Sandburg - Pig Wisps - Keeping the Public in Public Domain

Before we leave "March is Reading Month" I want to have a bit of fun with the alphabet which our reading needs. Carl Sandburg wrote not one, not two, but three stories about "the Letter X and How It Got into the Alphabet." My favorite of the three is "Pig Wisps."

ILLUSTRATION BY MAUD AND MISKA PETERSHAM

Just as the concept of leaving out the letter X is fanciful, Project Gutenberg describes Rootabaga Pigeons, the book where it appears, as "a whimsical collection of children's stories." It concludes by saying "The stories are rich with imaginative details, capturing the essence of childhood curiosity and the power of storytelling."

Normally I suggest retelling literary stories to make them more tellable, but with a fanciful poet like Sandburg the language is an important part of the fun! (Project Gutenberg has both Rootabaga Pigeons and the earlier Rootabaga Stories.) Both were "Originally created for Sandburg's own daughters", so don't let the whimsy keep you from enjoying it with or without an audience!

Pig Wisps

There was an oyster king far in the south who knew how to open oysters and pick out the pearls.

He grew rich and all kinds of money came rolling in on him because he was a great oyster opener and knew how to pick out the pearls.

The son of this oyster king was named Shovel Ears. And it was hard for him to remember.

“He knows how to open oysters but he forgets to pick out the pearls,” said the father of Shovel Ears.

“He is learning to remember worse and worse and to forget better and better,” said the father of Shovel Ears.

Now in that same place far in the south was a little girl with two braids of hair twisted down her back and a face saying, “Here we come—where from?”

And her mother called her Pig Wisps.

Twice a week Pig Wisps ran to the butcher shop for a soup bone. Before starting she crossed her fingers and then the whole way to the butcher shop kept her fingers crossed.

If she met any playmates and they asked her to stop and play cross-tag or jackstones or all-around-the-mulberry-bush or the-green-grass-grew-all-around or drop-the-handkerchief, she told them, “My fingers are crossed and I am running to the butcher shop for a soup bone.”

One morning running to the butcher shop she bumped into a big queer boy and bumped him flat on the sidewalk.

“Did you look where you were running?” she asked him.

“I forgot again,” said Shovel Ears. “I remember worse and worse. I forget better and better.”

“Cross your fingers like this,” said Pig Wisps, showing him how.

He ran to the butcher shop with her, watching her keep her fingers crossed till the butcher gave her the soup bone.

“After I get it then the soup bone reminds me to go home with it,” she told him. “But until I get the soup bone I keep my fingers crossed.”

Shovel Ears went to his father and began helping his father open oysters. And Shovel Ears kept his fingers crossed to remind him to pick out the pearls.

He picked a hundred buckets of pearls the first day and brought his father the longest slippery, shining rope of pearls ever seen in that oyster country.

“How do you do it?” his father asked.

“It is the crossed fingers—like this,” said Shovel Ears, crossing his fingers like the letter X. “This is the way to remember better and forget worse.”

It was then the oyster king went and told the men who change the alphabets just what happened.

When the men who change the alphabets heard just what happened, they decided to put in a new letter, the letter X, near the end of the alphabet, the sign of the crossed fingers.

On the wedding day of Pig Wisps and Shovel Ears, the men who change the alphabets all came to the wedding, with their fingers crossed.

Pig Wisps and Shovel Ears stood up to be married. They crossed their fingers. They told each other other they would remember their promises.

And Pig Wisps had two ropes of pearls twisted down her back and a sweet young face saying, “Here we come—where from?”

***

So did you cross your fingers?

Now just for fun grab a book and try reading it without the letter X!

**************

This is part of a series of postings of stories under the category, “Keeping the Public in Public Domain.” The idea behind Public Domain was to preserve our cultural heritage after the authors and their immediate heirs were compensated. I feel strongly current copyright law delays this intent on works of the 20^th century. My own library of folklore includes so many books within the Public Domain I decided to share stories from them. I hope you enjoy discovering them.

At the same time, my own involvement in storytelling regularly creates projects requiring research as part of my sharing stories with an audience.  Whenever that research needs to be shown here, the publishing of Public Domain stories will not occur that week.  This is a return to my regular posting of a research project here.  (Don't worry, this isn't dry research, my research is always geared towards future storytelling to an audience.)  Response has convinced me that "Keeping the Public in Public Domain" should continue along with my other postings as often as I can manage it.

See the sidebar for other Public Domain story resources I recommend on the page “Public Domain Story Resources."

