Attack of the Squash People

Recently I did a blog post on the poem entitled " My Mother Gives Me Her Recipe'" by Marge Piercy posted here. I had a blog friend Tinker suggest the one below. I laughed so hard when I read it. Now I know why I love Marge Piercy's work so well. Enjoy!

Attack of the Squash People
by Marge Piercy

And thus the people every year
in the valley of humid July
did sacrifice themselves
to the long green phallic god
and eat and eat and eat.
They're coming, they're on us,
the long striped gourds, the silky
babies, the hairy adolescents,
the lumpy vast adults
like the trunks of green elephants.
Recite fifty zucchini recipes!

Zucchini tempura; creamed soup;
sauté with olive oil and cumin,
tomatoes, onion; frittata;
casserole of lamb; baked
topped with cheese; marinated;
stuffed; stewed; driven
through the heart like a stake.

Get rid of old friends: they too
have gardens and full trunks.
Look for newcomers: befriend
them in the post office, unload
on them and run. Stop tourists
in the street. Take truckloads
to Boston. Give to your Red Cross.
Beg on the highway: please
take my zucchini, I have a crippled
mother at home with heartburn.

Sneak out before dawn to drop
them in other people's gardens,
in baby buggies at churchdoors.
Shot, smuggling zucchini into
mailboxes, a federal offense.

With a suave reptilian glitter
you bask among your raspy
fronds sudden and huge as
alligators. You give and give
too much, like summer days
limp with heat, thunderstorms
bursting their bags on our heads,
as we salt and freeze and pickle
for the too little to come.

Sibling Assignment #73: Growing a Writer

rvd1513's at flickr

I gave the sibling assignment this week. "As we near the start of the school year here is the assignment. Write about a school experience that was significant to your school life. Describe the experience and why it was significant." You will find Raymond Pert's here
soon and and Silver Valley Girl's enlightening post about essay writing here.


I started first grade at Silver King school in the Kellogg School District. It is in the process of being torn down. I caught this picture last winter. I then moved to Sunnyside School where I went to grades 2-6. I also substitute taught there while attending college. Dave Smith Motors now uses it for offices. This is Kellogg High School situated among the hills and evergreens in Jacob's Gulch in Kellogg.

I began my school experience in kindergarten in September of 1960. Every September since that year I have been in a classroom as a student or a teacher. Tomorrow I will celebrate the beginning of my 31st year of teaching. Those thirty-one years have included teaching all elementary grades, middle school language arts, drama, social studies, high school reading, college education courses, and three student teachers. My first three years of teaching were done here at Pinehurst Elementary in the Kellogg School District.


Along the way I have learned many lessons about myself, my surroundings, and life itself. I have had the privilege of working with amazing groups of students, parents, teachers, college professors, and administrators. I have been able to stay with a vocation that I love for my whole career. Not every day is a picnic. Sometimes I have wondered if there was anything else I could have done to reach a certain student. I questioned myself as I sat in a college math class wondering if it was ever going to make sense. I have had students that carried burdens heavier than I could imagine. I also had students that are making our world a better place today.



It is hard to focus on one school experience, but this is one that came to mind today. If you have read my blog much you know I have a passion for poetry. This passion began early in my life. My mom read poems aloud to us at home and my teachers made poetry reading an important ritual in my elementary classes. There was a tradition at Sunnyside School that the sixth graders wrote poems at Halloween for a contest. If a poem was chosen the writer got the privilege of reading it over the loudspeaker on the day of the Halloween party.

In my younger grades I remember students older than me reading their poems annually. It was like a rite of passage. I can remember working feverishly on the stanzas of that poem. At that time I knew all poems had to rhyme and I can remember adjusting words so they would work into lines of rhyme. My poem was chosen and I knew I would get to read it aloud. Our loudspeaker was only reserved for the deep voice of our principal as he would announce it was time to line up for shots or review a rule about snowballs in a stern voice. It seemed like a magical machine that was a bit like the microphone the wizard talked into from behind the curtain at Oz.

Not only was I excited I was chosen, but I marveled at the idea of using the loudspeaker. I practiced and practiced and used good expression when I read that day from the office. That was the moment I realized I was a poet. A copy of the poem may be somewhere in my mother's archives. It was called "The Haunted House". I would like to find it. This event was significant because I remember former teachers and other students praising me after I read my poem. It is that recognition that often begins to grow a writer. From there I continued my path to writing poetry all through my school years. In high school I finally realized poetry didn't have to rhyme. I look back on that experience at the start of a writing life and realize how it gave me confidence in myself. Perhaps I will do something like this this fall with my students.My classroom door today leading out to the basketball courts.

