Punchin' Judy No. TK-O Judy once lived a simple childhood in the tranquil town of Spokane, dreaming, as all little girls do, of one day joining a roller derby team. Oddly, she had also recently begun spending an inordinate amount of time at puppet shows. Days once spent skating and dreaming of jamming and blocking were now spent at the local park near Judy’s home watching a local theatre group from north Idaho perform their puppet shows. Judy could not logically explain her new found preoccupation with puppets, she only knew she liked them very much and found their shows hypnotizing. Sadly, her skates were soon relegated to a mere means of getting her to and from the park. On a day that started out like so many before it, Judy’s new obsession cost her dearly. Her last memory was of skating to the park for her daily fix of puppetry. From there her mind drew blank until it awoke in an Arian Nation compound, her faithful skates the only evidence of the events prior to her blackout. For years, entranced Judy was held captive as a recruit at this compound where she was trained in the militant ways of her captors. Given her proclivity towards puppetry, hand to hand combat, in particular boxing, became her trademark. When on occasion her memory would offer up snapshots of her prior life, her oppressors need only flash a puppet before her eyes to draw her submissively back into their control. In time, Judy learned to avert her eyes when the once precious puppets were flashed before her. She slowly began to reclaim the fragmented pieces of her sanity and to loath her oppressive captors and the power they had wielded over her. As night fell she grabbed her boxing gloves and laced up her skates and escaped the evil compound. She vowed that day not only to fulfill her lifelong roller derby dream, but to spend the rest of her days fighting against oppression and bring power and liberation to the people. Photo: Charles Holzhey BACK