Attention, WalMart Shoppers

You won't see this every day!

Saturday, last-minute shopper that I am, I stood among the greeting cards at WalMart, looking for something for my friend Donna's birthday party that afternoon. I love standing around reading greeting cards, as long as they don't contain rhyming poetry. Although I saw several hilarious cards that I'd never run across before, the cards didn't take me by surprise... the accordion did.

The accordion and its player marched by the end of the row, closely followed by two guitarists, a fiddler, and a whole troupe of dancing, clapping, oddly-garbed people. An amused-looking photographer brought up the rear.

Assuming the Highland Games in Ferndale had something to do with the display, I watched the show march past and went back to reading the cards.

Five minutes later (it takes me a long time to card-shop) I heard the music again, this time accompanied by raucous--but trained--voices singing "And the streets run red with the blood of the rich..."

I turned to watch again, and it hit me: these weren't highlanders, not unless I missed the history class that talked about the Scotch ruling the high seas with swords and terror. These were pirates, fully-costumed, singing pirates, missing only a parrot and the Jolly Roger.

A little Googlework led me to the Pirates-R-Us. I'd never heard of this group before and have no idea what their songs are really like, but they sure livened up the Bellingham WalMart. Ah yes, this is why I moved to Bellingham. The funky, offbeat cultural melting pot appeals to me, minus the drugs of course. If you're bored or short on creativity in this town, you're just not getting out enough.