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Pirate Fest, June 2012 - Put-in-Bay, OH

Chapter 7th: Sunday morning in the campsite; Ed's amazing prizes; Some odd fun with the displays; Guest hosts at the surgeon's table; The many and varied things that can be done with the gibbet; Cheeky's fascination for splashing people with water; How M.A. d'Dogge got retribution on Trish; Some of the other goings on at the Fest and pirates who are too pooped to pop.

Photo: Mission
The melty candle of Kate's
I had planned to once again breakfast at Pasquale's, but it was packed to the gills and I wasn't in the mood to stand there and wait by myself, so I decided to go over to the encampment and have breakfast there. (Fortunately they had Pop Tarts. Normally I wouldn't touch Pop Tarts - they're pure sugar and white bread - but somehow they seemed just fine at this juncture.)

While I was milling about, munching on my Pop Tart, Kate Bagley got all excited upon discovering that one of her lantern candles had not stood up well to the heat and insisted that I photograph it. So there it is, at right. She told me it was a cheap 99¢ candle, as if this explained the candle's inability to stand up to the intense heat of the day, trapped in its glass prison. (Poor little candle.)

Several people were packing up the encampment so they wouldn't have to do it in the heat of the afternoon after working all day at the display camp. There were a couple of pictures of this, but, let's face it, those are kind of dull, so I'll just offer you one of Mary and Lisa folding up their tent. (Apparently they didn't know Michael Bagley's patented one-man tent method. Or perhaps they did and they were just being practical, figuring two people could do it easier than one. Women are like that.)

I told them the story of Sheryl/Mary/Nary from the previous night which is when I figured out what the "-nary" thing actually meant. It made me feel a bit sheepish, but looking back on it, even if I had figured it out at the time, the result would have been the same. Mary and Lisa, in turn, told me some stories about their evening running around with the band until 4am, which I won't repeat here. (Mostly because it makes them sound much naughtier than they actually were.)

The other fun activity going on in camp that morning was Ed Rembert opening up his party ball and folding chair which he had won at the Best Pirate Contest at the Boathouse the previous evening. It included a beer in a cozy, a T-shirt, a fifth of Captain Morgan rum, a NASCAR-style folding chair and an official Boathouse pirate scarf. Of these assorted items, Ed wisely decided the scarf was the only useful item for the day.

Photo: Mission Mary and Lisa folding up shop

Photo: Mission Thomas looting Ed's prize ball

Photo: Mission Ed using the only usable thing - a scarf

Photo: Sos Boss
One man's interpretation of how leeches are applied
In the display camp, we all returned to our stations and continued along the lines that I presented in Chapter 2. I won't repeat that since you already read about it. There are a few things worth highlighting. One was the surgeon's assistants.

Several people chipped in to man my station while I wandered off to gather material for the Journal. I'm not quite sure why people are so fascinated with trying their hand at my patter, but I am most grateful that they are. There's nothing worse than an interesting display of stuff in front of you with no one to explain it.

I've already mentioned that Kate Bagley and Carla took turns at the surgeon's table. Carla was quite good at it, picking up on the spiel faster than anyone I've yet seen. She used to work for medical professionals, so that may explain her skills in this area. Bryan wanted to get photos of he and Carla doing a procedure, so he decided to apply leeches to her arm with a pair of forceps and a rolled bolster. High marks for originality Bryan, low marks for accuracy.

Several other folks spent some time in my stead as you see below. I do appreciate their chipping in.

Photo: Mission Michael Bagley

Photo: Mission Dan Needham posing as surgeon

Photo: Mission Carla explains the tools

Photo: Mission Thomas Alleman

Photo: Mission's Camera
Marci Kroska and the surgeon
While we're talking about goings on a the surgeon's table I wanted to talk about Bill and Marci Kroska. They are a couple from the east side of Michigan, somewhere near Detroit. (I'm pretty sure they told me where, but I didn't write it down and... that's why it's not here.) Curiously, they decided to join the Great Lakes Pirates who are mainly out of Grand Rapids and the west side of Michigan. (That group puts on the Michigan Pirate Festival in August.) I never did quite get the full story of why the joined a group so far from them, but it may have been in part because they are the easiest group of pirates to identify in our state.

