Galoshes and IKE, a comment about growing up in Oklahoma

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Galoshes and IKE
(A comment about growing up in Oklahoma)

Janelle Meraz Hooper

I woke up this morning thinking about the first election I can remember. I was about twelve and we had moved into a new development outside the gates of Fort Sill, Oklahoma, where there was an Indian reservation. The Kiowas weren’t happy because the developers had cut a road through the new houses that went straight through the middle of the clay deposit they used for their pots. I walked that road to school every morning and didn’t see any difference between that unpaved road than any other except that the clay was a deep red. Then the rains came and I saw that clay with a new perspective. Before I went out the door that morning, my mother made me put on my new red galoshes. She’d bought them several sizes too big so they’d last a long time. Everything I wore was too big, even the hand-me-downs from my cousins. The boots looked dumb and I knew the kids would laugh at me. I was glad I had that I LIKE IKE button someone had given me to balance things out. I was the only one in my class who had one and it made me the subject of envy among all my classmates. I wore it every day. On my way to school the new road looked fine but, when I stepped on it, I sank into thick red clay that was deeper than the tops of my galoshes. About halfway to school I noticed that one of my galoshes was missing and the sock on the bootless foot was as red as the road and was half off. I clomped into school with one cold, wet and muddy bootless foot that stayed that way all day. I was sure glad I hadn’t lost my new sock (not realizing that it would never be white again) and I still had my I LIKE IKE button, so I thought I was in good shape. And I was–until I got home and mom noticed I’d lost a brand new boot and one of my socks. Not even IKE could help me then.

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The author, Janelle Meraz Hooper, grew up in Oklahoma and is the author of The Turtle Trilogy (A Three-Turtle Summer, As Brown As I Want, and Custer & His Naked Ladies). See all of my books on Amazon. PB & Kindle.

Note: Geronimo, Life on the Reservation, is a one-man show I wrote for Rudy Ramos (Now on Kevin Costner’s Yellowstone (Paramount Channel).

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Thanks for stopping by! Janelle

“What tribe are you?” A humorous commentary

Tim Tingle  and I at the 2004 Oklahoma Book Awards. The title of my book was As Brown As I Want: The Indianhead Diaries. Tim’s book was Walking the Choctaw Road.

“What tribe are you?”
Janelle Meraz Hooper

Janelle Meraz Hooper

Mother’s Day is coming up. I’ve been thinking about my mom…we were very close. The kind of close that develops between two people who have survived living with a man who was meaner than a rattlesnake and dumber than adobe (from A Three-Turtle Summer). Living in Oklahoma, my mother and I had a lot of Native American friends who invited us to their powwows. All the time, kids would ask me, “What tribe are you from?” I didn’t know what to say. We were Hispanic! One day I asked my mom about it. She never blinked an eye and said, “We’re from the Aztec tribe.” At 7-years-old it was a good enough explanation for me and I skated by on that answer all summer.


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