| "You can't double tig on a tag!!" | The History of the Kooks | |
       
Write your own history!!! |
...According to Anne Muether:
Here's a brief and mostly true story
about my kook conversion:
One day when I was a mere tot
(one year old, if you're interested in knowing), I chanced upon a Church
then known as Lake Sherwood OPC (now known as Loch Sherwood OPC). As I
was playing with a stuffed penguin and a squeaky teapot in the nursery,
I saw a gargantuan child playing with a slinky. The aforesaid child was
little less than a year old at the time. I carefully placed my penguin
into a playpen (later I discovered that a child was also in that
playpen. The child apparently also had a thing for penguins and
instantly took a liking to Mr. Peepers. It was the last I ever saw of
that penguin.) and I went up to the kid with the slinky and I thought to
myself "She looks like an ox." I said to her, "Excuse me, but are you
Allison Coulter?" and she said "Ah, Anne Muether, man!" We were fast
friends. We later became acquainted with the now-kooks: Joy (well, I
already knew her), Beth, Erin, Teresa, and last but not least, Elena.
About twelve years later a
bunch of the now-kooks were playing scrabble in Maine. Allison kept
knocking the tiles off the board. We all exclaimed "clumsy ox!"
countless times, until the name stuck. We shortened it to "Ox" and
lengthened it to "Babe the big, blue, clumsy, air-headed, ox". This idea
of Allison being Babe the Blue Ox from the Paul Bunyan tale gave birth
to the "Bunionion" family. We all became part of the Bunionion
clan. Still we were yet to be kooks.
Erin was wont to declaim "Kooky
Nena" whenever Elena did something that Erin believed was less than
smart. This phrase "Kooky Nena" fascinated me. It wasn't long before we
realized that "kook" was the only word that truly described us. But the
final official use of the name came when we created The Forum.
A while back, American Girl
introduced Joy to Ruthie Bixby. They became pen-pals. One day Ruth's
sister Esther asked me if I'd like to be her pen-pal. I excitedly
agreed. Alas, I was a poor correspondent. Lazy is perhaps a
better adjective. I ceased to write out of pure laziness.
In the Winter of 2001, we all
became enamored with the film The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship
of the Ring. We became known as the "Lord of the Rings freaks",
which suited us just fine. Yet we wished for a still grander title. A
title that rolls off the tongue. A title that suggests magnificence.
Though it was my turn to write, Esther wrote to me and told me how much
she enjoyed the FOTR. Little did I know, Esther was a kook in the
making. Yet kook was still not our official title.
After much lurking, on October
21, 2002, I, Anne Muether, became a member of BillyBoyd.net's forum.
Sadly, this forum is no longer in existence, but the memory is still
potent. To be a member of this forum was a great honor. You were not
only a member, you were a loon. Loon-dom was a sure sign of
one's LOTR obsession. I had a wee scarvie and everything. Ah, those were
the days!
My highly computer savvy
brother Timbo observed my infatuation with bb.net, and created a forum
for me and my posse. It was terrific, yet I sensed something was
missing. I told Joy, "We need to have a name for the members of the
forum. You know how bb.netters are called 'loons', well we should be
called something too. Like kooks... Okay that's stupid. Nevermind." But
to my surprise, Joy liked the term "kook" and so we became *drum
roll* The kooks!!
Well Tim didn't fancy the forum
too much. It was terribly slow and Tim foresaw that the slowness would
be the forum's undoing. So he created another one. A better one. Sadly,
that one crashed, taking all of our Bree posts with it. The Bree thread
has never been the same since. Tim created another one, and that one's
been doing dandy. Esther joined and became an official kook. Joy
created this website.
At a Scottish Festival, Joy,
Beth, Al, and myself were hanging out on a hill listening to Enter The
Haggis while we threw grass at each other. Joy wanted to insult Beth so
she called her a Walrus, because that was the ugliest animal she could
think of. It soon got lengthened to B-b-beth the W-w-walrus. Allison was
the only one who could do the "W-w-w" perfectly, and rather than have
Allison feel special we just call Beth Walrus now.
But our LOTR obsession was far
from over. We threw b-day bashes for the actors of LOTR, regardless of
the funny looks we got from casual observers. During one of these
parties, someone called Joy a pig. I suspect it was Beth. Next thing I
knew, I was titled "Donkey." I was enraged. Since then I have come to
appreciate the title Donkey. Elena was dubbed Cwod Feesh, the New Yorker
way of saying Cod Fish. And Erin was known for being loud so we named
her "Rooster," which we later realized meant "male chicken." Whether we
really knew that before we named Erin Rooster, you can decide. Teresa
became Weasel, and Esther became Ostrich. It's a funny world.
Through all of this, I will
never forget the roots. LOTR has contributed to our kook-dom greatly. As
did BB.net. As did Scrabble.
Should auld acquaintance be
forgot
and never brought to mind
Should auld acquaintance be
forgot
for auld lang syne.
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