Bill and Marci were assigned by the GL Pirates to be part of the crew of the Leviathan which is a ship whose purpose is to protect the Great Lake's Pirate's Main Ship. The Main Ship no doubt has a name, but I never found out what it was.
Photo: Michael Colosimo
Bill Kroska
When they joined, they were asked what roles they wanted to take on. Since Marci was already in the medical field she said she would be the surgeon. This rather long circuitous prose is how we get to the photo of she and I at the table up there.

Bill, on the other hand, is an engineering tech who designs experiments for a company who tests products for other companies. Being an engineer, we chatted about this. He confided to me that engineers were the enemies of engineering techs because they always wanted the e-techs to do impossible things. (I really have no response to this because, well, it's true.)

Marci said they were interested in getting into more historically-focused reenacting, so we hope to see more of them at our future events. (The great thing about the Mercury is that it's not real tough to sign on. You don't have to chose a role and you will never get put on the second string ship because we don't have a second ship. You're either in the Mercury or you swim.)

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Photo: Sos Boss
MD dancing while hauling away Joe
There was also quite a bit of lunacy going on with the gibbet on Sunday. Maybe it was all that sun and heat - it was making everyone giddy. It even got M.A. d'Dogge dancing while he hauled Joe away as you can see in the photo at right.

For some reason event-organizer Ty came over to our camp and either wanted or was forced to get into the gibbet. (I was doing presentations when he came over, so I missed the lead up to this. I can readily imagine that M.A. d'Dogge had something to do with it, though.)

So they hauled Ty up in the gibbet and several of us went over to get photos of this. Ty may be really good to us, but any opportunity to make someone in charge look silly is not an opportunity to be passed up. Somewhere in the photographing, someone appears to have given Ty a toy octopus, although I can't image why. More silliness seems the most likely explanation. Soon, we had gotten our fill of photos, so we wandered off to man or stations and just left him there.

Photo: Marci Kroska Ty poses for Cheeky in the gibbet

Photo: Mission Then we kind of left him there for a while.

Photo: Michael Colosimo "Guys...? Guys? Hey..."

Photo: Sos Boss
Lisa winds up for the pitch...
Something else that had been going on at the gibbet was Lisa/Bess throwing water at the person trapped inside. (At least she did it as long was she was willing to haul water over to throw at them.) She started out throwing it at the tourists (and presumably missing or not using real water. Tourists get testy when you splash the clothes they have to wear the rest of the day, even in fun.)

I am guessing she got the idea for doing this from M.A. d'Dogge's description of the gibbet where he said that people threw buckets of nasty water and probably chamber pots at the villains encapsulated in the bars.

Eventually someone (my guess would be Michael) got Kate Bagley in there and then they decided to try it for real. Although, thinking on it, Kate probably agreed to let them do this because she can get as testy as any tourist if you cross her.

Photo: Mission Michael holds, Lisa prepares

Photo: Sos Boss Lisa forcefully pitching water at her target

Photo: Mission Lisa wallops Kate with the water

Photo: Sos Boss
Once Lisa/Bess/Cheeky gets an idea, she has to run with it, sometimes way beyond the end zone. Two of the soldiers from the Perry Monument were hanging around the camp on Sunday and this seemed to present an opportunity to splash someone who appeared to be an authority figure. (In fact, they had almost no authority whatsoever and were some of the most laid-back guys you would ever want to meet, but they fit the part. They don't call her Cheeky Actress for nothing.)

So she got Kate Bagley, who was already wet, to pose with the soldier presumably under the premise the she was once again going to splash Kate while she posed with the soldier. Now I was standing right there taking pictures, so you would think I would recall what happened, but the truth is the only thing I remember is the guy in the soldier outfit saying with resignation, "You're not going to splash her at all, are you? You're going to splash me." Sure enough, that's exactly what she did. It was so hot and he was wearing several layers of uniform, so the situation probably suited him just fine once he decided to accept it.

