(An aside–the picture is of what I say is a gargoyle, but is technically a statuary lawn ornament in the image of a grotesque. I say this because gargoyles and grotesques are architectural ornaments attached to a building. Gargoyles are functional rain spouts and grotesques are ornamental superstition. A gargoyle is a grotesque with a function. As you can see, the above is a lawn ornament. I don’t know if there is anything to the superstition that scary frightens away scary, but it speaks to me. I wanted to memorialize my gargoyle because it has been through a lot. A worker doing some work around the house broke it (don’t know how as it’s concrete. His boss fixed it and, when I tried to move it to its current position, I broke the other wing…it tipped over and hit a concrete paver at just the right angle to break the other wing. As you can see, it is now in one piece and back in position to protect!)
I think I will call a post which consists of short unrelated streams of consciousness by the above title. This will be the first Sententious Stream.
I grew up during the time we were transitioning from Negro/Colored to Black. I will never forget when R was called Black by a classmate. We heard this scream…we’re in Mrs. G’s room. For some reason, the desks were lined up around the walls, so the center of the room was clear. This scream…and there was R on the floor, beating her fisted hands on the floor, kicking her legs, and screaming. We couldn’t make out what she was saying and we were all startled from our seats and stared at her histrionics, wondering what was wrong with her.
Mrs. G was trying to calm R who kicked and screamed for more than a few minutes. Seriously, we’re trying not to laugh at R but, from Mrs. G’s expression, we know it wouldn’t be in our best interest to laugh. FYI…R was what we called high yellow. I supposed being called Black, in her opinion, was the worst insult.
If you look at pictures of our family, you’ll see so light to mistake for white, even if you look twice, to dark chocolate. If you look at my father’s parents, you’ll see chocolate married to vanilla. They had four high yellow and four milk chocolate in the mix. Color was never an issue in our family. On my mother’s side, if you looked at my grandmother’s siblings…they were golden hued to dark brown. My grandfather’s family…the same. Now…my great-grandmother’s (grandfather’s mother)…there were a lot of light skinned K’s.
My great-grandmother…please read about her. I’m sure the family history is still available. She said my grandfather’s father was the only man she truly loved and that she cried at his funeral. Funny, who we love. From my research, apparently he was married and, from what my great-grandmother said, he refused to claim their son. My great-grandmother said she never forgave him, yet she cried at his funeral. He died young. A fellow gambler thought my great-grandfather cheated and obviously he had more fire-power or knife-power than my great-grandfather.
You know what I’ve noticed? The bumblebees are back and the frogs are gone. Is that because I live in the city? When I was growing up, at dusk when the grass was dewy, we’d see green frogs and the ubiquitous grey-brown frogs and they would be croaking–all night? I know while we were sitting outside, sometimes really late, the frogs would be croaking. I just went outside and saw a lightning bug, but the crickets…I didn’t hear any crickets. Or maybe I wasn’t listening for them.
If you’ve never heard of Five Dollar Indians, look up Dawes Rolls. This is what happens to many government programs meant to benefit the Americans who are not white. White Americans paid money to be listed as Native Americans and many received and their families are probably still receiving benefits because of the lie their family told. The government knew and knows that these people falsely received benefits, yet has any effort been made to have them repay, with interest, those unjustly received benefits? How many persons claiming to be Native Americans are white people who are stealing the benefits meant for true Native Americans? Why aren’t white people held accountable for their lies? For their corruption?
Now, there are white farmers who received the benefit of government programs falsely claiming discrimination because Black farmers, who were intentionally denied those same benefits, now stand to receive what shouldn’t have been denied in the first place. White privilege, white hypocrisy, white greed…all for me and none for you. That is their mindset and it has not changed.
In the 1960’s, in the winter, I remember blizzards. Snow would be piled high and there would be no school. We used barrel tops to sled down the hill in front of the house. Mama made snow ice cream. Nothing moved and we would go outside to silence…nothing but us having fun in the snow. Sometimes, we would see the tracks of some animal…rarely deer. When I was growing up, deer sightings were rare because of overhunting and disease?. Now, deer are everywhere and traverse our spaces with little fear of us.
In my yard, in an urban neighborhood, I have seen deer, groundhogs, coyotes, raccoons, turkeys, and, of course, squirrels and rabbits. For some reason, the groundhog liked to wallow in one of my flower beds. Killed all the flowers and left. Since that summer, I have never planted any annuals in that flower bed. But that groundhog or its descendants nose around every summer. My yard is mole haven. At one time, there were a couple of feral cats that roamed my street. Needless to say, I had no moles. Then, a neighbor decided to feed the cats. Cats are like people…why hunt when there’s a bowl of tasty cat chow always available.
Birds…blue jays–don’t like each other and don’t like other birds, cardinals, hummingbirds, wrens, hawks, buzzards, robins… I am not a birder, so I’m sure I’ve seen more. Most birds abide by live and let live, but not the blue jays. I watch the blue jays fight…must be for territory…maybe for mating? I have seen them fight to the death, i.e., one of the combatants was injured and I later found the bird dead. I really don’t like to dispose of dead birds or any dead animal, but it comes with the territory. Another time, I saw a blue jay attack a cat. Was the cat too close to the blue jay’s nest? After the blue jay made a couple of passes, the cat fled.
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