Just a reminder

Just a reminder...please don't fall prey to the idea that Easter is about a bouncy little rabbit. That is pure propaganda....and bullshit.

My motehr was progressive enough to sit me don and explain to me that all that hard work is done by the Easter Squirrel. Unfortunately, squirrels get a bad rap for being rodents and, in the past, were considered far less marketable, so Hallmark and other companies created the front-man of The Easter Bunny...who has essentially stolen the glory and the paycheck of the squirrel.

It was often hard for my mother to find cards that celebrated the squirrel. Once, in my childhood, she gave me a card with an illustration of an elephant wearing bunny ears. Under the greeting inside she simply wrote "The Easter Squirrel has friends...."

And let's not get into the Easter when I went to stay with my grandparents and my born-again aunt, uncle, and cousins. My aunt attempted to explain to me that squirrels were not the reason for the season, Jesus was, and told me a story which I could only relate to because some of it overlapped with lyrics I'd heard my father sing in his bluegrass band.

But, things are looking up for the squirrel which is why my mother sent me this...

( The TRUTH! )

...some of you may believe that I have made up the above story, I have not...which should explain a lot.

Grandma

I talked to the Dean Mommy today. All is good.

I've shared with you how the Dean taught me about the squirrels.

Now, if you're wondering how my mother ended up like she is...here's two great pictures of my (now passed away) grandmother.


That's her under "Crick Prince" getting her first gas mask!...as Christina she somehow ended up being nick-named Cricket.



And Grandmother durring the 7 year courtship of her third, final, and best husband, Bob. She wasn't planning on making any mistakes. The two of them biked all around California, hiked, and more. In this shot she is proudly wearing a shirt with Malcom X on it, as Dean Mommy had become a principal (and teacher and admin) of Malcom Shabazz City High in Madison, an alternative public high school. My grandmother, having been a teacher herself, thought most principals were pricks...but eventually supported her daughter in the transition.

I often sleep in my own Malcom shirt and Malcom X and Virginia Wolf were early t-shirt figures in my home. Virginia Woolfe was on the Room Of One's Own (one of America's longest running feminist bookstores where my mom was a member of some sort AND the Team Of One's Own softball shirts, which also featured the woman symbol, with a fist in place of the circle, with a catcher's mitt behind it...GOD I wish I had one of those now.

Other Grandma stories.

http://parasitegirl.livejournal.com/770527.html#cutid1
http://parasitegirl.livejournal.com/770194.html#cutid1
http://parasitegirl.livejournal.com/769433.html#cutid1
http://parasitegirl.livejournal.com/764977.html