Tomboy must repent

[Haruo]

Interesting story this morning in the Seattle Times about an 8-year-old putative girl in Virginia.

Christian school pressures 8-year-old ‘tomboy’ _ Nation & World _ The Seattle Times.pdf

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[Dave Roberts]

I have been reading this for several day in VA news. The school seems to be associated with the ideals of the late Jerry Falwell. Liberty's Law School is defending them in any court challenge that may follow.

[Mrs Haruo]

I feel sorry for that little girl. Sounds to me like she is just being a normal 8 year old. Not all little girls that age are "Girly Girls" Particularly if they share a lot of time with a Grandpa they admire. Maybe Grandma isn't into Barbie dolls and Hello Kitty either.

[Dave Roberts]

Sadly, it becomes another place where the Christian witness is discredited in the eyes of those who don't have a relationship with Christ. It makes it necessary for the rest of us to keep saying, "I'm not that kind of Baptist."

[Mrs Haruo]

Hey, it doesn't always just happen in church circles either. I remember being persecuted at Girl Scout Camp when I was 9 years old for wearing cowboy boots, my brother's old jeans jacket, and having the audacity to appear at a GIRL SCOUT CAMP with my big brother's old Boy Scout knife!!!
The counselors could have cared less- I was happy and comfortable, and my parents didn't have to spend a fortune on outfitting me because I knew I didn't want or need pink pedal pushers and coordinated outfits I wasn't allowed to get dirty in like the little girls from the city. They were just jealous because my knife kept a better edge than that piece of junk the Girl Scouts were marketing at the time. I had been safely using a knife since I was in first grade and wanted to carve something out of a bar of Ivory soap like in the "Make-it Book" I got for Christmas. My brother had an old pocket knife that he didn't need any more and Dad said if he showed me how to take care of it, then fine!
Daddy showed me how to graft fruit trees and I learned to weave baskets with marsh grass, it came in handy on the farm when Dad needed help cutting hay twine to feed the ponies and it was fun making willow whistles in the spring time. That reminds me.. I wonder if I can get one made before Haruo gets home from work?

[Lamar Wadsworth]

The little girl is indeed fortunate to be out of that environment of ignorance and legalism. She may also now have the opportunity to learn that the earth is way more than 6,000 years old and that people and dinosaurs did not live at the same time. We had one of these independent fundamental Baptist schools here that closed a few years ago, glad to see it close. It was a place where elementary school age children were terrorized with hell fire preaching in chapel, taught that any translation of the Bible other than KJV was of the devil, and indoctrinated with fundamentalist gender role ideology. Such ignorance is bad for any child but especially damaging for girls. Let this child be the tough little tomboy God created her to be. Our oldest daughter was every bit the tomboy this girl is, she's 40 and happily married with two sons, and still tough as a pine knot.

[Haruo]

Thanks, Lamar.

[Mrs Haruo]

Well now I didn't get that willow whistle made after all. I got all gussied up and he took me out to dinner at the VFW. Best spot in the neighborhood on a Tuesday night. Huge baked potato and all you can pile on it for $3. Plus a free movie that starts at 5:30 so everyone can get home before dark.

[Haruo]

Yep, the VFW's potatoes are justly famous. One-pound baking russet with all the
salt
pepper
butter
sour cream
shredded cheddar
salsa
chopped scallions
crumbled bacon
sliced pickled jalapeños
browned crumbled ground beef
melted cheese
chili con carne
tabasco sauce
sriracha sauce
and one other kind of sauce, I forget what kind
you can pile on it
for three bucks! Plus the wonderful camaraderie of Mrs H's sisters from the Ladies' Auxiliary. Tonight we mulled over what may have happened to Flight 370. Consensus, such as it was, implicated the Sasquatch.

[Mrs Haruo]

If this tomboy repented, the fence would never get rebuilt, and the toilet would overflow. Haruo is making a fine carpenter's apprentice however. Film at 11.

[Mrs Haruo]

Had to buy more nails and lumber. No money to develop film. Haruo dug a splendid post hole and is well on his way to becoming a country gentleman.

[Mrs Haruo]

Ma and Pa Kettle Memorial fence is just about finished. Nice to have our privacy back, next door neighbors have some pretty strange friends and I like knowing my land is securely fenced.

[Chris]

[Mrs Haruo]

I'm fairly new to the VFW, so I'm no expert. Depends on how large and active the post is. Ours is VERY active and one of the larger posts in the state. We also have a 105 inch TV in the post so its a popular place in the neighborhood to watch sporting events or movie nights. Some VFW posts are very clannish and you have to be a member or the guest of a member to get in the door. Ours is not- the old timers in the neighborhood built the VFW meeting hall while they were building the neighborhood and each other's homes after WWII, so we have a tradition of being VERY friendly and have a lot of events that are open to the community.

[Haruo]

There's also a weekly Taco night, and a weekly Hamburger night, and a monthly Pancake breakfast, all similarly good deals and welcoming to the neighbors.

[Cathy]

Not sure whether to comment on on Tomboys or the VFW so I guess I'll give both a comment and further cause thread drift to the Christian Scientists.

