A Tribute to the Pirate Guys
by FunkyLady
I think it’s only fitting that the guys who started the greatest pirate celebration on earth get a little much deserved attention, don’t you think?
Let’s go back to the beginning. On June 6, 1995, John Baur (Ol’ Chumbucket) and Mark Summers (Cap’n Slappy) were playing racquetball. They started yelling out encouragements to each other in pirate slang. At that point they decided that the pirate slang made the game more fun and the time pass quickly. But more importantly…they decided that the world needed a new national holiday such as Talk Like a Pirate Day. They would have chosen June 6th as the official day for their newly instituted holiday but it was already taken so they decided on September 19th instead.
The two pirate guys celebrated Talk Like a Pirate Day on their own for seven years. They had created their own national holiday that no one knew about and they were fairly content with that. Then one day, in early 2002, John came across the email of famous humorist, Dave Barry. They sent an email to introduce themselves and their pirate holiday. Dave Barry published an article about it…
And the rest is history! History that you can read on their official website, which is extremely entertaining, by the way. You can also buy the Pirate Guys’ books and other merchandise on their site and view great pirate pictures.
As a note of interest, Ol’ Chumbucket recently turned into a real pirate of the Caribbean—he moved his large family down to the island of St. Croix!
This Friday, September 19th, raise yer cup of grog and toast the Pirate Guys what gave us the world wide fun-omenon of Talk like a Pirate day!
ARRRR!
