Big Stuff.

Here's a funny one: I was looking for giant pumpkin seeds for Tim's grandsons. I thought it would be a fun summer activity for them. They are a pretty easy to grow thing, and it would be fun for them to watch them grow over the summer. 

So. 

I hunted around on line, reading about giant pumpkin seeds. Can you believe that people are selling. 5 giant pumpkin seeds for $150? Another place wanted $40 per seed! There you go, Northsider! That's a business for you! How many seeds does a pumpkin have? You could sell them at a bargain price of $10 apiece and still wind up with plenty of dosh to splash around at the carboots! 

Large pumpkins are much more reasonably priced than giant pumpkins, and I'm sure that they will be exciting enough to watch through the summer. 

Other than that, not much to report. Quiet day shopping for birthday presents. We found a nice sale and got all the interior door knobs for the house at $6. each, on clearance. We also got a low profile hall light for the laundry space for $15. Tim ran up to Levi's to get some rough cut to have on hand, and he picked up the stuff we need to start doing the plumbing work. Tomorrow is a one person day, with very little stepping and fetching, and it's a little too early for 'hold this right here like that'. 

So I've got a day off...which is great, because tomorrow is Book Club. I have not been able to make the meetings. The assigned reading this month was to read a banned book. I read two, actually. Since they were children's books, it was quite easy to do. I read "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian" by Sherman Alexie and Laura Ingall Wilder's Little House on the Prairie. 

What's interesting about the Little House series, is that I read them as a child and adored them. Every year at the beginning of the school year, I would go to the library, and check the books out, one at a time, and reread them. Every year of elementary school. My initial thoughts were that it was ridiculous that the books were on the banned list, but then came the day when I was reading a passage to William. The Indians had gathered to declare war on the white settlers. The Osage Indians, led by Soldat du Chene came to the powwow and argued against it, fearing that if they killed whites, the government would deliver a disasterous response. The chief felt so strongly about this that he said that if the decision was made to attack, that he and his tribe would fight them. 

The powwow lasted for three days, with drumming and war cries, and a Laura described the fear of lying in bed at night and hearing this. The family was fearful of attack. It must have been terrifying. in the end, the decision was reached. They would not attack the settlers. 

William was probably 8. Maybe 9. We discussed it. It was very easy to view the Indians as 'the enemy', but we also discussed the situation from the Indian's point of view. It was a back and forth discussion, and William was interested. 

We have Bob the Buffalo hanging in our library. The interesting thing about Bob is that he is a very old mount. His head is filled with concrete, and the board he is mounted on is very, very old. The story (unverified) from the man we got him from was that he bought the thing from an estate sale of Cornelius Vanderbilt back when he was a very young man. Who knows if it is true, really. He was an elderly white haired gentleman at this point, giving it to me because after years of moving, hauling it from one part of the country to the other, after 40 years, he realized that his wife was dead serious when she said that Bob was not going to hang in her house. Ever. 

For my part, I thought "HA!!! Here's my chance to get one over on Tim. He'll never believe that I got him a buffalo for his birthday." The deal was done, and it was only after the fact that I realized just how big a buffalo head is. His wife had a valid point. It took three people to get the thing on the wall, and this was only after installing a massive lag bolt directly into the stud. 

But I digress. Cornelius Vanderbilt was a key player in the building of the transcontinental railroad. When the government decided to take care of the "Indian Problem", one of the tactics used was to slaughter millions of buffalo. Indians died of starvation. Cornelius would, for entertainment, have a gentleman's car, loaded with wealthy men, and they would shoot buffalo from the trains. He would have the heads mounted and hand them out like party favors once the taxidermy work was done. 

Bob might well be one of those. The age of him is right. Taxidermy was a rich man's realm. And then there is the story of where he came from. 

Who knows for sure? 

Bob isn't talking.

But William and I discussed these things, the unfairness, and the cruelty, and the fact that when you treat people badly, it generally causes bad feelings. We discussed the fact that it was a different time. We discussed racism. It was a healthy conversation. 

And in my mind, it was silly to ban the Little House books although I was could acknowledge that they required discussion.

Last Christmas, I bought a set of these books for my grandaughter, who was five. She loves to be read to, and she's into chapter books now. Laura is her age in the first book. I bought the books early, early, early, before Tim's surgery, and in the months in between, I found myself wavering. Iris is a pure spirit. She loves everyone. She doesn't know about racism.  As they read the books, her good parents would have had much the same discussion with her that William and I had, but she would be hearing for the first time that there are people in this world who see others as less than human. 

William was old enough to know that this can happen. Being raised in the time of Trump, he saw the evidence with his own eyes, from the mouth of the president, and echoed by his cult. However, Iris was too young to see it. 

She will, sadly. 

Once that happens, it will be discussed with her. and after that, I think the books will be fine for her. They are safely tucked away upstairs waiting for her. She will have those books read to her and she will hear "Ma hated Indians." She will already know that thinking is wrong. I just didn't want those beloved books to be the introduction to that ugliness.

Alexie's book was entirely different. He was a middle school kid, a smart boy who had gotten into the 'good school'. His struggle to fit in. His encounters with prejudice in his school but also at home. His former friends, the kids that he'd grown up with suddenly saw him as not quite 'Indian' enough. There was also quite a preoccupation with sex. 

William and I read this book too. It was discussed with his mother. In the end we decided that boys his age think about this stuff anyways. I knew they talked about it. I'd heard them as I waited for William at the corner. While I was uncomfortable reading some of it to William (and he probably was embarrassed to hear his grandmother reading it to him), the book generated a lot of discussion. Good discussion. About the toll of drugs and alcohol on the reservation, about the pain of growing up the son of alcoholics. His sister was murdered. 

Banned books are interesting, but in the end, I think the adults in a child's life should be the ones to make that final decision. Both of these banned books have very strong and redeeming qualities. 

We have certainly come a long way from the topic of giant pumpkins haven't we?