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Pirate Fest, June 2011 - Put-in-Bay, OH
Chapter 9th. Of Sunday evening. Examining various things associated with closing up shop; all the baggage associated with leaving; the Patrick Hand original hat; Lob - we have to mention Lob, few Journals are complete without Lob; and hunting for tumbled glass. Among other things.
Photo: Mission
Dad and Richard talk Coast Guard. As for John...I don't know I now turned to my folks. I hadn't forgotten them, but I had been focused on trying to get reasonable photos with two cameras. (If you think it sounds easy, you try it.) They appeared to have enjoyed the battle for the most part. They thought the cannon gag at the end was funny.
My dad had discovered that Richard had also been in the Coast Guard in the late 60s. So the two of them were yakking it up about that. (I don't quite know what there is to say about the Coast Guard, but it's a subject my dad can hold forth on for quite some time.) While they were chatting, John Destatte, who works with Bob Gillmor came up and added his contribution to the photo by inserting his Billy Bob teeth. Very nice. Side note: I met the two guys who started Billy Bob teeth about 10 years ago. They were nice, but weird. (Just as you'd hope they would be.)
My folks had seen my display and our set-up and they were ready to eat. Mom doesn't eat sea food, so I sent them to...where else?...Hooligans! They were half-way there already and I figured dad would like the Irish theme. In fact, they enjoyed it a great deal. Dad found out that Guiness makes a non-alcoholic beer which he liked enough to try and find it at the local stores. They walked back to see me and then caught the Jet Express back. It was nice to see them.
Photo: Mission
How many manly men does it take to
load the Green Black Sheep?
Following the battle, everyone headed back to the display site to start folding the operation up. One of the big tasks to be accomplished was the loading of the Green Black Sheep onto Mark Gist's boat trailer. This is a manly job, involving leverage, straining, sweating and serious muscle-aches the next day, so I stayed away from it. Plenty of others willingly stepped up to show their prowess in Sheep loading, meaning I was free to take photos of them doing it.
It took quite a while to get the thing loaded - it is much heavier than you might think. Well that's how it appeared, anyhow. At one time I think they had eight guys working on the project, so that means...let me do the math... eight guys with a lifting capacity of 6 stone ...carry the 11... divide by the gross national product... a lot of weight!
Eventually the Sheep was on the trailer and everyone whose back hadn't been thrown their back out walked around a little taller and prouder, having been a part of this massive undertaking. (None of this is true, I'm just trying to fill space here. You understand, I'm sure.)
 Photo: Mission Don't you wish this was 3D? |
 Photo: Mission Guiding her true |
 Photo: Mission Shannon is apparently not clear on the concept here. |
Photo: Mission
Jay and his Beverly Hillbillies loaded truck
While the Green Black Sheep was snuggled into its carriage, the rest of the camp had to be packed away and stowed. Jay Babcock drove his truck up with several people in the back to get it loaded. I saw his license plate and had to get a photo of him with it. I'm not entirely sure what he was going for here, but a 'FARB' is someone whose clothes/site/manner/body odor isn't period accurate enough to be correct according to people who claim to know such things. Jay does a pretty good presentation from what I can tell, so maybe he just wants to set the bar low so he can look heroic. (Blackjohn tells me that 'farb' is short for "Far be it for me to criticize, but..." and then you criticize.)
While packing stuff away, one of the major activities was the Shaking of the Fish Flies Off the Canvas. The little buggers loved the underside of the canvas flies and they established a fairly strong foothold (literally) on most of them. I don't think anyone could hope to remove them all because they're so limp that bend with the canvas, but at least you could reduce their number by giving the canvas a hearty shake as you can see below. Just to keep you up-to-date on the fish fly situation, they didn't seem quite as bad this afternoon as yesterday afternoon.
 Photo: Mission Ed, Dan, Jay, Michael, Thomas and Georgia packing things up |
 Photo: Mission Georgia helping to shake the fish flies out of a canvas sheet |
Photo: Clint Beach
The pirate gang of Put-in-Bay 2011: From left back: Lisa/Cheeky Actress,
Trish & Shannon, Ed, Connie &
Silas Thatcher, Carol, Sam, Andrea, George/Ken, Richard, Bryan, Mark & Jennie
From left, front: Mary Diamond, Mission, M.A. d'Dogge, Margarita, Dan, Sam, Michael & Kate Bagley
(middle right side),
Thomas (in blue vest with gun) & Georgia
One of the last things that must be done before leaving is to get a group shot. At right you can see the folks who contributed to the Put-in-Bay Pirate Fest from the Mercury and Forsaken crews. (No, the Blitzen gag is over, I'm not even going to mention them here.)
Following that there had to be hugging. There always seems to have to be hugging, something your ship's surgeon could do perfectly well without. (Saying that is like guaranteeing I'll have to be hugged for ever-more. If you think this is reverse psychology, I assure you you're wrong. I'm just trying to state the facts here.
Then there was a mad rush to get out of DeRivera Park. We had so many people parked in that corner of the park that Mary Diamond had to play traffic cop just to get everyone out safely. ("We have a big traffic back up in the middle of DeRivera Park. A bunch of pirates are all trying to exit at the same time. Apparently a group from something called the Blitzen crew is mostly to blame for this. Driving on the streets is your best alternate.") We also finally said goodbye to the Put-in-Bay merry-go-round (Kimberly's Carousal) which was located kitty corner to our spot in the park. I say good riddance, too. The merry-go-round only seemed to know two songs, which is something I know because I heard them all the way home in my head.
