The Summer of 65

1965 Seattle, I was eight, my sister Kathy was six, my brother Mike was 10 and summer was Seafair!

I remember laying in the cool dry grass of a summers evening breathing clean air planning the construction of my sleek new Hydro. Would it be Miss Bardahl or Miss Slo-Mo-Shun? All the boys in the neighborhood took great pride in their home made Hydroplanes. With in a few weeks the races would be over and our Hydros would be bent and broken from the S.E. 7th street Gold Cup.

Each boat powered by its own Stingray bike engine. Sleek crafts of thunder driven by boys dreaming of being Bill Muncey. We would debate over who would win this years Gold Cup as we would build our summer dreams.

This year Seafair came closer to home for all of us kids. Our mom's got together and planed our very own Seafair parade. It would start at our house, go up the block, turn left and down to the Wallen's house then turn around and March back up the parade route to our house and cool-aid, cake and prizes for our costumes. It was a fun day. A great summer day, Thanks Mom!

A few days later my mom came back from shopping hurried. The Seafair Pirates were spotted at a small shopping center near our home. The Seafair Pirates, the villains of Seafair, those dangerous rouges, those kidnappers of princesses. This was better than Hydros to my brother and I. Real Pirates!

We quickly got into our pirate clothes and grabbed our mighty hand made wooden swords. Kathy got dressed in her parade princess outfit. Mom painted fine bold handlebar mustaches on Mike and I. We were out the door in record time. Off we went to attack the Pirates. It was thrilling. The expectation of the moment was hard to take at eight years old.

We found the Pirates by finding their mighty ship. It was abandoned. The anticipation of conflict was great. We knew they must be close as they wouldn't abandon their craft for long. So my brother and I made a pact to save our sister and our Mom. The best place to defend ourselves from the murderous hoard would be to take over their own Pirate Ship the famous "Moby Duck".

As we boarded the Pirates came out of their lair where they had been causing mischief and mayhem escaping the hot noon day sun of July. I was scarred, there they were. Not images from the paper or TV, black and white of course, but real, larger than life, Pirates! They yelled and scoffed at us. How dare we take over their pride and joy; Moby Duck.

We learned a secret that day. That when Pirates escape the noon day sun they leave their Pirate swords aboard the Duck. We had swords and they didn't. But they were real pirates and we knew we were little boys playing pirate. We soon came to find that the Seattle Seafair Pirates liked little kids. Especially kids who were fellow Pirates and Seafair Royalty, we all had a great time. It was a great lesson in facing our fear. We each got a Pirate Pin, our picture taken, a sword fight or two and a paper Pirate Hat. We were robbing them blind. Life didn't get any better than that for kids 6, 8 and 10.

In 1987, I decided, that if I could give to one child the experience I shared with my sister and brother, my life would be much richer. That's why I'm a Seattle Seafair Pirate. We have a saying in the Pirates, "You can't grow up and be a Pirate". I hope I always stay eight years old like the Seattle Seafair Pirates of 1965.

By,
Mark "the Shark" Moyer


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