The Lockhouse July 2010, Havre de Grace, MD
Chapter 2nd: Speaking of kids and books (On the previous page. You did start on Page 1, didn't you?), the museum and distractions, battle and misfires, Wayne and apostles, Mission and mugs, bric- and a -brac as well as rum and pirates. All here for your viewing pleasure in the second chapter of our narrative. Lucky you!
Photo: Mission
Photo: Mission
Throughout the day, various kids filtered into our little event. I have a
feeling there would have been a lot more of them had the rain held off.
Still, several of them braved the storms and came to see the pirates and
their damp, ill-firing weapons. Kids have just the right sort of
imagination to make dressing up in stuffy 17th century garb worth the
while.
Sometime in the afternoon, one of the local librarians came to read a
pirate story to a group of children. During this, Art's wife Janet told
Shay and I about a book called Rabbit
Pirates, A Tale of the Spinach Main, which tickled my Random
Rabbits bone.
In the meanwhile, we sought to find ways to amuse ourselves. The Hat Trading game just wasn't as much fun without Stynky and mead (and I mean lots of mead), but I made a sincere effort to enjoy a hat swap until we all realized that was a total bust (below left). Shay and I decided to visit the Lockhouse building, which, as we learned from the event regulars on the porch, contained a museum. The fancy plaque informed us that the Lockhouse had been built in 1840 as part of the Susquehannah and Tidewater Canal Co. (NYSE: STUCC) and that this was the Office and Locktender's Home which was restored in 1981. It also said a bunch of other stuff, but in the interest of making the Journal lean and interesting we ignored that and went inside.
Photo: Mission
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When we entered, the place was empty. It contained a number of items with self-guiding tour plaques on them. We immediately entered deranged tourist mode, causing me to shoot photos of random items. (Below left: "Look! A clock!") As a favor to you, I will not post many of these photos, although I would like to highlight the one in the center. The placard reads, "The boatman would announce his approach to a lock or bridge by blowing a horn. Some used a Conch Shell (shown at left.)" It went on with some other stuff about brass horns. Now, I freely admit that I am no expert when it comes to horns, but if that's a conch shell, then I'm Lob's uncle. Even I recognize a conch shell when I see it. (Especially when they're being blown in Michael Bagley's ear.) Not long after we entered, someone who knew about or possibly even volunteered at the museum came in and took it upon himself to give us a tour. This was very nice, even appreciated, until the pirates began getting ready to do something outside the window. Not wanting to miss any potentially interesting event, I began to mentally squirm. The museum had been going since '81 and would keep going along just fine, even if I wandered outside to watch a battle or some such thing for 10 minutes. I finally broke in on our generous tour guide and explained the situation. As it turns out, he also wanted to see the battle but he didn't want to rudely interrupt our tour!
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The battle took place on the other side of the canal, which made it a little hard to get detailed photos. So I'll do my best to narrate the thing for you so that it all makes sense and sounds interesting. (Maybe. If not, I'll at least try and make it a little amusing. If that fails, I'll post some more stolen Warner Brothers cartoon shots for ya'.)
Photo: Mission
Photo: Mission
It started off with the pirates in tasteful earth tones (except Crimson,
who was wearing... well, crimson) on one side and the defenders in a
largely mustard pallet on the other. This is the way of all battles (being on two
side, not the colors). The pirates (left - Crimson Corsair, Cuisto Mako, Charley & Billy Balls), led by
Blackjohn, took the big white bridge and were trying to free the
damsels from their condos and "bring them over here." (You can't get
enough of this joke, trust me.) The defenders (right) - with
Art & Wayne - demurred.
A lot of threats and shouting by the pirates followed. They brandished their weapons and... unfortunately, the previous weather rained on their parade (literally) causing the black powder to fizzle. (Below left.) As Shay explained it in her letter, "Never have I heard (or not heard) so many misfires. But the unflappable prates merely shout[ed] more threats and fire[d] again. Or attempt[ed] to." A few adjustments and *Bang* the pirates managed to make their point (below center.) The defenders then returned fire causing nobody to fall down. (I later learned that this was because they were worried that the grass was wet. You don't want to die and get your period clothes wet, after all.)
