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Pirates of Paynetown 2010 - Bloomington, IN
(Photo: Mission)
Chapter 6th: Speaking about the things that took place Sunday afternoon
after the battle was finished and the pirates occupied Paynetown.
Actually not much changed, but it sounds so dramatic that way, doesn't
it? Also containing an aside on the doings of our favorite monkey.
After the battle, Chole retired from the life of being a cannoneer to play backgammon with Kate Bagley (left). When I saw her, she was just beating Kate. (One should never play strategy games with an INTJ who knows the game being played.) Kate explained that the last time she had played backgammon it was a drinking version of the game played with a friend named Jessica. (How this was done boggles even the mind of this INTJ. But then I don't know backgammon very well.)
Following the battle several people headed for the food tent. Battling makes a person hungry, you see. This was fortuitous, because I would be completely remiss if I didn't give you details about the excellent food tent this year.
It is named La Maison du Chocolot which I believe is French for "Chocolate Masons." (Fortunately the food there is excellent; the exact opposite of hard tack, which is the first period foodstuff I that comes to mind when I think of masonry.) No matter what time of day you showed up, the food tent always had splendid free provender to offer to the re-enactors. You can see part of the spread below center. It varied from day to day, which food tent keeper Brandon Scott (in red, below right) explained was because people donated food to be given away in the tent. (This is something I will have to be sure to do next year, despite my natural bachelor tendency to forget to bring things like food and gifts to parties.) Brandon also said that the donations were a bit off this year, but he understood this, what with the economy and all. He didn't mind keeping food and drinks (water, lemonade & such) supplied to all the hard-working re-enactors. This is the essence of Paynetown - great people working with each other to make the event work so well.
(Photo: Mission)
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(Photo: Mission)
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(Photo: Mission)
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Of course, being so readily supplied with comestibles, the food tent/tavern was a great place to hang out. The traffic was constant, but light enough so that there was always a place to sit at the cloth-covered tables. For example, below left are Nathan & Andrea Logsdon with Mr. Top Hat (still haven't learned his name. This is now a running gag, so those of you who know don't need to tell me because I can't resist such puerile jokes.) At another time, I found Parson John, Brandon Scott, Adam and Sarah Mudd chatting in the pub. (In fact, they were talking about model railroad layouts. And why not? Who hasn't wanted to build one at one time in their life? Well, besides 95% of the women in the world.)
(Photo: Mission)
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(Photo: Mission)
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Among other things in the Food Tent, they had a wide variety of jams which Michael Bagley sampled (below left). "Does he put jam on his toast or doesn't he? If not, why not and since when? Well?" This quote was lifted from popular media - it's a a rare treat for you regular readers to see me steal...uh, borrow lines from popular media. Note that this is not a line from the Blossom (below center) who spoke this line in one of the Powerpuff Girls cartoons - a cartoon whose name that Google, in a rare moment of information mining failure, would not reveal to me using that line and the words "Blossom" or "Powerpuff girls" or just "Powerpuff." No, it has nothing to do with Blossom, really. Even mentioning her is just part of another shallow attempt to pop a borrowed image from a favored cartoon into the Journal. This line actually came from the Chief of the Newspaper (played by veteran character actor John Mahoney, below right) in the movie the Hudsucker Proxy, which has a wonderful scene about the development of the hula hoop that uses a really cool version of the musical cue Saber dance of Gayaneh, which your author happens to really like. (And not just the popular last part, either.) But I digress...in fact, I have digressed within the digression which is probably not entirely unexpected. However, since this photo (the photo of Michael - pay attention!) is the only one I actually took of any of us in the food tent after the battle, I had to include it. And that's all I'm going to say. Well, except that the Hudsucker Proxy is a really underrated and enjoyable Coen Brothers movie and you should really see it if you haven't.
(Photo: Mission)
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(Photo:uhhh...)
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(Photo: The Hudsucker Proxy)
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(Photo: Mission)
While I was sitting around, who should appear but my pal Grace Thatcher.
She was carrying a bit of blue and white twisted thread that reminded me
a great deal of a friendship bracelet. (I was once given one by a girl
and I wore it until it finally came undone. So I was at least familiar
with them.) Grace explained that it had been given to her by Diana Stevens
(whom you may remember as the owner of Kramer the cat.) Grace further
reported that she had told Diana that she was going to give it to me,
which she did forthwith. I thought it was the perfect sort of thing to
use to attach the feathers to my Patrick Hand Original Planters Hat (left).
I am forever trying to find a way to keep them attached. All of the
original feathers have been lost, mostly during airplane travel. (You
haven't lived until you've tried to transport such a thing on a
plane.)
(Photo: Mission)
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(Photo: Mission)
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(Photo: Mission)
Something else I really like about the Paynetown is its arrangement. in grids.
