ourselves in other activites, mostly to do with the SCA or mounted archery. I still love playing a pirate, and we had an absolute blast at the smaller venue of Brookings, so I suspect I'll hang in there a while longer. Jamie....nice to see you're still around. Wish we could connect more than once every two years or so.

Jill is a sweatheart. I must admit, though, because I am so used to seeing it on you (or being handed around) it's just not "you" without your hat. And yes, I have noticed the ever-present forelock.

I don't know, Mission, I think you look kinda cute in that picture. And we all start out looking a bit funny, until we get our persona's act together. It's part of the process, regardless of how we play.

LOL Yeah...puppy....that's the one.

Ya know, this guy has been around for a long time, and really, we should be used to him fishing for article information. Let him do the research instead of letting all of you do it for him. Especially when his questions have no real relevance to the reinacting community or how we play. Oh, and I like Foxe's second set of anwers. Well done, suh.