A Gum Collection and Other Weird Stuff

While studying the Harlem Renaissance, my students read Zora Neale Hurston's "How it Feels to be Colored Me." If you're unfamiliar, I'd recommend checking it out- it's pretty funny. My favorite part is when she says discrimination doesn't make her angry, it just makes her curious about why anyone would want to deprive themselves of her company. At the end of the essay, she talks about a metaphoric brown paper bag containing odd bits of nonsense that represent her, so of course I give my students brown paper bags and tell them to fill them with things that represent them. They have to share them with the class, and today we had some interesting items, so i thought I'd share them.

Hands down the most unusual thing brought in was a "red shoe." Before I go any farther I have to explain that the kids stand next to my desk, set their bags on my desk, and take things out one at a time. It works well because they don't have to juggle the items, I get to see them up close, and some people feel more comfortable standing next to me up front rather than standing there all alone. So anyway, this girl was talking about a red shoe her mom gave her while she was reaching in her bag. She pulled it out and set it on my desk right in front of me as she was explaining that she has filled it with her gum collection. HER USED GUM COLLECTION. A red glass shoe, on my desk, with hundreds of wads of chewed gum, all different colors, filling the shoe and piling up on top of it. She went on to talk about how this is significant because each piece/wad represents a different moment in her life and they're all brought together inside this red shoe. In retrospect this is kind of an interesting idea, but while she was explaining it I was so disturbed that I couldn't process it. The best part was the kids couldn't figure out what was going on. After she finished explaining it, a kid was like "A gum collection?" and apparently I said "It's FULL of CHEWED GUM!" Laughter ensued, to say the least.

No story is as good as that one. Frankly, I know kids had all kinds of interesting stuff all day, but all I can think about at this very moment is the gum collection. Anyway, I will try to proceed with some other interesting tidbits.

One student is a drummer in the band and he had his favorite drumsticks in his bag. He held one up, said its name, held the other one up, and said its name. I asked how he can tell them apart and he said "I wrote their names on them."

One girl who brags constantly about being a hippie and dresses in all 80s clothes (she seems to think 80s clothes are what hippies would have worn, I'm not sure what the connection is there) brought in pictures of a peace rally/protest she went to in DC this summer. She had all these peace loving poses and stuff and she summed up her explanation by saying "I didn't take any shoes, and I walked around barefoot. My feet got so nasty and dirty, though, I had to scrub them for an hour after I got home. I wouldn't recommend doing that." I am sure people at peace rallies in the 70s went home and scrubbed their feet afterwards.

Another girl started with the pictures of all the dogs she's had in her life. She flipped through the pictures one at a time and told us how each one died. It went something like this: "This is the first dog I ever had. He got hit by a car. This is my dog Smokey. He got stolen about a year ago. This is my dog Boondock. He ran away because my dad didn't shut the gate. This is my dog Ringer. I had him when I lived in Waldorf and he got taken away in that tornado that came through there a few years ago." I asked if she was serious and she looked at me with a face of complete disbelief that I could even question it, and I felt bad. She proceeded. "This is my dog Buster, he died of old age." A girl in the class shouted "THANK GOD!" and everyone started laughing (including the girl with all the dogs, which was important to me, because I make a big deal about not making fun of anything in the bags). She had two other dogs, another one that died of old age, and one that is still alive (miraculously).

The other one that comes to mind is a kid whose parents immigrated here from Vietnam during the war. All of his things were about the pride he has in his heritage, so that was interesting and cool, and then he pulled out a bag of rice. He said "This is rice." (I found that funny in itself, because clearly it was rice.) Anyway, he went on to explain that rice is really good, and he eats it every night, but if you eat it too much it gets boring. And that represents him because if you're around him too much, he gets a little boring, too.

Also, a lot of boyfriends/girlfriends made it into the bag, but only one girl had nice things to say about her boyfriend. Everyone else seemed very bitter or something. I dont know if they were all in fights or felt uncomfortable saying nice things in front of the class or something, but it was weird.

The gum shoe, though, wow. I could do this activity for five more years and probably wouldn't get anything as great as the gum filled shoe.