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Several rounds of firing (and more than a little misfiring) followed giving the boys the opportunity to do what they'd been dying to do all day - make a lot of racket with their black powder. Finally, Cuisto Mako decided that this has gone on long enough. Clearly thinking, "*Gulp* The grass doesn't look that wet," he went down in a heap (below left). Sensing the moment was upon them, Blackjohn called out in his booming voice, "Remember the French glass shark!" and the boys took off in the direction of the defenders in a comical "caught in motion" running photo. (Below center. This is not their fault. There is just no way to look cool running unless you stand to win a gold medal when you cross the finish line.) The defenders scurried across the the lock like a bunch of scared girls. (Below right. Definitely their fault.) From their new position, which to me seems little better than their old one as far as bullets went, they proceeded to fire several more volleys.
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Things began to unwind at this point. First, following Cuisto's example, Billy B. went down in a comical heap (below left). Then Blackjohn got wounded in the arm while standing right next to Crimson Corsair (below center left). All this blood caused Crimson to get an urpy stomach, so that Blackjohn was forced to offer him his hat so that he didn't barf in front of the audience on the other side of the lock. Palmetto (who showed up when I wasn't looking) and Charlie decided to storm the lock (below right) but were firmly rebuffed by the defenders (off-screen). So the pirates were forced to limp back to their side of the turf and take solace in the fact that they had taken the big white bridge, if not the lock or the damsels in the condos.
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An after-battle confab between the two sides was held off
to the side where the public hopefully wouldn't see. The pirates and
defenders all said affirming things about each other's intensity and
sensitivity during the battle scenario.
So there you have an account of the great Saturday battle of the Lockhouse. It was fairly amusing, don't you think? Well? Don'cha? OK, fine. Here's a scene from Bunker-Hill Bunny featuring Sam von Schmamm the Hession without no aggression facing off against Bugs. (See I told you no one looks cool when they're running - not even cartoons.)
Photo: Mission
Photo: Mission
After the battle and post-game review were over, Shay spent
time talking with Wayne about his bandolier of chargers (or 'apostles'). She has
her own, but marveled at his. He explained they were specially
drilled and tied so that the lids would stay up after he used them. I'd
detail how this was done, but I didn't totally understand it. Wayne seems
like a most serious and quiet guy - but Shay has a
way with people and she spent quite a bit of time chatting with him. She
told me that Wayne was very knowledgeable, particularly about the ECW
(English Civil War for us Luddites.)
Elsewhere, things settled down as some folks went back to chat on the porch, like Dave and his friends (below left), while others got out from under the overhang for a bit of non-rainy weather. Eventually Blackjohn broke into a rousing version of Blues in the Night for us (below right - it sounded just like this). While we was enjoying that, Shay came rushing over. She had been chatting with a couple of tourists and discovered that the town of Havre de Grace contained a plethora of antique shops. They advised her to check The Cannery for loads of antique variety. Knowing that my mug had been missing since Searle's Raid three months ago, she decided to buy me a real antique pewter mug. ( I just up and lost the original after all it had allegedly been through.) So off we drove to Havre de Grace.
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Photo: Havre de Grace website
Town was quite close to the Lockhouse park. It was pretty small and yet...we still managed to get
lost trying to find The Cannery. I think I was thrown by the fact that you
had to go under a railroad trestle to get into the main part of town,
which reminded me of the ore dock in Marquette, MI and...well, we got
lost. Circling back around (a theme for
Shay's and my time together this weekend), we decided to park near the
center of town where there were a few small places with hopeful
little signs in the window proclaiming that antiques were held within.
On exiting the car, we were greeted by a group of locals chatting on the sidewalk. Shay asked them where The Cannery was and one of them said "The mayor will know." A jolly looking member of the group in Bermuda shorts spoke up and give us concise directions. As we walked away, I said, "That guy was the mayor?" Shay laughed and said that his name was Myron or something like that. It sure sounded like "mayor" to me. You never know who the mayor will be in these small towns.
