Chapter Selection Menu:   P   1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10   E       <<First

Fort Taylor Pyrate Invasion/ Pirates in Paradise Celebration
Nov/Dec 2011 - Key West, FL

Epilogue (Part 1st): Two days later...

It began as a low plaintive yowl. "A cat?" I wondered to myself. How could it be? I looked around the airplane cabin. Surely a cat would be far more upset… my cat certainly would be. After a few seconds, I returned to my book. I thought heard it again! I turned my head to see if I could locate it by the direction of the sound. Nothing. Back to my reading.

The flight attendants wheeling the blocky beverage cart down the aisle slowly approached my seat. There! I was sure it was a cat. When the attendant came to get my order, I asked her if there was a cat aboard. "I don't think so…" she answered uncertainly. My seat neighbor suddenly perked up. She had been studiously ignoring me ever since I had given one of the attendants a bit of grief about moving my hat in the overhead compartment. "I heard a cat too!" We were briefly united in the oddity of it. The other attendant serving drinks overheard us. "There are two dogs and a cat on board," she said matter-of-factly.

Photo: Mission
Stella in her cat carrier on her owner's lap The cart and its flurry of attendants passed. The woman across the aisle looked shyly at us and explained that she had the cat under her seat. Sure enough, there was a large, black heavy fabric rectangle with mesh sides at her socked and sandled feet.

"I am teaching him to travel," she explained. The cat was white with tan markings. "It's a mixed-Archer with blue eyes. Her name is Stella." My neighbor and I cooed at the cat, who yowled a little at the attention. "Do you give her drugs for traveling?" I asked. "Oh no. She's a very well-tempered cat."

I asked her why she had been in Key West. "I live there, but my daughters live in Philadelphia. So I travel back-and-forth a lot." My interest keened. Looking at my cross-the-aisle companion, I saw a slender, elegant woman with quirky Key West style: a long print skirt, blousy white shirt, print vest, silver-rimmed rectangular glasses and soft, shoulder-length white hair.

"What do you do?"
"I'm an artist." She worked in mixed-media. Surely that couldn't support a home in Key West and regular travel? So many of the people I knew who lived in Key West insisted that you must be willing to work two jobs to even begin to make it work. "Oh, no. I own a business. In Philadelphia. My two daughters run it for me and I telecommute," she explained brightly. She never told me what the business was and I never asked.

"How long have you been living there?"
"My husband and I first bought a condo there in '79." They had gone back every year, something I empathized with. In 1997, they purchased a house, turning the day-to-day running of the company over to their daughters. Her husband wasn't with her and she never referred to him outside of that comment. Again, she never told me and I never asked. She didn't want to be photographed, demurring with, "I never look good in photos." But she let me photograph Stella seen above.

As I promised some of you, there's the secret to living in Key West. Hopefully you have two daughters.

---

Photo: Mission
Epilogue (Part 2nd): Containing the usual epilogue stuff: Maudlin comments from the author on the end of the event; Thanks to the event organizers and photographers and several left over photos that the author wanted to include in the main text but didn't.

"I barely ate...barely slept...drank Rum the entire weekend, usually in a dark, candlelit tavern...had no electricity...did NOT shower for 4 days...and lived in a canvas tent in a historic brick fortress with about 150 other Pirates.

.....& it was the best weekend of my life.

HUZZAH!!!

But really, I need a shower now..." - Mike, the Skeleton Pirate on Facebook, Dec 6, 2001

Photo: Mission
It is always sad to get to the end of this event, as it is one of my favorites. This event would not have happened without several people. I have given them credit in previous Journals, but after getting a taste of the organization required for this event when I put the event web site together, I'd say I shorted them.

If there is one thing that I have learned, it is that the better an event seems to go, the harder the people who put it together worked to make that happen. There were three women who served as the point-people for the Fort Taylor Pyrate Invasion this year. Two of them we saw: Lily and Scarlett Jai. One of them, sadly, we did not see because she was caring for her husband. I talked to Fayma Callahan aka. Momma Ratsey a week ago and she said her heart was breaking as she read the on-line version of this Journal because she couldn't be at the seeing those things happening. She put in a lot of hard work in the months before Poppa Ratsey's sudden, urgent surgery. She worked with the folks in the fort and organized the troops to get things going. It takes months and months of work to get the details of this event ironed out and Fayma did much of that unseen. So I wanted to make sure that we do not forget her contribution to this event, especially since she was unable to be there.

