Yargh Mateys!

As the countdown to “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides” dwindles to 1 day,  I’ve decided it’s necessary for me to explain to the public (read: you) my obsession with pirates.

No, I didn’t fall in love with Pirates in 2003 when The Curse of the Black Pearl was released.  Nor did I fall in love with pirates in Disney World while going on the ride, which, by the way inspired the movies. Not the other way around.

I became interested in pirates in the spring of 1996.  That makes me 11 years old.  Walt Disney and Jim Henson Productions released “Muppet Treasure Island”, the traditional tale of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island, with a muppet twist.  Before the movie even hit theaters I was obsessed.  I had a paperback copy of the original novel, and yes, at 11 years old, read the entire thing through so many times that it became tattered, the cover tore off, and pages ripped and stained with whatever goodies I was eating at that time.  I watched the previews on TV and played “pirate” and turned my bedroom into a pirate ship.  (Oh, you thought that was a onetime thing that I did when I turned 23? Wrong. I’m experienced at turning anything into a pirate ship.  Care to challenge me?)  I made home movies with the VHS tape recorder of myself and my siblings dressed in pirate gear.  I got the soundtrack and played it so many times in my tape player that it broke and I had to get another one.   I had all the songs memorized.  Still do, actually…

There's a chance I have this poster framed in my childhood bedroom...

When the movie finally came to theaters, everyone went to see it without me because I had ballet.  That’s pretty much how my entire childhood went.  Maybe that’s why I’m so messed up today?  Anyway, I finally managed to get to the one theater in Downingtown, PA that always played movies well after their release date.  And I loved it! 

From then on, pirates were totally my thing.  Well, so were smiley faces, candles, ballet classes, dorky clothes from The Limited Too, and the rest of middle and high school.  But in 2003 Disney did it again.  This time they added a fantastic actor in the starring role.  I remember seeing the first POTC at University Mall Theaters my sophomore year of college.  After that one, I saw the rest at midnight showings.  What do you think I have planned for tomorrow at midnight?? That’s right.

Happy 23rd Birthday to me!

I don’t really know what it is about pirates.  Maybe it’s the freedom of the seas, or the sense of  adventure, or the lure of golden treasure.  But whatever it is, I’m totally into it.

And with that, I leave you with a sneak preview of my Facebook profile picture for tomorrow, which will culminate 10 days of different pirate profile pictures from various events in my life.  It took some extreme skills in Microsoft Paint, but I think it turned out splendidly.

Yo Ho! Yo Ho! A Pirate’s life for me!

~CAPT SARAH