Where & When: my car, last week What: singing all the verses of “Yankee Doodle” Why: the kindergarten kids are singing it as part of a show
I’m navigating traffic & half listening to the lyrics, which I don’t really remember ‘cept for the part about riding on a pony and sticking “a feather in his hat” and calling ” it macaroni.” I hear Sophie sing something about girls being “handy.” Then she stops and says, “Grammy, girls certainly are handy.” “What? What do you mean?” I reply. “When the boys carry the tables, sometimes they need the girls to put their hands under the table and help them.” “The boys carry the tables? Why?” “Because they are strong.” “But, so are you, Sophie. You are really strong. Think about how you just climbed the climbing wall and ran very fast.”
This morning I was repeating this dialogue to Linda, who just returned from speaking at a conference in Mallorca, & commenting about gender socialization when she interrupted me to say, “The lyrics are ‘and with the girls be handy.”” Oh! Oh, well, on the one hand, neither Sophie or I understood that; but on the other hand, now that I “got it” she undoubtedly will too before too long.
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