Funny dialogue between Ben...jamin and me this morning on the way to school, while he dawdled despite the second bell having already rung. Actually, ring is the wrong verb here—the sound's a little closer to an air-raid siren than to a bell. Takes time off the end of my life every time it blasts the air when I'm too close to the loudspeakers.
Anyway, the boy was walking slowly through a frost-covered sward of weedy, trampled grass.
Me: Pokey! C'mon, Pokey.
Ben: My name's not Pokey.
Me: C'mon, Tim. (He asked yesterday why we hadn't named him that.)
Ben: My name's not Tim.
Me: C'mon, Toby. (He has a school friend by that name.)
Ben: My name's not Toby.
Me: C'mon, Toby!
Ben: (more vehemently) My name's not Toby!
Me: (Silently giggling to myself: "My name's Kunta Kinte!")
If you don't know what I'm talking about, then you might be too young to recall Roots, the seminal 1977 TV miniseries based on the book by Alex Haley.
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12 comments:
You are my sister in warpitude because the second I saw you called him Toby, I thought, "Your name is Toby, boy!"
But, um, hold off on the hatchet, eh?
Yup, Julie and I share brains.
We have one of those communal hive brains.
Hey, I couldn't walk when it first came out, but I've seen Roots. No one has any excuses.
i saw roots on tv when it first came out. my parents were way into it and we all waited patiently for the next show...
Hehehehehehe....yup, I'm there.
You could start demanding that he fetch things for you, etc...
Yeah, I watched Roots when it came out. And though I was definitely a little child, I could walk, well. I don't remember that Kunta Kinte's slave name was Toby, but I do remember Kizzy getting in trouble for trying to learn to read.
Roots came out in '77? I don't remember that, because, um, I wasn't born yet. So I must have seen it on a rerun. The scene where Kunta Kinte finally gives in and calls himself Toby is etched into my brain. In fact, that's one of the only thing I remember about the series.
I wish they'd release Roots on DVD. Fun Family Fact: my parents' nickname for our dishwasher was "Kizzy."
Dude, I'm related to Alex Haley.
Cool, PK! (I'm distantly related to Mark Twain.)
Sweet!!
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