A pirate's life for me

I have no clue how it started, but it seems I've always had an affinity for pirates. I believe that  I'm probably descended from pirates. There were, after all, quite a few that hailed from Great Britain - the land of my ancestors. Although I do tend to get sea sick, I'm wild about travelling and love to hunt for treasure.  Perhaps, given a long enough period on a schooner, I would acclimate myself to the high seas. (Probably not.)

My pre-occupation with pirates started way before the Pirates of the Caribbean had hit the theatres. Though, I must admit, I did love the first movie and was very appreciative of the way they made the pirates lovable and scary at the same time.
I have proof that I was ahead of the curve:

This is a picture of my children, circa 1994. They were pirates in training and had already adopted fierce attitudes. I believe the first Johnny Depp Pirate movie came out in 2003 - so it was almost a full decade before the rest of the world caught on to the pirate craze. This picture was taken at my friend, Annie's cottage. I suspect she's a descendant as well because she has the same type of spirit it takes to appreciate pirates.

To be clear, I'm not talking about the type of pirates that are cruising the east coast of Africa - those pirates are mere mercenaries who have no idea of the true pirate code - at least the code that is romanticized in my mind.

Nowadays, you can't go anywhere without seeing a reference to pirates. I just saw this advertisement at the Theater of Youth last week. Photo Credit to Gayle Shaw Hutton - thanks Gayle for taking the picture for me.

This kind of thing happens to me all the time. I am a trend setter who never gets any of the credit. Take for example my daughter, Emma.  She was born in 1989. Prior to that date you couldn't find an Emma that wasn't born in the 18th century. It was one of those names that had lost its popularity. By the late 1990s it had become one of the top 100 names in the US. And my Emma got her name in the most unusual way  - I dreamt it. I woke up from the dream ( I have no idea what it was about) and I turned to Bill and told him "If it's a girl, her name HAS to be Emma. E for Elizabeth (me), MM for Mary Margaret (my mum) and A for Antionette (Bill's mom). An honest to God acronym. Bill loved it, of course.

And do you know, that name took off like nobody's business. 

Anyway, back to pirates. There is an  "International Talk like a Pirate day" every year on September 19th. My office indulged me one year, and we celebrated all day. I loved answering the phone: "And how may I assist ye t'day, me fine lass/laddie".  The other great things about pirates - are the jokes! There are a million of them - and most of them are bad: A Pirate's favorite letter? :

Rrrrrrrrr.

(Kind of like Rrrrrrrrrrrrrroll up the rim? - Hey! PS I won a coffee yesterday!)

The picture to your left is me in full pirate regalia. It was on September 19 a couple of years ago at the office. My son's pal, Tommy, got me the coconut head. The head hangs in my office as a reminder of my heritage and it is fitting since I'm often called upon to terminate employees! Tommy, knowing my love of all things pirates, calls me Cap'n instead of Mrs. Savino. He's good like that. Both Tommy and Bill recognize the pirate within me and never make fun of my rather bizarre eccentricity. I think they know that heads would rrrrrrroll if they did.