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A meandering story
13 May 2023 14:28I'm in Baton Rouge, where it a) is great to see my bro, SIL, niece, nephew, and my mom, b) is hotter than fucking Hades (*) and humid OMG, and c) was a special treat to go out for cafe au lait and beignets, yum. (*) There is a fucking heat dome over the PNW this week so it's not pretty there either. But not humid.
A story.
When we moved to Tunisia, I learned to speak and read French to grade level pretty quickly, but I was slower to catch up to the level of books I was reading in English so I pretty much read anything in English I could get my grubby hands on. Thus the year when I was 9-10, I read Heidi, Catcher in the Rye, and Gone with the Wind. I washed out on Crime and Punishment but read it when I was 11 or 12. Anything in English. There is a point to this.
After I read Gone with the Wind my mother sat me down to tell me that it was all bullshit, not to get taken in by the benign portrayal of slavery etc, and gave me a lesson in reality. It was a good talk, and one that I believe helped shape a lot of opinions. She also explained the difference between the slavery as practiced by the Romans and Greeks, and what happened in the US. And the slave triangle, not leaving Europe's responsibility out of the tale. And because she could never leave well enough alone, LOL, she also told me about the Haitian Revolution and Toussaint Louverture. Years later, in history class, at the question of a teacher to the class, I was able to give a quick rundown of the event, and the teacher was so impressed, he gave me full credit on the next test which I then didn't have to take or study for, LOL.
Anyhow.
Since I got here, my mother has been at me to go visit a plantation. WTF, thought I, immediately, and then she went on to explain that I needed to see the slave quarters, so I'd know how bad it was, and how awful conditions had been and all that.
Dementia does strange things to people. I guess that, of all the things it has taken from her, one that it has not is her horror of slavery.
A story.
When we moved to Tunisia, I learned to speak and read French to grade level pretty quickly, but I was slower to catch up to the level of books I was reading in English so I pretty much read anything in English I could get my grubby hands on. Thus the year when I was 9-10, I read Heidi, Catcher in the Rye, and Gone with the Wind. I washed out on Crime and Punishment but read it when I was 11 or 12. Anything in English. There is a point to this.
After I read Gone with the Wind my mother sat me down to tell me that it was all bullshit, not to get taken in by the benign portrayal of slavery etc, and gave me a lesson in reality. It was a good talk, and one that I believe helped shape a lot of opinions. She also explained the difference between the slavery as practiced by the Romans and Greeks, and what happened in the US. And the slave triangle, not leaving Europe's responsibility out of the tale. And because she could never leave well enough alone, LOL, she also told me about the Haitian Revolution and Toussaint Louverture. Years later, in history class, at the question of a teacher to the class, I was able to give a quick rundown of the event, and the teacher was so impressed, he gave me full credit on the next test which I then didn't have to take or study for, LOL.
Anyhow.
Since I got here, my mother has been at me to go visit a plantation. WTF, thought I, immediately, and then she went on to explain that I needed to see the slave quarters, so I'd know how bad it was, and how awful conditions had been and all that.
Dementia does strange things to people. I guess that, of all the things it has taken from her, one that it has not is her horror of slavery.
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