 |
May 02, 2008 |
|
 |
|
|
Blue Things for Hope
FOUND by J.Raecker
in Cedar Falls, Iowa
This floated into our front yard one afternoon. I think it came from the big house across the street with lots of kids.
Sign in or register to start a profile and keep track of your comments. You may also post without creating a profile, but you'll have to answer some tough spam protection questions.
Skull with Parasol August 05, 2007 |
Totally Hot April 13, 2006 |
Crucial Advice for ... May 23, 2007 |
Neet to Straighten... November 18, 2005 |
 |
|
 |
         |
We collect FOUND stuff: love letters, birthday cards, kids' homework,
to-do lists, ticket stubs, poetry on napkins, telephone bills, doodles -
anything that gives a glimpse into someone
else's life. Anything goes...
It bothers me that the note says pick up blue thingS, but then says put IT in the truck..
blue stuff? put THEM in the truck?
What could the blue things be? Is Hope supposed to collect up any and all blue things she can find, in the street and in the yard? I spy a blue cup, a blue smurf, a blue plastic baseball bat, a blue post-it note that says "EGGS!", a blue sweatshirt on the Bakers' porch railing, and I have some blue skittles in a bag in my pocket.
I'm really just curious as to how socks can gather up in ones yard so much so that they need to add this task to a to-do list.
hope is a piano playing blue bower bird
i wonder what the note to jack said. i wonder if hope and jack traded notes.
Why were there socks in the yard? Maybe they were on a clothes-line and got blown away. Just speculating.
And I always wonder when I read lists people write about their train of thought, like is a list a sort of stream-of-conciousness that can tell us something about the person? Like for instance, why did this person decide to write "practice piano" after "pick up socks in yard"? Do this things have a connection? One of those Freudian things I guess.
***these things. oy.
Maybe dad's got a porn addiction, and "blue things" is a delicate way of referring to his, err, material. Maybe hope got mad at her dad always wanking in his truck (his usual hideaway for satisfying himself) and threw all his mags around. Like Alecia, just speculating.
Maybe I'll have mor coffee. Maybe then this will all make sense.
Mom,
Hope here. Need a little help and direction. Do the blue socks go in the truck, too? Should I leave the socks in the street where they are (unless they're blue, of course)? How can I practice piano when my hands are full of socks? Is the piano NOT in the yard, where I left it with the socks and blue things? (By the way, we DID have a heck of a party while you and Dad were gone last night.) And, finally, why do I have to hang up the black coat when I can leave the blue coat outside in Dad's truck?
That's it for expressing the Audacity of Hope.
Makes perfect sense. They have a lot of kids. Hope picks up the blue things, Matt picks up the yellow things, Andrea picks up the red things, etc. They all go in Dad's truck. This way everything gets done. Brilliant!
It looks like something my mother would write, just with better handwriting. =)
I must be in a particularly evil mood. I automatically assumed "socks" was the family cat. Poor socks, got hit by some blue things. Practice piano. THAT has to be for the memorial service. I'll bet Hope was planning on wearing her black coat for the event, and remembered that she carelessly tossed it on the floor the last time she wore it.
Yeesh, time for a cup of coffee.
Pick up blue things in street and yard. Send to Found Magazine.
My kids always take their shoes and socks off when it's warm out and they're playing in the yard. So I wasn't perplexed at all by the "pick up socks in yard" command. (oh how annoying, though. Most of the time, the shoes make it back into the house, but the socks don't fare so well. Next fall, raking leaves, there are always some sock casualties, embedded in the dirt, beyond hope or salvation.)
I'm quite concerned that the blue things in the street might get clipped by a passing motorist.
Hurry, Hope before something tragic ensues.
But what COLOR are the socks, Mom? (I mean since you're being so specific and all...)
Oh, sure Alan - send Hope out there to get clipped instead of the blue things. Typical materialistic "pting"-going Alan. You're all alike.
I had to laugh when I read "hang up black coat" on this list. I sometimes include easy things like that on the lists I make just to get the momentum going. Makes me feel like I'm actually getting things accomplished when I cross it off, when in reality it takes less time to complete the task than it did to write it on the list.
I think Hope is special needs.
I have a trampoline and the kids take off their shoes and usually their socks when they jump on it; my kids bring their friends over who do the same, then they go home, usually leaving the socks behind..
Ouch Flargy. Thanks for pointing out the error of my ways.
LET THE BLUE THINGS FEND FOR THEMSELVES.
Stay safe young Hope.
Ok, trying to figure out what "blue things" are.
Maybe Hope borrowed a couple of those blue plastic tarps from Dad's truck to make tents with. Or maybe they were using them for a make-shift slip 'n slide. Or a curtain or a backdrop for a neighborhood kiddie theatre production.
Kids' imaginations are boundless. But they are bad about leaving stuff outside. And they might not necessarily know the word "tarp".
I can't think what else the "blue things" might be. J.Raecker in Cedar Falls, Iowa, do you remember seeing the "blue things" out in the street? You should go over there and ask them! Thanks for the great Find, by the way.