Photo: Sandi Bilbo
Lily and Scarlett in Ole' Zach's Pub
I was complimenting Lily before the event really got started and thanking her for the amount of work she had done getting everything ready. She gracefully took the compliment, but told me, "I couldn't have done it without Scarlett Jai. People don't realize just how much she's been doing down here to coordinate this event. She orchestrated most of those sponsors for the bus. I think people sometimes underestimate her. She is one smart cookie!"

Scarlett Jai had the additional task of dividing her time between the Fort Taylor and the Pirates in Paradise events, which may be why she doesn't appear in this Journal quite as frequently as Lily does.

With a tip of the Surgeon's Patrick Hand Original Planter's hat, I offer the following battery of photos of Scarlett Jai. I also want to send off a wodge of thank-yous for her work behind the scenes with the folks at the fort and the vendors who enabled us to have a bus this year. Cheers, Scarlett!

Photo: Sandi Bilbo Scarlett saves Zak from a confused pirate

Photo: Beowulf Scarlett Jai and Gareth with the Pub banner

Photo: Caribbean Pearl (obviously) Scarlett Jai on the grass

Naturally, this Journal wouldn't be what it is without all the wonderful people who let me steal their photos and stick them in here. You'll find all 10 of them below.

Beowulf Photo: Mission

Mission <Photo: Caribbean Pearl

Maria Photo: Maria

DB Couper Photo: Mission

Caribbean Pearl Photo: Caribbean Pearl

1st Mate Matt Photo: 1st Mate Matt

Mae Photo: Mission

Stynky Tudor Photo: Beowulf

Sandy Bilbo Photo: Sandi Bilbo

Michael Bagley Photo: Mission

---

OK, enough serious and thought-provoking stuff; on with the usual Surgeon's Journal fare. There are always photos I like that don't make it into the main part of the Journal for one reason or another. Rather than consign them all to the circle of Hell that is the Unused folder on my photo memory stick, I put some of them on this page for you. So enjoy the photo leftovers!

We begin with some nice portrait-type shots, done in the pirate style.

Photo: Beowulf Edward O'Keefe

Photo: Mission "Want some candy?"

Photo: Sandi Bilbo Does she sit there when it fires?

Photo: Beowulf Don Maitz paints Poppa Ratsey

"A damned confusion amongst us! Rogues a-plotting great talk of separation..." -Blackbeard

Photo: 1st Mate Matt Talderoy Acrew & Aldo Barrios.

Photo: Caribbean Pearl (obviously) 1st Mate Matt and Apple Booty definitely a-plotting something.

Photo: Beowulf Sebastian and Keith.

Of course, no epilogue page in this Journal would be complete without including Jack and the twins somewhere. (Somewhere is here.) I was talking with Brig recently and I asked her if I was the third twin, which one was she? She answered, "[Mae]'s the first... dangit... I'm the middle twin now." The middle twin! (I find this phrase hilarious. Middle twin! Hee hee hee.)

Photo: DB Couper Mae and Brig prepare food

Photo: Mission The welcoming twins working the gate

Photo: Mission Jack doing something stranger than normal

A pirate event is allegedly put on for kids, so we have to stick some of those in here. I believe we had a bumper crop of kids this year. A few of them dressed for the event appear as seen below.

Photo: Mission A baby blue pirate! His folks should save this and haul it out to show his first date.

Photo: Maria De Los Angeles A sort of Jack Sparrow-ish get up. This reminds me of those kids cowboy costumes from the 50s.

Photo: Mission "OK, kiss the wittle pi-rate!" Actually, I have no idea what is going on in this photo. It just sort of reminded me of an old Sylvester and Tweety cartoon.

