Peeps as in kids not the sugar coated, little Easter treats (which I am not fond of btw -feels like your eating a marshmallow that was dropped in sand, blech).
Happy Easter Everyone! You'll be happy to know that we survived. Whew! You mean you weren't worried about us? Well, that's okay. Nathan was worried enough for the both of you. Allow me to explain.
We were invited by friends down the street to join them for a big family barbecue/Easter celebration at the park in Raleigh. In jest I said, "Are you sure your family won't be wondering why in the world you invited white people to the party?" We laughed. We moved on. Didn't think much else about it. UNTIL...sometime Friday when Nathan said, "We shouldn't go because everybody might look at us weird since we're the only white people that'll be there."
We took a brief moment to remind him that, well, first of all, he's NOT white. And if need be, he could just slide in next to any of the black women and no one would ever have to know he was with us. =)
Nathan has a gift. It is a wicked gift. The gift of hyper-imaginative paranoia. After mulling this situation over in his head for two more days, the child was more or less convinced that as soon as we stepped in the park area a full blown, gangster style, race war would break out --an entire park full of black people against me and Tim. Ay-ay-ay.
After continuous assurance that they were not inviting us only to kill us and that if Miss Melissa wanted Mommy dead she could just shoot me at the bus stop any morning of the week; we made our way to the gathering. And...
Nathan had a GREAT time!!! They all did. Sure, there were a few odd glances as people tried to place us but Melissa was quick to introduce us as friends and before long "Big Man" was giving Tim the secrets to homemade Tequila. Ha! Life is never dull. Here are some pictures of the fun.
Little Tots egg race.
The bigger kids egg race. Nathan came in third.
Luckily, the prize for third place was a "We will not kill your parents today" ribbon. ;-)
Mamoune shaking her stuff for the hula hoop contest.
Tim volunteered to start a "bald head" contest and we figured he was a shoo-in until one of Melissa's sisters threatened to take her wig off. Oh, and Bella made off like a bandit. The girl ate no less than four cupcakes. Every time I turned around she had another one from somewhere. She was awfully sluggish as I tried to get her out of bed this morning. She gave a whispery "yes" when I asked if she had a "sugar hangover." My, they do start early these days.
1 comment:
I find it kind of sad the way that you represent the community you live in. I assume people who know you know that you're joking around. But I'm sure there are lots of people out there who read your blog regularly who don't know you and aren't able to contextualize your observations. I'm one of those people.
I always felt that part of the reason you decided to become part of this community was to help dispel myths about lower income neighborhoods. I feel that often when you talk about your neighbors you're simply perpetuating these stereotypes, and it saddens me.
I've read your blog for some time now, and I've actually wanted to raise this in response to a few posts, and i decided today i wanted to share this.
I hope you won't take this as a slam, but rather as something to reflect on.
jzr
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