Portrait of Aidan

When I met Aidan, he had been playing soccer for a few months and liked playing it.  He also liked playing Roblox and Minecraft.

Aidan participated in Taekwondo and had a red belt. Aidan could not break bricks. He said, “One time I was in school, and there were black belts that could break five bricks. I don’t want to break five bricks, I want to break 5,000 bricks.” After thinking about it, he said he couldn’t even jump as high as a 1,000 bricks. So, he decided he wanted to break ten.

Image Credits: Bat-Ami Gordin ©2017 all rights reserved. Credit if you use it, please.

Portrait of Victoria Higgley

Victoria was an actress for Pirates For Hire. She did the Ventura Pirate Festival at Ventura Harbor every year; she was a “traveling pirate.”

Victoria emphasized that she was a “lady pirate and not a wench.” She sword fought, beat up/got beaten up by other pirates, but “on the most part, spent time together with friends.”

Image Credits: Bat-Ami Gordin ©2017 all rights reserved. Credit if you use it, please.

Portrait of Gary-2

Gary was a retired Toyota car parts salesman who owned a 1957 Cushman scooter, Eagle, all stock with a sidecar. It was originally his father’s and he inherited it. His father had it about eight years after purchasing it because when he was younger, he had one.

His father worked at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center, located at Edwards Air Force Base for 51 years. When his father died,  Gary got a tattoo engraved, with the NASA meatball theme,  but instead of saying “NASA” it said “DAD” (see below).

Image Credits: Bat-Ami Gordin © 2017 all rights reserved. Credit if you use it, please.

 

 

 

 

 

Portrait of Buttercup

Five year old Buttercup was a dancer who did ballet and tap. She loved makeup and to play dress up.

Buttercup played all kinds of sports with all her cousins. She played t-ball with all her cousins in spring and played soccer in the fall.

Image Credits: Bat-Ami Gordin ©2017 all rights reserved. Credit if you use it, please.

Portrait of Randy

Randy was a Desert Storm veteran who served as a firefighter for six months in Oman.

Randy was originally from Covina, California, USA. He grew up in Nebraska but spent his high school years in Whittier, California. He moved to Rosamond, California because, being divorced, his children lived in Rosamond and he wanted to be close to them.

Image Credits: Bat-Ami Gordin © 2017 all rights reserved. Credit if you use it, please.

 

Portrait of Cherrie

Cherrie, who was from the Los Angeles, California, USA area, said her friend brought her to the Ventura Pirate Festival at Ventura Harbor for the first time the day that we met and she was “having a blast.”

Cherrie pieced together her costume from various articles of clothing that she had. She believed that her costume represented a costume that a well-kept pirate’s wife or pirate’s mistress would have owned. A friend of hers gave her a few of the pieces and some of the pieces she had inherited.

Image Credits: Bat-Ami Gordin ©2017 all rights reserved. Credit if you use it, please.

Portrait of Shannon

Shannon was an Explosive Ordnance Disposal Technician (EOD) or in other words, part of the United States Air Force bomb squad. He was a team leader which meant that he was in charge of teams of three or four people, responsible for when they went “out and how they responded and to a certain mission.”

Previous to EOD duty, Shannon was in another Air Force job, but he “wanted to do cooler stuff” so he volunteered for the “best job in the whole Air Force.”

Part of Shannon’s duty was to operate the specialized EOD robot and wear the EOD bomb suit, made famous in the movie The Hurt Locker.

Image Credits: Bat-Ami Gordin ©2017 all rights reserved. Credit if you use it, please.

Portrait of Deb

Deb, from Los Angeles, California, USA. made soaps, lotions and oils and good smelling things. She enjoyed doing what she did because, “it was like was like playing mad scientist and also I get to dress as a pirate. How can you ask for more? What what more could you ask for?”

Deb was born in Newton, Massachusetts, USA and grew up in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. You may view and buy her products on The Surly Herbalist.

Image Credits: Bat-Ami Gordin ©2017 all rights reserved. Credit if you use it, please

Portrait of Captain Hook

 

Captain Hook belonged to Pirates For Hire for over twelve years and participated in events such as the Ventura Pirate Festival at Ventura Harbor , county fairs, state fairs, city festivals and private parties. He said it was all a lot of fun.

Originally, Captain Hook was from the Fresno, California, USA. He moved to the Southern California area, where he acted and traveled back and forth to various event.

Image Credits: Bat-Ami Gordin ©2017 all rights reserved. Credit if you use it, please.

 

Portrait of Heather

Heather sold LuLaRoe products though her Facebook group Blissfully LuLa Boutique~ Heather’s LuLaRoe SoCal. Heather said that a lot of the products were made in Guatemala and Mexico and that the firm was trying to help underdeveloped countries employ their residents.

“The line caters to women of all shapes and sizes.” Heather said that when she gained weight nothing was comfortable, however LuLaRoe was very comfortable. The materials were extremely soft: “like butter”.

Heather said there were so many ways that you could wear these clothes. The soft-clothes absorbed sweat very well and you could also stylize the clothes so that they looked different ways.

“The style of the prints have an Americana theme and also and also a lot of Paisley prints,” Heather said, “The Prints are pretty wild, which makes it very interesting.” She noted that once they did a print, that print would never come back, so essentially “anything you buy from this line would be one of a kind.’

Heather was born and raised in Florida. She raised her kids in West Virginia for eighteen years and then she moved to Southern California. At the time of this interview, she lived in Rosamond, California, USA.

Heather had multiple sclerosis (MS). Heather was diagnosed in 2011 after, one morning, she “woke up legally blind for no reason at all.” She had gone through scans and all was nominal but when they did the spinal tap, they found it positive. Heather’s biological father had MS.

Heather did treatments which she felt were a lot like cancer treatments; it was very hard on her. She assured me, however, that she was “a primary example that multiple sclerosis was not going to define who you were” and she kept moving. She moved as much as possible and had a really great job at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center at the IT Help Desk.

Heather customarily participated in the annual MS Walk. She said it was “very very hard” on her but she wasn’t going to let her down.

Table full of LuLaRue clothes

Look at all those original prints

Image Credits: Bat-Ami Gordin © 2017 all rights reserved. Credit if you use it, please.