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With words we build and words we break
Having voted early on Thursday, today I am in Lexington with my parents, helping Charlotte-wrangle. So far this task has consisted chiefly of watching her play with trains—the same Brio set I played with as a child—and listening to her explain them to me. "The train has two subway cars. They're for going in and out the tunnel. In and out the tunnel," she impressed on me, threading the train round the entire wooden track and into the tunnel again. I attempted to introduce the concept of "through," but I'm not sure she found it useful. The trees around the Arlington Reservoir have finally gone to autumn, shaggy orange and cinder-red, good for kicking through as you walk. There were six swans on the water, a pair of adults and four grey-mottled juveniles. I had my Pussy Grabs Back T-shirt on for the election and a red paper poppy for Armistice Day in my coat pocket and nobody between Somerville and here has commented on either, although the man from the VFW who sold the poppy to me asked if I was from Canada. (I said I was afraid not, but he didn't say why he'd asked.) My father is repairing a water-damaged wall in the basement while listening to various news channels and appears to be enjoying both experiences about equally. My mother is debating the merits of cucumber slices and a bowlful of noodles and cheese with my niece. She will be three years old in just over a month. I would like her never to know a time when it wasn't perfectly natural to have a female President of the United States.
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This!
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Poppies are almost ubiquitous in Canada or at least in the part of southern Ontario where I grew up. I got one from a Canadian filker this weekend, and I've been wearing it in my hat. So far too no comment.
I'm glad Charlotte is enjoying trains, and time with you.
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Ah, interesting. I think of it as a fairly normalized tradition in the U.S., but this might be one of the things where my family is a total statistical outlier and I just never noticed.
I'm glad Charlotte is enjoying trains, and time with you.
She likes trains and transportation and earth-moving machinery and things that go. I learned today that she loves Powerman 5000's "Bombshell" because it is industrial metal and therefore sounds, as she puts it, "like trucks." I am delighted by this.
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That is delightful! I charmed a kid who was visiting the office today with an origami crane and a story about Galloping Gertie, as said kid was of an engineering bent, and was wearing a shirt with trains, and apparently loves stories of engineering disasters.
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Excellent! I think I saw my first footage of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge on Square One TV (1987–92) as part of the recurring "Oops!" commercial ("Erasers! Don't make a mistake without one").
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Excellent! I think I saw my first footage of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge on Square One TV (1987–92) as part of the recurring "Oops!" commercial ("Erasers! Don't make a mistake without one").
I did too. Somewhere my sister has a signed cast photo of the Square One crew.
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So who does the VFW expect to sell their poppies to? I see them every year.
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It is possble for a small group to try to maintain a tradition they see as important, even if the majority of the surrounding culture doesn't seem to, and they have no great expectations of success. I suspect that's what's happening here, but it's just a guess.