Each "street" has a street sign, none of which I photographed
(so try to imagine them instead). I often put dwelling details in each
journal because 1) it gives you perspective on the places I
mention (especially when I don't wait until the last page to do it) and 2)
it allows re-enactors to steal ideas when creating their campsite.
(Well that's what I heard.) Above left is the home of the baby
Cockatiel, which features a smoke hole. I don't know if that's GAoP (Golden
Age of Piracy) appropriate, but owner Linda reported that it allowed for
good air flow. Above
right is the Thatcher Mansion, filled with people, per usual. At
right we find Michael and Diana Stevens hard at work on their
handicraft - they have a busy, interesting display inside. Below
left is the small tent used by Jessie and Sami, only one of
whom appears in this Journal. Jessie told me it did not prove
to be very rain-worthy, thus the tarps. Below center is a
guy with a skull. (What else do I have to say, it's a skull!) Below
right is the Dude, totally chillin'.
(Photo: Mission)
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(Photo: Mission)
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(Photo: Mission)
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(Photo: Mission)
(Photo: Mission)
As reported last year,
model-maker extraordinaire Dan Needham took my resin Mohawk model (from Gremlins
2: The New Batch) to turn him into Brain Gremlin (my hero.) He had
been working on the head, which he brought to show me. Unfortunately, Dan
left several pages ago, but Mark Gist showed it to me. The work was so
good I didn't realize he'd resculpted it! So now you're up to date on
that. Further bulletins as conditions warrant.
(Photo: Mission)
Regular readers
will now be wondering, "What about Lob?" They're always
wondering about Lob. It interrupts their daily routines and causes them to
gulp Zoloft like popcorn. The rest of you are wondering who the hell Lob
is. Wonder no more.
Lob
is a stuffed monkey who travels with Michael and Kate Bagley and gets himself into
compromising situations. He was resting on an
axe in the campsite, thinking how ignored he had been this trip when it
occurred to him that he could do something stupid with his pal
Br'er Otter. He had heard Kate talking excitedly about Zombie Road
when she arrived in camp on Friday night. Wanting to be just like his
heroes Tallahassee and Shaun, he convinced Otter to swipe Silas Thatcher's
keys and take a road trip in the Thatchermobile to Zombie Road. There was
some disagreement over who would drive, resulting in tug of war which
nearly cost several lives (below left The glasses are for zombie
protection). Fortunately Lob has the attention span of a defective
wombat and soon forgot about driving, allowing Otter to handle it.
(Photo: Thatchers)
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(Photo: Thatchers)
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(Photo: Thatchers)
I can't say what happened out there on Zombie Road. Some folks
say Lob and Otter found what they were looking for like Lob claims they
did. (But most of those folks stopped after their medications were changed from Zoloft to
Selectra.) Other folks say Lob was just drinking too much again. Whatever
happened, Otter has been unable to speak ever since. The people who think
they found the zombies claim that Otter's muteness was due to anaphylactic
shock caused by being awash in toxic zombie blood. (Their medication were
then switched from Selectra to Eleva.) All I know is something occurred
and Lob got a serious concussion. If I'd have been there, I'd
have recommended
trepanation. (Come to think of it, I still recommend
it.) As a result, Lob was knocked cold for two days, blearily awaking to
find himself heading to St. Louis in the Thatchermobile.
(Photo: The Thatcher's Lob Collection)
Upon arriving home, the Thatchers discovered their primate stowaway.
Already having so many mouths to feed, another mouth was going to be a
hardship, so it was decided to send Lob to work with Silas so that he
could earn his own way. Things started all well and good as Lob sat
quietly while Silas explained how to check out tools and do the different
jobs required. Unfortunately, Lob is not the most diligent of workers, nor
does he like to be told what to do, nor does he actually have any fingers.
If that wasn't bad enough, he got some wires mixed up on a 480v connection
resulting in being shocked in glowing cartoon style - you know, where the
character appears in multiple alternating bright colors and an outline
revealing his skeleton. This made Lob sit atop a generator and fling feces
and wire nuts at everyone who approached until someone managed to get a
Zoloft into his mouth - using a slingshot. Silas realized that Lob needed to
be "in his element" which definitely had nothing to do with
working. So he took
him to a pirate event.
(Photo: Thatchers)Lob learning about the New World Economy (Actually, "Lob sleeping" is more accurate.) |
(Photo: Thatchers)
"And if your Lordship would refer to the enclosed document... Good Lord! A spider monkey! Mildred! Call Orkin again!!" |
(Photo: Thatchers)
Lob hanging out with a Weasley |
(Photo: Thatchers)"How much does this ride cost?" |
(Photo: Thatchers)"Pleassssse don't light the gas!" |