Meeting The Family
Clare Briggs
Clare Briggs is a famous cartoonist who lived from 1875 to 1930. Poems by Wilbur Nesbitt.
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Those outfits!Report
Everyone has some sort of “meet the family” story, right? The one I remember was back in the 1960s in Storm Lake, IA and I was about 14. At that time, Storm Lake’s population was completely dominated by vikings: descendants of Danes and Swedes and Dutch who had largely been recruited by the Great Northern Railway from northern Europe. I had a play rehearsal* on a Wednesday evening. I was supposed to pick up one of the Lund sisters, who was also in the play, to walk to rehearsal, then walk her back home since it would after dark by then. When I got to the Lunds’ house, I was greeted by the sister I was supposed to escort, who told me that Grandma Lund was visiting and I was required to come in and talk with her. I did my best 14-year-old talking with a grandma shtick. I thought it went well. We went to the rehearsal, I walked her home.
Necessary background… The Lunds were Dutch, all with hair so blond it verged on white. I was a minority Anglo-Saxon kid in town with brown hair and light brown eyes. I was almost always the shortest kid in class, even when you included the girls.
The next day at school the Lund sister stopped me. “It was so cool. You know what Grandma said when I got home? ‘He seems like a nice boy, but he’s so dark.’ You and me, we’re going to the movies on Friday. Pick me up at 6:30. I’ve got to know what Grandma is going to say if you ‘take me out’ twice.”
* That ninth-grade play is story worth its own space.Report