SHOCKING
We can say things about class (poverty, wealth, a person’s job or address, rural
When I was explaining to friends (two friends with college educations, one who used to be earnestly poor) that I was on my way to Kentucky, where my father happens to have been born, in a little white house, his grandmother’s, Mallie Coomer’s house, I heard my own dear good sweet friends say things that absolutely shocked me, and hurt me, asteroid to the gut.
“There’s a school in
“Are you taking shoes?”
“
“Are all the students related to each other, like cousins?”
This last one is particulary bizarre, since it was spoken by a dear friend who is from Jamestown, Michigan, which is populated by a very specifically small group of descendants of 19th century Dutch immigrants.
I called my host to vent. I said, “This must be really weird and hard for you all the time. What people say about your place, all the time.” “Yeah,” he said. Long pause. “A lot of people just aren’t really aware of very much, much at all. It’s amazing how much time one can spend on the surface.”
I am confident I say a thousand oblivious things in every single day. But I am shocked and sad.
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