As I pulled into the park (The Park, of course, America’s premier urban park - you know the one) off Union Avenue next to the statue of Union General friend Siegel, a hawk soared overhead lazily wheeling around, riding the air currents. I was a bit jealous. I use my phone to email myself notes as I walk, depending on voice transcription to jot my observations and thoughts down. The result is sometimes confusing and sometimes rather funny. “Lazily” for instance, became “laser leaf” in the first sentence of this paragraph. Voice transcription still has a way to go.
As I walk toward General Siegal’s statue, I encounter Brad, who shouts to me that if I want to see something interesting I should hurry to the Lafayette bridge. So I do, breaking into a run, my cameras bobbing by my side, my backpack bumping me from behind. It was as I first mounted the bridge that I saw, coming down river, Tom and Huck and their motley crew of scurvy pirates.
“Fun!” Was the first thought through my head. And it was. The vessel, made from two plastic barrels that buoyed it, and boyed by four youths that paddled it around in yawing motion towards the bridge, was a perfect specimen of the sort of young imaginative undertaking for which the boys of America are famous.
Then I wandered and met a young protester, the joyful splasher and Jenny and her dog Doc. It was a good day!
The crew of the pirate ship “Bluebeard” sail under Lafayette bridge. Click on image for more photos.