Photo: Mission Lisa apprising the best angle

Photo: Mission Lisa gets ready for the release

Photo: Mission And she splashes him, missing Kate

We have one last tale to tell about the stocks and gibbet from Put-in-Bay. It is actually a continuation of another story that's already been told in the Columbus Santa Maria Journal from May 2012 - that of the Saturday celebration of M.A. d'Dogge's birthday. (Well, one of them. There were at least four Saturday celebrations that I remember.) Those of you who do not recall it or (gasp!) didn't read it should follow this link and do so right now.

M.A. d'Dogge apparently vowed to get even with everyone who had planned this little assault on his person and since Trish had been celebrating her birthday all weekend in Put-in-Bay, she was the first one MD was going to get. At his insistance, a crew hauled Trish bodily over to the stocks. (A crew that most notably contained her husband Shannon.) She struggled valiantly along the way, but the pirates eventually got her in there so that M.A. d'Dogge could deliver the final blow! No, no on Trish's head, on the pegs locking her in the stocks. There was a small but noisy group of Junior Hecklers that kept calling out for birthday spankings, which makes me speculate on the unfortunate details of their upbringing.

Photo: Mission Trish hauled to stocks

Photo: Mission Trish going in the stocks

Photo: Mission A crowd of junior hecklers

Photo: Mission MD pegs the stocks

Once they had secured Trish in the stocks, it was time for the birthday cupcake! (Carndinal Fang! Fetch...the comfy chair!) Kate Bagley (who's time I suspect is coming) brought it up to Trish, but then M.A. d'Dogge took over. You can sort of see the results of this below center, although it was hard to get a good photo. Of course, as soon as she was free, Trish did the same thing to ol' MD, probably starting a whole new chain of revenge/counter-revenge. You just can't win when you try and get even with someone.

Photo: Mission It looks like the Scarlet Letter, doesn't it?

Photo: Mission The punishment fits the crime

Photo: Lisa Dousharm Turnabout is fair play. Or is it?

Photo: Mission's Camera
Mission and Kristian Campana of OhioFestivals.net
There were two more stories from the display camp that at worth mentioning here. The first was that I was visited by Kristian Campana who runs the website OhioFestivals.net. Kristian writes these brief, cheerful little reviews of various festivals he visits on his website and accompanies them with photos. You can see what he wrote about the PIB Pirate Fest by checking that link.

Browsing through his web page, I noticed that he visits a lot of festivals. (Who knew that Ohio was so infested with festivals?) Sometimes he visits several on the same weekend or even on the same day! For example, the day before the PIB Pirate Fest, Kristian was at the Italian-American Brotherhood Festival in Bedford, Ohio. (No doubt he stuffed cotton in his cheeks for that one.)

Photo: Mission
"The best treatment is to get this boat into the water."
The other curious thing that happened involved our two paramedics. Yes, the Put-in-Bay pirate reenactors featured one Pirate Surgeon with limited knowledge of useful medicine and two actual paramedics with real world, useful knowledge of medicine: Dan Curtis and Jim Brown. Apparently someone fainted or felt faint and the paramedics were called over by Michael Bagley. Their advice, as you can see at right, was to place this person in the Green Black Sheep. Ha, ha, just a bit of medical levity there. Everyone knows you don't put fainting folks in boats sitting on land, you only do that when the boat is in the water!

A second medical issue came up and Dan and Jim were once again dramatically summoned to aid. While Dan went back for his medical box (or surgeon's chest if we're being PC), Jim literally ripped off his coat while he was running over to assist. If he'd have had a pair of horn-rimmed glasses, he'd no doubt have torn them off dramatically with one hand.

It turned out that the person didn't want aid. (In fact, from what I observed, I'd say their illness was due to a late night involving many various ingested concoctions.)