 

First Came the Anishinaabe

Unlike the multi-state cooperative for Summer Reading leading many libraries to use the same theme, media centers and their schools seem to pick their own themes for March Reading Month.  Fortunately years of creating programs weekly as a children's librarian produced a large repertoire of programs from a to z.

As a result when approached this week by a school planning their Camp Read-a-Lot program for March Reading Month, I began working my way through what I already tell possibly meeting their needs.  I'm not against developing new material, but it takes time to develop and time was short.

A curious program factor mentioned was face painters would use the various characters from one of my stories for their inspiration.  My first thought was an African tale with many animals.  I love telling it in voice and sign as that is good for multi-age programs and this was going to be an evening family program, so all ages would need to be involved.  The further we talked, however, it became obvious my program would benefit from a focus on Michigan's original "campers", the Anishinaabe or People of the Three Fires.

While today's article is the title found on my website, I now call the program "Ahneen Means Welcome!"  I start by saying, AHNEEN!  If there's no response, it gives me a great opportunity to tell more about the native people of Michigan whose rich body of stories seem systematically overlooked when folktales are indexed.  An interesting addition to that introduction is now made if no response comes to Ahneen.  I next say "Boozhoo!", a more informal greeting than the one I learned from native Michigan elders.  This was taught to me by a little girl and her father who were grateful for my sharing the culture of her mother, but they hadn't known the word Ahneen.

Whenever I am approached about Michigan's own Native Americans, including booking this program, I always suggest instead the venue book Michigan's too few Anishinaabe tellers.  For my own background, I explain, as I did in the November 1st, 2014 blog here, on the international email list, Storytell, we compared 4 levels of cultural knowledge:

1. the residents living in and brought up in a culture; 
2. emigres who fall in love with the culture and take up residence to learn more; 
3. tourists who have seen the culture briefly; 
4. armchair travelers who only read and maybe view shows about a culture. 

Level 1 is always the best, but over the years I've come close to level 2.  I'm always aware my own use of the language is as a non-native speaker of this fascinating and complex language.  Words from it can be found throughout Michigan and whenever I cross into nearby Ontario as the Anishinabeg are among Canada's First Nations.  I love to point out as many of these words including Michigan itself (Michigama - Great Water or Large Lake) and other indigenous words all around us as the opportunity permits.

In offering resources before the program, I realized it would be valuable to offer a summary of resources including my previous four articles here related to the Anishinaabe.  If you're wondering about the story to inspire the face painters, I chose a story in my earliest article on the People of the Three Fires (therefore the last shown because of blog formatting), the story of "The Summer Makers."  In addition to comparing two versions of that story there, the topic of Manitos was briefly mentioned in that 11/19/13 article as it was omitted in the simplified version by Julia Darrow Cowles I posted there.  A link was given to the story as told by Henry Rowe Schoolcraft and is the version I use.  If you look at the Schoolcraft version you see the description is still open to artistic interpretation, saying only "His head was enormously large; he had such a queer set of teeth (LSK: I substitute "strange" to avoid present-day reaction to the word "queer"), and no arms." The hero in the story is the Fisher, called by the Anishinaabe name of Ojeeg.  We don't have fishers in Michigan nowadays, so here's a link to more about them including photos.  Other characters in the story are his friends, the Wolverine -- also no longer in the state, but remembered for its spirit in our state's nickname, the Otter, Beaver, Lynx, and Badger, additional characters are the Red Squirrel, and the various Birds released by Ojeeg.  This should give variety for artists.

At the same time my program tells more about both Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, a name well-known in Michigan, and his less well-known but also important Anishinaabe wife, Jane Johnston Schoolcraft or Bamewawagezhikaquay ("Woman of the Sound [that the stars make] Rushing Through the Sky").  My 11/1/14 article gives clues to more about her and also how the poet, Longfellow, used their work to inspire his own epic poem, Hiawatha (even if Michigan's native people know he changed it a great deal).

Hiawatha and Minnehaha sculpture by Jacob Fjelde near Minnehaha Falls in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

That same article mentioned several other print resources, especially a list of those I dearly love by Odawa elder, Simon Otto, and even gave a link to a third grade lesson plan template on Michigan's Native People he presented and used in the Petoskey schools where he lives. Beyond Simon's five books and the work of the Schoolcrafts, I added two other influences, Louise Jean Walker and the late ethnobotanist and Anishinaabe elder, Keewaydinoquay Peschel, another Michigan elder who shared insight into her culture with me.  With Michiganders currently occupied with the cold and snow of winter, my program will probably include a tidbit found on this blog's recent, 2/7/15, article.  Its inclusion in the Anishinaabe topic might seem a bit strange as it was posted with a Cuban story.  Only at its end did I give our Native view from Simon Otto about why we need snow.  I'm trying hard to accept this chilling explanation even if it's an uncomfortable one.

