Auchtoon!Naybe He Got Runned over by a Tractor…
First, you should know that my daughter Natalina is advancing the fine Auchter tradition with Grandville High School theater and will be appearing as Andromeda in the Greek tragedy, “The Women of Troy.” Performances are next week, Thursday, Friday, Saturday (November 18-20), each at 7:00PM at the high school. Click here for more details. Word on the street is that it’s gonna be impressive.
When you do come, you will be treated to a printed version of the above drawing in the program. Here’s the back story: In 1999 we moved to our current home, which happens to have a backyard that borders the Grandville cemetery. None of our children found this scary or even peculiar. In fact, we would often go for family walks — the headstones had an almost endless variety of words, letter, numbers, and these would generate all sorts of questions and educational opportunities.
One day four year-old Natalina was particularly interested in some of the symbols. “What are they for?” she wondered. Jane and I explained that these images generally meant something significant about the person — like a military veteran might have a flag to let people know he died in the service of his country. Natalina thought about this the way Natalina thinks about things — she says nothing as her beautiful eyes dart and swim. After a while we came upon a man who had images of farm equipment engraved on his headstone. Natalina asked what we thought they meant. We said, “Well, maybe the man was a farmer or he found joy in working the earth to grow things.” Natalina considered this for a moment and then offered helpfully, “Or naybe he got runned over by a tractor.”
Jane said,
November 10, 2010 @ 1:57 pm
I love this. I love it so much.
Eric said,
November 11, 2010 @ 12:57 pm
That’s a pretty great story. I’m trying to imagine what it would be like if everyone had the method of their demise depicted on their headstone… Yeah, we probably shouldn’t start that tradition.
Kris said,
November 12, 2010 @ 7:03 pm
Sweet Wednesday Addams – it’s just classic. Natalina was made for Greek tragedy. Should her theatre career extend beyond GHS, I believe she’d find steady work in Tim Burton productions. I know she’ll be brilliant!