My Tribe*

I have a secret. And I’m going to share.

Yesterday was a really great day. I had my favourite class (Modern German History) with my most favourite prof in the entire world, and we discussed Maus I & II. If you are interested in studying the Holocaust, I highly recommend reading these texts. They are graphic novels that tell an extremely powerful story of an Auschwitz survivor and the rocky relationship between a father and son as a result. They moved me so much that I actually had to stop reading at two specific points and walk away for a bit.

Also, the Hubster’s parents came up for the afternoon! My mother in law is an antique collector and wanted to come to trade for a new piece as well as hunt for another one! So they took the Hubster and I grocery shopping (soooooo much easier with a car…) and then we went to a large antique barn nearby. Now then, I wouldn’t necessarily say that antiques are my own personal decorating style of choice, but they absolutely FASCINATE me. In the three years that I have known my husband and his family, I have really come to appreciate and become interested in antiques. Antique barns are especially cool as they are usually HUGE and contain pieces from all sorts of periods… from the 1980s, to the 1940s – 50s, and back to the 1800s even.

In my life, I have never really been one to “collect” things. I go through phases when I’ll be particularly interested with something, but I never really had a “collection”. Well, unless you count my obsession with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. [Sidenote: if you love choral music, then I highly, highly, highly recommend this choir. Of all the choirs I have listened to, not one moves me like they do. PHENOMENAL.] I guess you could say that I “collect” their music, I currently have nearly 450 different pieces / arrangements by them on my computer and I never ever ever get tired of listening to it.

ANYWAY, so on one visit to an antique barn I found something that made me laugh so hard that I HAD to buy it. And then I bought another a couple of months later. And then I bought another yesterday. I am now officially a collector. :)

Let me explain why I am collecting what I am (aren’t I evasive?) before actually showing you a picture. My family has Metis heritage and we have cracked “Indian” jokes all our lives. Nothing mean spirited, of course, but if you know me / have seen a picture, you’ll also see that I am the whitest “Indian” that you will EVER meet. haha! (I’m aware that the politically correct term is Native, but I prefer this one for this post) My nickname growing up was Pocahontas, and my “second family” made nicknames for most of my family… for example, my Dad was Big Chief, there was Thunder Squirrel, Hair Like Fire, etc etc. It was hilarious.

So as I was browsing through antiques I began finding these dolls and I am in LOVE with them. I think that they are the funniest / most hideous things that I have EVER laid eyes on and I now buy one whenever I find them. Let me introduce you to my favourite, “Hair Like Bowl”. [the Hubster helps me name them ahhaha]
She gets this special name because it looks like her previous owner gave her a haircut and now she has the traditional “bowl cut” haha! Anyway, these are the the rest of the tribe that I have currently collected. From L -R, let me introduce you to Ritewto [she has a baby on her back that we’ve named Japache], Hair Like Bowl and Thigh Bear. So. There is my secret. I collect Indian dolls. haha!

Shop Girl*