Until now, however, my blog doesn't mention three other resources, the brief Ojibwa Indian Legends by Wahbegwonese (Little Flower) nor the nonfiction People of the Three Fires by Clifton, Cornell, and McClurken and the slender Nishnawbe by Lynne Deur.  The title of that final book is another, colloquial, way of saying Anishinabeg, the plural of Anishinaabe.  When I mention my own slender acquaintance with the language, I'm aware of differences in pronunciation or dialect among the Three Fires.  A perfect example is found in the popular hero whose name is written in many ways since the language developed orally and was used by our three closely related members of the Algonquin people.  Most often I see it as Nanabozho, but my introduction to him was as Nanabashoo.  I was told that pronunciation was nearer the Odawa than the Ojibwa (also known as the Chippewa.)  Since one of my friends, gifted storyteller and member of the Saginaw Chippewa Band, is Robyn Henry, I always look forward to her entertaining way of telling the traditional stories.  She often includes Native American sign language, which I enjoy comparing with American Sign Language.  I've never heard nor asked her about this traditional "trickster/transformer", but really need to talk with her about him.  Robyn is overdue for an internet presence, so maybe she'll consider doing a guest article here.  I know it would be worthwhile. 

Yet another school program, this one at Garden Kids in Dominican Republic

Beyond these specifically Michigan literary resources, the food served at the program was discussed,  including the importance of corn (see the story of Mondawmin on 4/12/14) and blueberries to the Anishinaabe.  We also talked about their school serving that evening the campers' favorites of beans and hot dogs.  This led to my giving the chant and the song about Beans:
Chant - Beans, beans, the musical fruit, the more you eat, the more you toot!
Song (to the tune commonly thought of as either "Coming Through the Rye" or "Auld Lang Syne")  -
Beans for breakfast, beans for supper, beans for good old tea
If I could only be a bean how happy I would be(ans for . . . LSK: repeating as long as you can stand it)  You can blame too many years as a camp counselor for my knowing them!

Of course I always bring the books mentioned here for reference in my program.  They are perfect examples of the value of reading to understand the traditions of Michigan's too frequently little known native population.  I hope you also find it gives you possibilities for your own library's collection, although many would need purchasing from out-of-print sources. 

With or without the beans you can see, it's a program and culture I enjoy sharing and I look forward to presenting it yet again.

Give a Cheer for Summer Reading!

It all began with a very tiny cheerleader outfit; then I found Priscilla Gorilla hanging around a Garage Sale and knew I'd found a new puppet sidekick to join me whether for National Reading Month or Summer Reading as I Give a Cheer for Heroes in the 398s! 

As winter starts to punch its way in, it's always great to think ahead to summer!  The multi-state library cooperative for summer reading programs in 2015 featured heroes. 2016 will continue those stories as they are all based on various sports.  This is why I especially thought about those heroic aspects so often found in folklore.

Of course I always have lots of stories filled with male and female heroes from folklore, BUT that cheerleading idea started to um, er, well . . . Snowball!

Priscilla already is looking forward to her debut, but in the meantime here are cheers for libraries, reading, and especially Summer Reading.  Because this also works for reading at all times of the year, some have alternate wording beyond summer.

• My mother doesn't have to beg

          Or resort to any bribery
          
          'Cause I love reading all summer (or year) long

          At my local library!

(This next one might benefit from a bit of a southern accent)

• Rah, rah, rah, and a Sis Boom Bah!

          All who love reading will go far!

• Some kids play video games

          And keep on getting dumber,
    
          But I keep reading such good books

          All through the summer!

• My brain never runs out of steam

          I'm on the (Summer) Reading Team!

• Reading books will take you far

          Be a Summer Reading star!

and here's another cheer done two ways

• 2, 4, 6, 8

          Summer Reading's really great!
         (or Reading books is really great!)

I stopped there because I know Priscilla and I will only have time for so many cheers in between stories and I will want my audience to join in, BUT I'm definitely interested in hearing from other readers if they might have even better cheers to contribute.  If permission is given, I'll either update this article or, if enough arrive, post a follow-up article.  Librarians who may never see Priscilla and me could always use something to cheer about, so feel free to get in touch with me.  Because I'm all over the internet with my storytelling I already gets hundreds of spam emails daily, so I don't mind mentioning my email address here:
LoiS-sez@LoiS-sez.com and you can see more about Summer Reading and my other programs at http://www.LoiS-sez.com -- come and look!
LoiS(ummer...what a concept and Summer Reading makes it even better!)