KW - Chapter 3: A Pirate's Life

Before Sam knew a stitch about its history, he was in love with the name Key West. "It's way cooler than saying 'Florida'," he often asserted, and he found multiple ways of working the words into conversation: "Will there be fun things to do in KEY WEST? Does KEY WEST have beaches?" Imagine how intensely his fascination with the unknown but oh-so-interestingly-named little town grew when he discovered that it was once overrun by pirates. Real ones. He made plans then and there to pack his pirate bandana ... you know, to blend in.

We don't quite recall how Sam and Carter became enamoured of pirates well before their second birthdays. I guess it must be linked to the prevalence of Pirates of the Caribbean advertising, though of course they didn't see the movie. But the tidal wave of piratemania didn't hit the commercial culture full force until this past year—it seems that everything "little boy cool" is stamped with a Jolly Roger. Certainly Sam's favourite Scholastic books are pirate themed, painting a parent-free life that is all fun and games on the high seas. I'll admit that I'm one of those moms who can't help pointing out that actual pirates are nothing to be proud of. Sam rolls his eyes at me: "I already know that...."

He responded to Key West like a scurvy dog who'd take to the seas right then and there ... provided his mother came with him. From the moment we parked the car across from a pair of pirate statues drawing attention to a jewellry (pirate booty) store, Sam adopted his Pirate Speak and didn't drop it for the rest of the day. "Avast, ye mateys! Are ye from Captain Kidd's crew!?" He was all eyes and ears on that walk through town, spotting pirate T-shirts, parrots in cages, and references to the town's pirate exhibits—including a shipwreck museum (which we skipped) and the famous Pirate Soul Museum (which we didn't: how could we?).

It was a remarkable hour for him, playing in the recreated Port Royal street and docked pirate ship. The museum has the only bonafide pirate chest and treasure known to exist, as well as one of only two authentic pirate flags. Grandma, Grandpa and I expected to simply be following Sam around, but we enjoyed seeing all that stuff. History aside, it was the interactive elements that delighted Sam. He manned the swivel canons, sniffed to ID the various cargo boxes, spent 5 mins in the pitch dark (seriously) experiencing a battle wage on the decks above, and listened to Blackbeard's swinging head relate his terrible end. Well, he opted out of that last part, actually, burying his own head in my hair as I carried him past the exhibit. While he was fascinated by the replica of Kidd's tarred remains hanging in a cage at the Execution Dock (yuck), he wasn't so thrilled at the decidedly Disney disembodied talking head. To be honest, though, I was glad to see that my lil' guy still has a threshhold for the freaky and macabre!

Once we exited into the gift shop, he beelined for the pirate figurines, those stylized 'heroes' that have little to do with the terrible men and women we'd just been learning about. And he smiled when a couple of tourists walking by called him "pirate." So, despite catching glimpses of their gruesome ends, the museum did little to dampen Sam's pirate spirit. He played pirate the rest of the day, calling to the boats in the marina as the rest of us looked for tarpon, enacting duels on the patio table of the Conch Island Fish Company where we celebrated Grandpa's 62nd birthday.

In fact, he spent a good deal of the last 3 days in pirate mode, sailing the "Singapore Junk" (the dock) and ordering around a crew of imaginary shipmates. It was wonderful to watch his imagination fired, to see his thrill in playing out his favourite stories not on his landlocked (and carpeted!) bedroom floor, but right out there on the open sea, the Key West sunshine in his eyes.