Photo: Friz Freleng
Kiss the wittle bird-ie! Speaking of old Sylvester and Tweety cartoons, there were several classic Warner Brothers cartoon references in this Journal. In fact, there are nearly always several classic Warner Brothers cartoon references in every Journal, although I don't usually point them out. However I thought it was a good excuse to go and watch some of the cartoons that the references were based on so that I could find and steal excerpt them for use here. (As if I need a reason...or even need to watch them. I can practically review them in my mind.)

For no reason I can think of, I have put links from the stolen excerpted photos to the text where you will find the quotes and/or references. The one at left is the "Kiss the wittle bird-ie!" cartoon short "Gift Wrapped." The rest of them link back to the previous Journal chapters. If you want to see them, you can click on the photo below. So have fun with that.

Photo: Friz Freleng The Patrick Hand Original Planter's hat with flowers From "A Bird in a Guilty Cage."

Photo: Chuck Jones "So, having disposed of the monster..." From "Hare-Raising Hare"

Photo: Friz Freleng "Duck lays golden egg!" From "Golden Yeggs"

---

Naturally, cartoons bring us to the battles. There were a whole slew of battle-related photos that I wanted to stick into the mix, but didn't because the pages were already too long, the photos were kind of irrelevant, or they were just plain goofy. Since this is the raison d'être of the Epilogue page, you find them below.

We begin with the safety meetings, which you must always attend before getting into the middle of battle. We know that the pirates always held safety meetings before going into battle and we wanted to faithfully reproduce that aspect of them. (We know this because the Florida Park Service told us so.)

Photo: Sandi Bilbo Crudbeard: "It's your half pincer movement inside a guarded perimeter."

Photo: Mission "...this is why you never... Mr. Beowulf, I hope you brought enough cameras for everyone."

Photo: Mission Crudbeard & the Viceroy showing us why we must have safety meetings.

Then there were the battles themselves. I'd call this first series of photos "The Women of Ft. Taylor Battles, " except Mike the Skeleton Pirate is in it. (And I don't want him mad at me.)

Photo: 1st Mate Matt Death observes the battle

Photo: Mission The amazing adrenaline!

Photo: Mission Foxy Gengen: Double Barreled

Photo: Maria De Los Angeles Out of material, Diosa makes it up...

The rest of these are just sort of silly. (You wouldn't expect anything less, would you?)

Photo: Mission Shay stealing Deadeye's boots. He must have been her size.

Photo: Mission That Sansanee can just never keep a straight face when she's dead!

Photo: 1st Mate Matt Two biklni'd girls pose with a pair of fighting pirates. It's actually too absurd to make fun of.

---

This leaves us with the dregs of the dregs of photos: the ones I couldn't put into nice classifications. So you just get a potpourri of random and often weird stuff. We'll start with a couples dance...

Photo: Caribbean Pearl "Viceroy, I just wanted to be the first to let you know... your hat looks silly."

Photo: Mission "Next time you you call me camera hog, I stick you in desert with rock crabs!"

Photo: Mission I haven't the faintest clue what led to this. Although it IS Key West...

I took a ton of photos in the pub; here are a few that didn't fit the narrative.

Photo: Mission Chrispy and Greg Hudson jamming on Sunday in Ole' Zach's Pub

Photo: Mission Sherry Walp sports the Patrick Hand Original Planter's hat

Photo: Mission If Rebecca was hiding the keg from alcohol thieves, she completely screwed up here.

Since we're discussing Stynky...

Photo: Mission Oh, Rebecca... epic fail!

Photo: Mission Remember the port-o-john comment? It sets this up.

Photo: Mission Stynky shows off his shot mug

With the port-o-john in mind (it was in your mind, right?), let's look at two other places of which I know you will be interested in seeing photographs.

Photo: Mission The Rum Barrel's men's room. Neat, isn't it?

Photo: Mission Now THAT is an orange boat.

Which brings us to the last bunch of photos. It had to end eventually. (And perhaps not soon enough for some of you.)

Photo: Mission Even WITH the feather, it still looks silly. Sir.

Photo: 1st Mate Matt If we ever get out of here...

Photo: Mission After weeks of writing, I'm as tired as Spike el Pirata.

Chapter Selection Menu:   P   1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10   E       <<First