Collection #8: Pirate Stuff... .... arrr!

Now I know this is a giant shocker to you all out there.. but I love pirates. LOVE pirates. Especially Blackbeard. Why, you ask?

It all started in 8th grade (I think..) when I had the greatest history teacher in the world, James Pope. Mr. Pope taught at Corriher Lipe Middle School, home of the Yellow Jackets, in Landis, NC.

Mr. Pope loved pirates. His classroom was full of pirate stuff. When it got to be time to talk about pirates in class, you could see a definite gleam in his eye, and he got very excited and emotional and loud and quiet. All of these things make for a great lesson, and very interested students. I loved it. Mr. Pope loved pirates so much, that every year he hosted a Pirate Troop.

The Pirate Troop was a group of the 8th graders who got dressed up like pirates, with a pirate persona, and went around to all the local elementary schools, and acted out a little pirate play. The play was the pirates telling the story of Blackbeard.

In 6th grade I decided I wanted to be an actress, and when I found out that the Pirate Troop existed, I dreamed of being a part of it. Only 8 lucky 8th graders were chosen to be in the little bit of awesomeness. So when it came time to audition, I was hella nervous, but I was confident.

Lucky for me, Mr. Pope already knew me before getting into his class, and he already loved me and my brothers (he had taught both of them, too). When I freakin' nailed my audition, I was a shoe-in.

Apparently that year there were so many great "actors" who auditioned, that he expanded to 2 pirate troops, each consisting of 6 players. I was a pirate. My persona was Scarlet Hatcher, or "Hatcher the Hatchet". That's what Mr. Pope chose for me, and I loved it. I got to carry around a dulled hatchet, and scare little kids with it!

Anywho, so I loved that. And I loved pirates all through high school and college too. Then of course, Pirates of the Caribbean came out, adding fuel to the fire.

And then there's my internship that I got to do with the Queen Anne's Revenge Project. The Queen Anne's Revenge was Blackbeard's flagship. In 1718, he beached (purposely sank) this flagship in Beaufort Inlet. In 1996, underwater treasure hunters found this ship, and ever since then, underwater archaeologists have been slowly recovering artifacts. PIRATE ARTIFACTS! BLACKBEARD ARTIFACTS!!! Lucky for me, in the year 2004, they needed a GIS intern to do stuff for them, and I was lucky enough to be chosen. It's definitely one of the coolest things I've ever experienced. I got to touch actual Blackbeard artifacts. I especially liked this:



Needless to say, I collect piratey stuff now. I have a bathroom that I call "the pirate bathroom" where I put a lot of my piratey stuff. I've been a pirate for Halloween many times. Pirates rule.

Some of my bathroom stuff:


My pirate "action figures":


I have much more than this, but I don't have that much room on my camera :)




Oh yea, and guess what!? I'm going to see Dane Cook tonight in Charlotte! woohoo!!