Left: Havre de Grace Mayor Wayne H. Dougherty. Definitely not the guy in Bermuda shorts. Although he may own a pair for all I know.
The Cannery (below left) was slated to close at 5pm and it was about 4:45 when we found it. So we hustled in. This was one of those antique shops that contains a bunch of small vendors packed together in little stalls in a large open building. Each vendor wants to get your attention, so they pack them chock-a-block full of nick-nacks and doo-dads, most of which you know you've seen at a garage sale recently for 1/10th the price. Scouting about, Shay found a cabinet containing several pewter mugs. I was looking for one with a glass bottom and a dent like my last one, but Shay informed me that this was not not period correct. (The glass bottom, not the dent. Glass bottoms may come and go, but dents are always in style.)
The vendor owning the items in this cabinet was apparently very proud of some of his mugs and wanted upwards of a $100 for them. (This is why I prefer eBay to antique shops. Sorry to all you small vendors who pack yourselves into large open buildings.) Amidst the pricier items, there was a goofy looking mug with a fish handle that was pretty reasonably priced. I decided that that was for me. (Goofy is definitely your surgeon's style.) A rather fierce placard warned that the cabinet would NEVER be opened after 4:30 on Saturdays for ANY reason! But the antique store people knew a buck when they saw one and I walked out the proud owner of a nice fish-handled mug. (Thanks Shay!)
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Photo: Mission
While The Cannery was only open until 5pm, some of the other local shops were
open later. Shay has about 3 million separate interests and collections,
so they all interested her. (Okay by me.) We went into a comic and book
store which proved to be one of those places where you need a Sherpa to
find anything because every possible space is crammed with stuff. Shay
asked the owner about Doll
Man comics causing them to wander off together to search for stuff on
Shay's "obscure list of stuff to find some day." (Right. She
must not be registered on eBay.)
I wandered around looking at the Star Wars stuff. I eventually came across a GI Joe scale Kettenkrad (below left). This, I had to show Shay. We were at the Smithsonian the day before and I was explaining how absurd the Kettenkrad was. Voila! Here was an example. Exhausting the comic shop (and its owner), we wandered into a antique/resale gun shop. Being a surgeon, guns don't interest me. Shay even pointed out that I have mislabeled several weapons in my Journals. (For which I do not apologize. A gun looks like a gun to me.) On the wall the owner had what I had always thought was a buffalo, but which Shay informed me was a bison. Research proves her correct and me wrong. (But I'll still call 'em buffaloes.)
Photo: StolenI mean, seriously, why put a wheel in front? |
Photo: ...and Stolen)"You're kidding, right?" |
Goodies and information in hand (or head), we decided to leave the happy little burg of Havre de Grace and find out what the pirates had gotten into back at the Lockhouse. It proved to be a sort of rum drink - consisting of good rum, some sugar cubes and a squeeze of lemon. There had apparently been much imbibing afoot on the porch, as we heard them tittering like southern belles sipping mint juleps on the verandah as we approached. It was getting to the point where people were saying silly things. (Well, sillier things than normal re-enactors say.) I've noticed that when people have drunk enough alcohol to start saying such silly things, the only way to make those things make any sense is to catch up with them. Thus, with great pride, I brandished my new mug, ignoring the loose bits of whatever in the bottom (the alcohol will kill such if it's alive) and christened my fish-handled mug (below).
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From there things just got goofy. Crimson
Corsair just had to take a photo of himself and his new pal, Kraken
Rum (This was probably for the profile photo on his Facebook page - above left.)
This is also when Cuisto Mako broke (so to speak) out his ostrich egg, out of which he
drank rum (above right talking with Crimson Corsair while
Charlie looks on with a knowing mien. What exactly he knows isn't at all
clear to me, but you can't deny that he appears to know something that
Cuisto and Crimson don't.)
At right we have Crimson Corsair and Dave enjoying the rum drink from their mugs. (Say, is anyone else noticing a theme in these photos?) Below right, Shay shows off the Kraken bottle while guess who sits in the background... I think he nodded off here. Below left, the captain under the influence. ("What am I? Moe Howard?") At left are the three instigators of all this nonsense.
Photo: Mission
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