The other day, my six-year-old daughter, Margot, turned to me and said: “Mom, I’m going to show you how to make something you don’t know how to make.” He asked me to borrow my notebook, which, naturally, I immediately did. I remember these things – learning some weird little doodles in school and feeling so excited to have someone to show it to. I thought about it when he took his pencil and carefully drew – okay, wait. Do you want to guess? Let me give you a hint: It starts with three vertical lines.
That’s right: the real thing!!! Did you know that kids are still making S things?! When Margot picked it up to show me I almost screamed. “What?” he asked, as I gasped and started laughing, my mind instantly filled with elementary school ephemera: pictures, playground rhymes, coot shots and catchers. “Nothing!” I had said. “That’s awesome; you have to show dad.” He actually screamed when he saw it.
This incident really sent me down the rabbit hole – and I’m glad to know there is officially such a thing. “The Cool Sis an artwork of children’s literature: Culture and values of children. By definition, this is what children learn From Other children then spread it among themselves, completely independent of adults or technology. Thinking: buttercup test“Break an egg on your head,” Miss Mary Mac, Jinx (double Jinx!), and anything else you learned from your cousins. There is a long history of anthropological study on this topic, which I love because, really, what a fun and deeply frustrating area of research it must have been. Imagine you’re trying to explain to a first grader why saying the same words at the same time means one of you is not allowed to speak again until they are “free.” (By the way, has anyone ever successfully un-junked one? I guess I’m still technically waiting.) Kids have apparently been making The Cool Ass since at least the 1980s, and still, no one has figured out where it came from.
Ever since Margot made S, childcare has been my favorite conversation starter. It’s great to see the sadness on everyone’s faces as their memories are unleashed and spread everywhere. “Remember typing ‘BOOBS’ on the calculator?” There will be a split. “Or – or that thing when you’re driving by a cemetery and you have to hold your breath?” I love hearing the little differences in details (some people grew up picking their feet up off the floor when walking through a cemetery). But what’s strange is how many of us grew up drawing, singing, and believing in the same little fun things: Miss Susie had a steamboat, Batman smelled, the floor was lava, and stepping on cracks broke our mothers’ backs. What’s even more wild – and wonderful in a way – is to know that, although we have grown out of the culture of childhood, there are children out there still carrying out the stupid, disgusting traditions of our people. He’ll continue to appear in Cool Ace Notebook long after we’re gone. And somewhere out there, a research scientist is trying to figure out a deal with Six-Seven. God bless, friend.
So, I’m dying to ask: What does children’s literature do? You Memorization? Personally, I still can’t believe the word “gullible” isn’t in the dictionary.
PS The funnest game to play with kids (a children’s literature classic!) and hilarious passive-aggressive notes from kids.
(Photograph of a puppet show in Paris, 1963, by Alfred Eisenstaedt.)
