I wanted to be a pirate!

I set the blame for this one squarely on the shoulders of Maureen O’Hara. The shoulders that hid beneath endless swirls of red hair. (Technicolor loved that red hair.) She stood tall and strong on the deck of The Black Swan. Not even Tyrone Power could tame her.

Argh!

Maureen encouraged me, but Tiger Lily gave me the initial inspiration. Wendy was whiny, but Peter Pan knew that Tiger Lily could handle herself (and a saber if she had to).

Think that I gave up my childish notion as I grew up?

Argh!!

Think again, matey. I took fencing in college because I wanted to try out for the part of Viola in Twelfth Night. Okay, Viola wasn’t a pirate, but she could have been. She got to fight with a sword, and anyway, that was the closest I could get to being a pirate in 1980.

Until I joined the Renaissance Festival as a street character in 1988. Yeah, I hung around with a pretty scurvy crowd. I even took stage combat lessons.

I still have an epee by my bed.

Argh.