PART I: THE BEGINNING
In May of 1986, Chris, Pat, and Doug Gruber, living in Willingboro, NJ, were given a treat: they were allowed to "camp out" in the family den at 38 Melville Lane. That night, Chris suggested that the three (who were ages 12, 10, and 8, respectively) claim the house as a country of their own. Each room would be a state, and they could form their own government. Pat and Doug thought it was great and agreed to look up a Latin word the next morning in the family's World Book Encyclopedia to base the country's name on.
The next day, Chris found a section under 'Latin Language' entitled "Unusual Sources of English Words" or something to that effect. The English word "pay" came from Old Latin's "pacare" (to make peace). Hence the country of Pacaria was born right there.
That August, the family took a trip to Tennessee and along the way they stopped at a lot of Civil War sites. The three agreed to have a civil war in Pacaria. But in order to do that, a geography had to be established. The original names of the 10 states were:
* Jerseyland (Chris's half of the bedroom)
* New Tennessee (Pat's half)
* New Vermont (Doug's room)
* New Carolina (half of the living room)
* New Ohio (the half of the living room nearest the front door)
* New Missouri (the garage)
* New Kentucky (the den)
* New Oregon (the master bedroom)
* New Georgia (the bathrooms)and
* New Virginia (the kitchen)
The floor leading down the hall to the kitchen was dubbed "The Pacare River."
Part of Pennsylvania (near their grandparents' house -- actually a landfill) was claimed as a territory which has never been given a name.
When the family moved (to Alabama then to Tennessee), so did Pacaria. The appropriate shifts were made, with intermittent "temporary" states like New Arizona (the utility closet) and New Alaska (the back yard). [Also, Jerseyland was moved to the laundry room when Pat's side won the Civil War.]
Eventually, even though lots of elections (including the election of Chris's Theodore doll to the presidency) and poltical fun for the guys was there, interest died down until 1989, when Chris added a bit of culture into the mix. The Pacarian baseball league was begun and actual league play among the three ensued. After 1990, however, only Chris seemed to be interested anymore.
In 1994, while Chris was homeless, he began to rewrite the history of Pacaria. He moved the foundation date back to 1975 (the average year of the three brothers' birthdays), then to 1886 (one hundred years before it actually was conceived). He threw dice to create a political hisroy, including every President and Vice President. He then came up with a novel idea of a three-man executive branch: Presidnet, Prime Minister, and Assembly Minister. He wrote out the third formal constitution in Spring, 1996 [he and the others wrote the first two back in 1986], and began recompiling info, and writing a histroy that went back to the 10th century. [Somebody had to discover Pacaria, as he had changed it to an island in the Atlantic by then.]
Then, while casually browsing the WWW in early 1997 onhis mother-in-law's computer, Chris saw a word that would change the face of Pacaria forever: MICRONATIONS. He clicked on the link and found Ben madison's infamous micronation page and was astounded. He had thought that no one would ever completely understand his "pretend" country, but here was an entire culture of...ADULTS! who were doing what he was doing.
Shortly after, he acquired a web page with GeoCities (which he notices is a haven for micronationalists) and Pacaria opened for business on the Web on February 20, 1997. Since then, he has received over 400 hits, established ties with other nations, and has rewritten the Constitution (which is online). He also periodically puts out a newspaper, as well as keeps up with updating aspects of Pacarian culture (the sports leagues, movies, rock groups (all of which play his music -heh heh-, and has finally come to terms with his unuusal hobby.
He has also noticed that other people tend to take this whole thing waaaay to seriously and thinks they need to relax. But all-in-all, it's fun as hell.
THE NEW STATE NAMES:
New Kentucky became Dorset, and the capital is still Lexington.
New Vermont became Cortana.
New Carolina is now Ravenna.(Capitol: Carlton, a reworking of Charleston)
New Ohio is now Vanaissi.
Jerseyland is Hannover.(Capital: Trentville, a hybrid of trenton & Nashville (see New Tennessee))
New Missouri is Bandon.
New Virginia is now Huntingdon.(Capital: Billington, a reworking of Williamsburg)
New Oregon is Moravina.
New Georgia is Modena.
and New Tennessee is Midland.(capitol: Nashton, a hybrid of Nashville and Trenton.)
--Written November 9, 1997--