Isn't there a particular species of bird - Bower Birds, I do believe - That have an attraction to all things blue during mating season? Maybe Hope has watched too much Animal Planet and has decided to give Dad a hand in the dating Department since Mom went a bit bonkers and threw all his socks out the window.
Mom couldn't bring herself to write "blue balls".
This isn't a "to do" list, it's a wish list. That's why it's titled "Hope."
I can't believe you can't all see it. This one's so obvious.
There was a party last night. And, as parties tend to go, this one got a bit out of hand. Both socks and insults thrown freely. Words were said, promises were broken, threats were made, coats were dropped, and now this family has to get the hell out of Dodge.
Since Mom has to go scout ahead for a suitable place for the family to land, she left this note for Hope. They have to get out fast, and unfortunately, they'll only be able to take what they can fit into the back of Dad's truck. Knowing they have much too much stuff to fit, Mom makes a quick executive decision. We'll take the blue things. Leave everything else.
Since the piano isn't blue, Mom is also hoping Hope can get in one more practice on the piano before they have to leave it behind.
Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue.
For Hope's shotgun wedding.
Oops, I see Librarian contributed the party idea first.
I love this list! It would just be a boring old list without the word "blue."
What intrigues me the most is that it's written on an index card. The finder says the house has a lot of kids. So I'm wondering if mom lays out a bunch of index cards on the kitchen island everyday for them to see when they come home from school. They find the one with their name on top, and work on the tasks at hand.
Maybe the mom is neurotic enough to file them away in little color coded index boxes to track who completes their chores consistantly in their entirety.
My mom just had a big chart on the wall for us and we got a sticker. Once we accumulated so many stickers we got to pick a cool treat like going bowling or to the movies.
Christina, you may be onto something. That kind of system never worked with my daughter, though. Some people are just not extrinsically motivated.
Clover, it never works with my son, either. He loses interest in the treat LONG before he even gets close to getting enough stickers. I guess I need to find another method.
She made it really easy by letting us getting stickers for EVERY little thing. I'm talking like.. brush your teeth, wash your hands, take your bath, do your homework, etc. So they accumulated very quickly, making the prize closer to reach.
Good luck with that, mlm. If you find the answer you could write the next book on child rearing.
I immediately - and still (though I know it wasn't meant this way) - read "Hope" as a state or feeling of hope, as in I "Hope" that I will do the things on the list. Or they were telling themselves that, first of all, remember not to lose "Hope" and that "Hope" will carry them along far enough to maybe do something on the list! Let Hope Prevail!!
Yes, that is very revealing of my own life.
I like Christina's thoughts, and I agree. Here is a person that is trying to put order into a family that lacks order (socks and 'blue things' in the yard?). I hate to see her efforts trivialized. Seriously. Note that the daughter's name is "Hope" ... that's the kind of mother that I admire, she sets out goals for her children even when the loftiest goal for the day is to hand up the black coat. My hat is off to you.
By the way (if it matters) I'm a man.
...One more observation. Did you notice that she says "put in DAD'S truck"? Not "put in your FATHER'S truck?" She hasn't given up on her husband yet, even though they have a yard full of blue things, socks, and a truck. My hat is off to you, Mom. Hope has a chance.
I may be able to clear up something about the socks if there is a kindred spirit to mine in Cedar Falls. When my kids fail/refuse to pick up their dirty socks from the rather baffling places they show up in the house, I often just throw them out the back door. After the snow melt in spring '06, I estimate fifteen or twenty pairs were revealed in a generous radius of the deck. Of course I am undermined by their mom, who does not leave an index card with instructions to retrieve them. She just buys them more socks.
Ahem.
I have two very large "blue things" in my office. Blue exercise balls. But since I do massage, anyone who comes into my office and says "oh, you have blue balls!" pretty much gets the stinkeye. And, by the way, "stinkeye" (in this sense) is NOT a silly euphamism:-)
Hope is just the first, most important task on the to do list. I do it every day, all day.
"Blue things" certainly refers to those plastic recycling bins AnyCounty USA gives out to homeowners.
Poor Hope, resigned to her Cinderella life of picking up yard socks, hanging up black coats, and retrieving the empty recycling bins the sanitation workers have strewn around the street and yard has, worst of all, *piano lessons* to endure on a weekly basis as well! Poor, hopeless Hope can only be grateful that Dad didn't give *her* the name of Faith, or Charity, or God Help us! Chastity. One day, Hope will climb (metaphorically) into one of those "blue things" and recycle herself into Ana (one "n" makes it seem so edgy!), the lesbian goth biker chick who works at that independent coffee house and always wears the thigh-high boots with the ripped fishnet stockings -- no socks for Ana! And, you can damn well be sure, no f*cking piano lessons either!
My mom still leaves these kinds of notes for me, and I'm 18 years old. They usually include something like "empty dishwasher, fill H2O bottles, and practice piano."
The blue things perplex me though. I saw some kids playing with multi-colored pool toys today. I'm assuming they're some contraption that is nameless to the mother.
*Whispers* I think the blue things are pepsi cans for recycling.
i grew up in a huge family with a trampoline in our backyard. when the kids jump on the trampoline, off go the socks. a large number of socks in the yard isn't strange to me.