Friday, July 1, 2022

"Crossing The Line"

 



During the Shellback Ceremony, while crossing the Equator, the pollywogs crawl through a pit of water tainted with bug juice, body sweat, coffee grounds, and lord knows what else. Some even repeat the process if they fail to satisfy the Royal Court. Upon the end of ceremonies, while sitting around and discussing the day’s events, one of our shipmates asked …

“The water in that pit was disgusting. Did any of you fellas get any of that water in your mouth?”

There was a lot of laughter and someone stood up and asked …

“How many of you scallywags pissed in it?”


( FiN )


3 comments:

  1. Had to go back threw twice didn’t have the cheerie to give the royal court

    ReplyDelete
  2. Aboard the old Independence CV-62 in 1980, they filled half of a jet engine storage can with sea water and untold other foul things. And yeah, I made sure to keep my mouth tightly closed. When presented before Neptune's Royal Court I was asked "What are you?" My reply, "After all this bullshit, I damned well better be a Shellback, Your Highness." It appears I met with Royal approval

    ReplyDelete
  3. and how many threw up in it?

    ReplyDelete