 Photo: Mission Ah, hugging. I'll take photos. |
 Photo: Mission Mary dealing with afternoon rush hour. |
 Photo: Mission Kimberly's Carousal (built in 1918) |
I was traveling with Michael & Kate Bagley, Trish & Shannon and George. I had hoped to be able to stop by Richard's magnificent garage before leaving, but George was all antsy to get home so he could go to a party. (A party? After this weekend, I figured I was going to slump into bed without even bothering to unpack!) The Bagley's van was loaded to bear leaving only room for two people. (Bears take up a lot of room. C'mon, you must have seen that one coming.) George was willing to ride in the Green Black Sheep with Kate, but I didn't want to pass up the opportunity to undergo a new experience, so I rode in George's place. Kate warned me that Michael tended to forget people were back there when the opportunity to pass a golf cart presented itself, which proved to be quite true. Nevertheless, we made it safely to the ferry dock without any mishap.
 Photo: Mission Passing a golf cart. |
 Photo: Mission Kate mugs for the camera - it's like in Venice. |
 Photo: Mission Kate tries the wind-catcher hat. |
That last photo of Kate brings us to the wearing of the Patrick Hand Original Planter's Hat segment of this Journal. It had actually been tried by several people during the Hat Swap Game Redux on Friday night, but I was running long there, so I decided to hold it back. We'll start from some photos from Friday night.
 Photo: Mary's Camera Lisa sports the hat |
 Photo: Mary's Camera George going for debonair |
 Photo: Mary's Camera A rakish M.A. d'Dogge |
 Photo: Mary's Camera Bryan as Patrick Stewart |
The hat has it's own charm, however, and tends to get tried outside of stupid hat swap games as you can see in the pictures below. If I recall correctly (and I may be wrong, but you'll never know) that girl in the center two photos ran up and wanted to wear my hat or get a picture with us and it or something. That's just the kind of thing that seem to happen to you in Put-in-Bay.
 Photo: Silas Thatcher Jennie in multi-hats |
 Photo: Mission Something's wrong... |
 Photo: Mission Ah! That's better! |
 Photo: Mission Even the Sheep wanted to try it |
While we're completely side railed and off-topic, we should also mention Lob, the Surgeon Journal's bestest stuffed monkey pal. Usually Lob gets the worst of it as his past exploits will attest. (I would link to them, but nearly every Journal contains a section on Lob and that would be a lot of work. I don't like doing a lot of work. Go look at the other Journals yourself.) However, Put-in-Bay seemed to agree with Lob - he did just about as well as your author.
 Photo: Lisa Lob preparing for a night on the town. |
 Photo: Lisa Lob still preparin' fer a nite on tha town |
 Photo: Lisa Lahb git'n reddy fur a nide onna toon |
Photo:Mary Diamond
Lob hanging around after all that Pimm's.
Photo:Mary Diamond
Lob being served
Lob had a pretty good time on Friday night, starting with a bottle of Pimm's at camp. (OK, Pimm's isn't quite my idea of a pretty good time, but he's a stuffed monkey for crying in the night!) As the alcohol took hold, so did Lob - of Michael's scarf. (He couldn't have made it into the bar otherwise. He certainly couldn't walk - even if his poly cotton filled legs were animated, the Pimm's would scuttled that. Although Lob looks underage, he was still served at Hooligan's, as you can see in the photo at right.
The next thing you know, it was Party Lob! Kissing and being kissed by the drunk girls, being passed around the mosh pit as the Bastard Bearded Irishmen performed on stage. It was one wild monkey-loving night; one that left a dry taste in Lob's mouth the next morning. (Actually, I suspect he always has a dry taste in his mouth. Although, come to think of it, 'dry' doesn't really have a taste, does it? But I digress...) Whatever his mouth tasted like, on Saturday morning, you could have stuck a fork in him. Literally. In fact, some of the pirates might have, which is closer to Lob's usual lot in life.
 Photo:Mary Diamond Lob gets some lovin' |
 Photo:Mary Diamond Lob in the Irish mosh pit |
 Photo: Clint Beach Lob - the next day |
Photo: Mission
Shannon and Michael go to
find out what's going on
Now, back in the Sunday evening timeline, we arrived at the Miller ferry port. The ferry was just pulling away from the dock, meaning we had a twenty minute wait ahead of us. Michael and Shannon pulled their cars around into the waiting area. There, they noticed people on the beach wandering into the water and stooping over. Curious, the two of them wandered over to ask someone what they were doing.
The woman they asked explained that she was looking for tumbled sea glass and showed them a sample. It was basically pieces of glass that had fallen into the water and been rubbed against the small stones and sand and roughly polished. (This is called tumbling by rock hobbyists.) Asked what the sea glass was used for, she was a bit vague, but mentioned jewelry and mosaics as possible uses. She said red and blue glass were the most prized. I got the impression it was just something to for her to do while waiting for the ferry. However, I looked it up and it turns out that there is indeed a whole hobby built around this. Lyn Schneider practically outlines the above exchange on her sea glass web page.
Ever one to try a new hobby, Michael started looking for sea glass while we waited. I particularly like that photo below right of him searching while Kate holds the sea glass booty. Eventually the ferry arrived and he had to abandon the search. Being new to the hobby, I'd have to say he was too enthusiastic and eager to pick stuff up. His 'haul' included some smooth stones and shells in addition to the sea glass. I don't know what he's going to do with it or if he even kept it, but it really was an interesting way to pass the time while we were waiting. It is amazing the different hobbies that exist.
 Photo: Mission Woman showing tumbled sea glass she found |
 Photo: Mission Michael looking for sea glass |
 Photo: Mission Michael finding sea glass for Kate |