Today as I picked up my kindergartener from school, she pretended not to see me because she had pulled her construction-paper-n- feathers headband over her eyes.
For today's feast she was an Indian*.
Immediately in my mind I was thrown back to second grade or so, to the Feast -- or, likely, many feasts. I always had the feathers and the brown paper bag vest. How I longed to be a Pilgrim. The broad, white paper hat, the clean collar. Instead of wearing it, I sat across from it with much jealousy.
Why did I feel that way? I know that those who were Pilgrims were also the kids with the blond hair, the blue eyes; the girls with the long and straight hair, pulled back into ponytails tied with pink yarn. All things I longed to have for myself.
Do you remember these activities? Do you remember which costume you wore? Did it make an impact on you as it did me?
*don't get all PC with me, I'm part Cherokee.
get ye m' button
like it?
i'm speaking!
365 Days of Story Prompts
I made this! You can buy it!
math's hard
12 comments:
i was an indian and i was cool with that. i liked being the indian.
what i remember is that my mom didn't make it to the program (because she'd just given birth to her fifth child--hello little girl me, give her a break). i was so sad. i walked home by myself in my paper brown grocery bag costume with tears streaming down my face (hello little girl me, it's not cool to cry in public).
and i needed to go to the bathroom sooooo badly.
i'm sure i don't have to tell you what happened next.
it was a sad day and it marked me for life.
happy thanksgiving.
I don't think I was ever anything. But I was Cinderella in the 3rd grade play because I could read the best.
And all I can think about was that amazing Thanksgiving pageant from The Addams Family.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptLD0kCoHG4
You just brought back a flood of memories...I was an Indian too.
Dark hair/Dark Eyes/Olive skin
Sometimes I still wish I could be blonde, I suppose I could. But I like my dark.
Did you know all three of my kids are part Native American?
HAHAHAH Yen, perfect.
I'm about as cracker as they come, but boy howdy did I like the brown skinned boys. Of the pineapple persuasion particularly. Also, I always wanted a lot of vowels in my name.
Too bad I married a Czech guy.
Since we practically live on the rez... or close to it, I was informed that sitting on the ground is not called Indian style, it's called criss cross. Dumb.
I was probably a pilgrim because I'm albino. But I probably wanted to be an Indian. My husband looks like an Indian. My kids are albino.
I took a percocet tonight and that probably just made no sense.
BAHA! "I'm a turkey! Eat me!"
I was never anything. But, one of my Navajo friends loves to share the following joke that I suspect applies here:
What do you get when you put 100 white people in a room?
One Cherokee.
get it? get it? Bc everyone says they're part Cherokee...
Whatever.
I was always in the chorus...my sister was a stick of butter once though.
I remember making the grocery bag vest and the headband with the construction paper feathers. I remember thinking it was awesome to be one of the Indians. (And I was even blonder then.)
We made grocery bag vests at our neighborhood preschool this past week and it was a total hit. I think everyone likes playing the indian.
I, however, was like you. The long dark hair, the dark skin...instant indian every time. Now that I'm older, though, I realize how much cooler that really was.
I remember there being pilgrims and Indians, and I remember the Thanksgiving meal too. I don't remember if I was a pilgrim or an Indian. E.G. was an Indian this year (a classmate of his has a father who is Native American and he came in, did a dance for them, and told them all kinds of "really cool things!" so I think E.G. was thrilled to be an Indian.)
I DO remember the 1st Grade Circus where I was the Seal Trainer and got to wear a pink leotard and tutu.
Post a Comment