New Year New Me! But Am I Chinese?

Carol Posted on January 05 2020

This is SOOO Not a Woe is Carol Ann Story....

My Dad, Bob, was a builder. He was constantly selling our house out from under us. I moved 13 times from the time I was born until I left for college. The joke in our family was, "Dad, The gout is dirty we need to move."

Bob would buy 5 to 20 acres and create a subdivision in our tiny town in Ohio. Our home would be the first home in the subdivision. So??? This means that as a kid I didn't have any kids to play with. I would complain to my Grandmother that I didn't have anything to do and she would say, "You have a room full of toys! Go play!"

Then Dad built a house for the Tom's and as luck would have it Russel was my age. But Russel was a BOY (ICK!) and Weird to boot. Loneliness makes strange bedfellows.

You see Russel liked to make Cowboys out of Cicada Skeletons. He was darn good at it too. So out of desperation I asked him if I could make Cowgirls? We had a blast making all of these tiny minatures and staging then in my many doll houses. Cotton Balls were my go to item and I would have killed for a glue gun back then!!!!

Needless to say I was really fascinated by this Atlas Obscura Story about Chinese Artisans that Turned Cicadas into Hairy Monkeys. It started during the Ming Dynasty and really caught on because children back then had very few TOYS. Check it out HERE.