I have had my share of trying to get my middle daughter to wear something other than large T shirts and basketball shorts to school (obviously public school). I think in general it is best for a kid to be allowed to wear what they want most of the time, but I've also thought that wearing the prescribed basic gender specific clothing twice a week isn't too much to ask. I pretty much lost on that except to church. Now I find her dress distinctly feminine and more interesting and creative than most. She will be graduating from college in May. She'll ride her bike across the US for the second time with "Bike the US for MS" fundraiser and then in August she's going to the Dominican Republic with the Peace Corps.

I was however from a generation where a dress was worn to school everyday and my mother made them all very cheaply and they were exceptionally nice dresses. It is now a different world.

The VFW is a sort a mystery to me. Never knew more about them than that they had a hall that various groups could borrow. But my mother was a ward of the Denver VFW. The VFW officer that served as her guardian dropped her off in front of the Christian Scientist church in Denver every Sunday morning. She would walk around the corner to FBC Denver. She'd walk back to the Christian Scientist church for pick up until the guardian realized she was coming from an odd direction at pick up. He kept dropping her off at the same place but didn't discourage her making her own choice and picked her up between the two. I guess he didn't want to go against her mother's final instructions. I never got out of my mother how she decide to change to the Baptist church. Must have had something to do with a school friend or a foster parent. But she fairly frequently quoted Eddy and had a decidedly conservative view about not over medicating and mind over body attitude of think healthy be healthy. She told me she remembered taking an aspirin the first time. She took a quarter of one and it worked just fine. But she was decidedly a Baptist.

I'd love to drop by the H's VFW for Taco night.

[Mrs Haruo]

I suspect our VFW went heavily into food services several years ago. What used to be a thriving small business district in the 50's to the 70's began to die off as bigger shopping centers went in several miles away, drawing a lot of business away from small family owned restaurants and stores. 5 or 6 years ago, the HVAC plant broke down entirely on a building that had been built by mostly volunteer labor in the early 70's. Much of the membership are retired, and enjoy meeting friends at an inexpensive place to eat. To raise the thousands of dollars needed for a new heating and air conditioning plant for a LARGE two story meeting hall, a lot of people put in a LOT of time cooking and encouraging friends to have family celebrations at our hall where there is a 105 inch screen TV for sports and movies, a big dance floor. a play corner for the kids--in short, a friendly place for a simple good meal among friends. Friday nights a simple pot of soup or stew ,made up of the week's leftovers is served for free, and tickets are sold for a meat raffle of whatever is still in the freezer and not needed for weekend activities. Funds raised go right back into a host of community charities and projects helping the huge Veterans Medical Center in Seattle, or aid to soldiers and families at Fort Lewis/McCord It's a place where you can soon feel part of a family, and God and Country are honored, and service before self is a way of life.

[Ed Pettibone]

[Haruo]

I don't know how unwelcoming private bars are required to be in your neck of the woods, Ed. To be a voting member of the local post here you have to meet the requirements. Mrs. H. wasn't stationed abroad long enough, I guess, so she is required to be a member of the Ladies' Auxiliary, not the VFW. I could be a Social Member if I wanted to pay the full dues and forgo the right to vote, but it seems to satisfy all concerned if I just show up as the spouse of a member (and officer) of the Ladies' Auxiliary. Non-members attend these things as guests of members, just like many other private clubs I'm aware of. The hall is run and funded at least as much by the 250 or so Ladies' Auxiliary members as it is by the 400 or so Veterans involved. I don't know if private bars in New York hold Easter Egg hunts for the local neighborhood kids.

Don't get Mrs H. started on her unpleasant experiences with the American Legion. They definitely didn't do any good to her in her effort to receive compensation for her service-connected disabling conditions.

[Ed Pettibone]

Hauro, "Don't get Mrs H. started on her unpleasant experiences with the American Legion. They definitely didn't do any good to her in her effort to receive compensation for her service-connected disabling conditions. "

Ed: She is not the first vet that I have heard that from, but I have also known many counselees with whom I worked, that did receive help from the American Legion often in the form of Pro Bono, legal service

[Cathy]

Interesting to hear from those who know and have been involved in the VFW.

My grandfather served in France where he was gassed so he was definitely eligible to be a member of the VFW. He lived to marry and have three children of his own and two step children. But his lungs continued to deteriorate although he farmed for several years near Steamboat Springs in spite of also developing tuberculosis. All of the children including the stepson were minors when he died. My grandmother died shortly after of cancer. The VFW apparently served as guardian for all the kids. They had no nearby relatives able to care for them as my grandparents were Southerners. My grandmother was last to die so she got her way in the will and wanted the children to stay in Denver. The teenage boys ran away to the Bonnetts in Alabama where they finished high school and my mother and her younger brother remained in foster care in Denver. Not unhappily.

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[Haruo]

I think Mrs. H. had a day or two each in the Philippines and Japan, but no time in Korea to my knowledge. Why is Korea singled out in that eligibility statement, Ed? Just curious, is it old (Korea-era) or just trying to make the point that even though Korea service rarely involves enemy fire and was never declared a war, it counts as such?

[Mrs Haruo]

I am not going to sink so low as to argue over who's police action was harder. I have a fence to finish repairing and some sewing to do. And a birthday card to make for the man who made me a tough old bird who got thrown out of an airplane several times over Europe and came screaming in on Operation Market garden in glider and crash landed while strapped into a jeep--He was Army Airborne and I am proud to wear the nail bag he used when he built the house I grew up in. By the way, the jeep made it safely to some officer who didn't want to walk the rest of the way.