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Photo: Mission
Capt'n Willie 'edutaining' Lest you think we were the only show going on at the Pirate Fest, I took a quick walk around on Sunday and shot a couple of photos of other presentations. (There were more things going on than shown here, but these were the ones I spotted when I was able to get away.)

Capt'n Willie was giving a Kid's Water Safety Demonstration on both Saturday and Sunday at the main stage. Capt'n Willie's web page explained that he is 'The Great Lakes Pirate' who incorporates accidental learning and musical interaction to provide useful 'edutainment'. His show advocates water safety on the Great Lakes, particularly around the Cleveland area.

Photo: Mission
The Gillmour Ordnance sales table Across from there was the Gilmour Ordnance Table where "Business is Booming." (Seriously, that's their slogan.) Like last year, they were there firing the cannons as often as possible, trying to live up to their slogan. Bob Gillmor and his crew were also selling all sorts and sizes of brass cannons which they had cast as well as some special brass medallions commemorating the event. I got one last year which I've been hauling around to events with me, so I bought one of the ones from this year's event. Pretty soon I'll have a whole collection of them and my surgeon's shipping box will weight another 10 pounds.

I also came across Faire Wynds Entertainments. (In truth, it was hard to miss them because they were set up directly across from our site just like last year.) Eric and Susan were there, entertaining folks with period-era clowning and entertainment. Eric works with fire and he is exceptionally good at gathering a crowd. Since this is what they do for a living, you can hardly begrudge them for stealing folks away at times.

Photo: Mission Eric playing with fire again

Photo: Mission Eric exhorts the crowd while Susan looks on

Photo: Mission A volunteer from the audience

Photo: Mission
Tia and little kid Also present again this year was Captain Jack Sparrow and his crew. (Actually, there were two Captains Jack and their crew, although this group was a lot closer to the movies than the other.) This was the same group as has been at the Put-in-Bay Pirate Fest since the first event where CJ won the contest.

Photo: Jim Shipley
Tia and big kid They had made a few new additions to their crew since the last time I remember. I seem to recall them having Captain Jack, Will Turner and Elizabeth Swan in their merry troupe at previous events. Now they had added Angelica Teach from Stranger Tides and Tia Dalma. One thing I will say for their group, they do a wonderful job with the costumes. Everyone's outfit looked quite good.

The kids really ate it up, too. Tia Dalma seemed to be an excellent addition to their cast of characters and big hit with the kids. As you can see in the surrounding photos, both the little kids and the big ones were excited to get into photos with her.

The Captain Jack group also ran a sword-fighting traiining with foam swords for the kids. I didn't see this, so you get not photos. (Sorry.) They also ran the scavenger hunt - naturally called a Treasure Hunt - which resulted in all those kids running around and screaming as I mentioned in a previous chapter. It provided a nice addition, especially for the kids who have watched the movies twenty times. (Like the big kid in the photo above right.)

Photo: Sos Boss The Complete Pirates of the Caribbean Crew

Photo: Mission The Pirates of the Caribbean Ladies

While the Captain Jack crew was going around posing for photos and galloping about with hoards of children, several of our pirates were resting. This seems to be a regular occurrence with our group at Put-in-Bay - I found of bunch of them doing the same thing in 2011. I'd like to say it's because we work so hard at this event, but it's more likely the result of late nights featuring lots of imbibing and long days spent baking in the sun. Ya' know....

Photo: Sos Boss You can rest them by a boat

Photo: Marci Kroska You can rest the with a goat

Photo: Sos Boss You can rest 'em with a gal

Photo: Sos Boss And anywhere but jail!

Then there was the Beach Boys Lie In. I'm not exactly sure what started all this, but Billie and M.A. d'Dogge were both lying on the ground resting or possibly playing dead and people started joining them so that they could get pictures. ("Look, Ma'! I'm road kill! Ha ha ha!") The amazing part was when some girls' mother encouraged them to join Billie and MD as you see below right. Wait.... no... seriously?!

Photo: Marci Kroska Nap time for the Pokey Oaks Kindergarten Pirate Class

Photo: Marci Kroska What were these girl's parents THINKNG?

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