When we moved to Vermont and started our collection of animals, my
husband erected a fence that wasn't what I had in mind. For the entry way, he used an
old door. I was so embarrassed.
When one of the many folks who have come to
offer technical assistance thought it was interesting and creative, I replied… it’s so ghetto.
Ghetto is a term I never would have thought applied to me…. She told me living in mountains of Vermont, with
animals, we weren't “ghetto”. We were now included in the “hick”category.
I don’t know about stereotypes or the word “hick”. There are so many negative
stereotypes about Blacks and other people of color. But I kind of liked that
fact that we were being included instead of excluded. Something to ponder.
Regarding stereotypes: my husband has a new term: “That’s What
White Folks Do”. He’s applied it to several things recently.
I was reading an article about water waste and was horrified
by how much water we used just flushing the toilet. Depending on the size of
the tank, it takes up to 7 gallons of water when you flush. While we are
looking into water saving toilets, I had a thought on how we could conserve
water. Heard of the saying “When it’s yellow
let it mellow, if it’s brown, flush it down?” Well I decided that I was going
to flush ever
other time it was yellow. I only do it in the upstairs bathroom,
but my husband was horrified. Every time he goes in after I’ve been in there, I’ve
heard him yell “that’s disgusting”. I don’t know why it bothers him. He pees in
the front yard, off the deck, behind the garage. Anyway, when I explained my
rationale, his response was “That’s what white folks do.” Doesn’t matter, I’m
doing it now in protest of every disgusting thing he’s ever done! And there’s a
lot.
We were offered an opportunity to acquire two male alpacas. Mark
was in charge of getting the trailer to transport them from their old home to
our new home. It was about 30 miles each way. We agreed to take them on a
particular day. Well guess what, Mark didn’t take care of the trailer and
wanted to postpone the transport. Postponing wasn’t an option. Since we don’t
have a cover on our truck, I decided we could take out the seat in the back of
my Jeep and transport them that way. I put down a tarp, and hay over the tarp
and thought it was a perfect solution. I’d seen alpacas transported in the back
of a Subaru, so why not? Again, my husband was horrified. We engaged in a minor
verbal altercation before he yelled “that’s what white folks do.” I did it
anyway. And you know what, it worked!
As an activity and fundraiser at the school where I teach,
we hosted a Cow Plop. I asked one of the students about it. Basically, you plot
out a grid on the ground (grass, concrete, asphalt, whatever) and everyone buys
a square. Then you bring in a cow and if it “plops” in your square, you win
money. I told my student “that’s disgusting”. She said it was disgusting. It was
her cow they used. She said at first it wouldn’t go, then once it started
going, it wouldn’t stop. When I told Mark about it he replied (all together
now) “That’s what white folks do”.