In Sibling Life, Be Completely Present: Another Inland Empire Road Trip

In dwelling, live close to the ground.

In thinking, keep to the simple.
In conflict, be fair and generous.
In governing, don't try to control.
In work, do what you enjoy.
In family life, be completely present.
Tao Te Ching

Fortunately at least twice a year my siblings and I are able to be together in the same place. We blog together every week with our Sibling Assignment and comment and email back and forth, but it is a great adventure when we can all be together for a day.

Friday was a day that we were completely present! We started another Inland Empire tour day with sugar and caffeine at Krispy Kremes as we delved into the problems of the world from a recent death penalty case in Idaho, to serial killers, to flowers that attract bees, to who got sent to the cooler on Huckleberries Online. We managed to go the full gambit and it was only ten o'clock a.m.

We did a leisurely drive to the north end of Spokane County to Green Bluff.
"Green Bluff is located about 15 minutes north of Spokane and is nestled at the foothills of Mt. Spokane. It is divided into two loops of farms, the East and the West. The farms offer a wide variety of fruits and vegetables either picked or U-Pick. There are also unique items such as a winery, antiques, an alpaca ranch, a landscape nursery, U-Pick lavender, Homemade Italian Food and U-Cut Christmas Trees. The Green Bluff Growers' Association was formed in 1902. The group's initial mission was to protect local strawberry growers from outside competition. Now, the association helps local farmers with agricultural tourism. " We had to stop at Harvest House which is located at the heart of the small community of Green Bluff. It was the peach festival and a resident chow was right at home. I was amazed at the beautiful hanging baskets and wished this one was at my house. We also made a stop The Barn on Trezzi Farm and loved the roosters that greeted us. Here is brother Raymond Pert pausing for a snapshot.
Sister Silver Valley Girl got both of us to pose with the rooster.
One disappointment was that Fleur de Provence Lavender Farm was closed until afternoon. We admired the farm from the road and made a plan to return another time. To learn more about Green Bluff go here.

Next we headed to Fairmont Memorial Park to visit our Grandma Woolum's grave. I felt confident I could locate her plot because I remembered the location by a beautiful monument with praying hands that was very close. We went right to the location. She is buried in such a peaceful spot. I always love walking around Fairmont in the area she has been laid to rest.
Silver Valley Girl was the co-pilot on the tour.

We then took a drive to Nine Mile Falls and squeezed in some lunch before we met our mother and Silver Valley Girl's family for Mamma Mia. Silver Valley Girl and I got to see it a few weeks ago, but with more family members watching we had even more fun singing along with Abba songs and marveling at how much fun the cast had making this movie. That made it even more enjoyable for us!
What do you think? Do you see any family resemblance? I think I need to get glasses that match theirs a bit better before our next pose. It was a terrific day being completely present with my siblings as we enjoyed another beautiful corner of the Inland Empire.

Camera Critters: Strawberry Hill Farm Critters

Yesterday during a road trip with my siblings, we encountered a great group of farm critters when we stopped at the U-pick Strawberry Hill Farm on our tour through Green Bluff near Spokane, WA.
This was the first critter we saw as we arrived at the farm. He was just hanging around by the shady porch. I love black and white farm dogs with markings like this.
This chocolate lab has been with the farm for many years. He greeted people and wandered around the u-pick gardens even though he was moving a bit slow. As my father used to say, "he was a bit long in the tooth. "
This was the perfect camera critter (or critters) shot of the day. This mother cat (which looks like she could be sisters with our Lily) crawled up in this barrel on the porch and gave birth to these kittens a week ago. They haven't even opened their eyes yet. As the kittens enjoyed their lunch she rested and wasn't bothered by all of us snapping pictures and ooohing and ahhhhing over the litter. To enjoy other Camera Critters go here.

Photo Hunt:: Beautiful

an iris from the garden in the spring
to find other photo hunts using beautiful go here

Extreme Hall Makeover, Going Green, and Mohammad Ali

Today I went to set up my classroom at school. I got to haul in baskets, tubs, and and a crate of stuff I had at home over the summer. I really like the extreme makeover that happened in our hallway.

Some of my former students were hired to work at the school this summer. The girls painted a gorgeous mural in the middle of the hall. R.M. did a fine job with the Inchelium Hornet painted nicely in our school colors. I decided to "go green" this year with water bottles. I have a water cooler in my classroom for two reasons. Students don't have access to a drinking fountain and the water is not very tasty in the faucet because of old pipes. We used to go through lots of cups in a year. I decided we will start the year with everyone having their own water bottle. It makes such a difference when students stay hydrated!
I found my older Mohammad Ali READ poster I have had for many years. I think my students will enjoy seeing him a few years younger and also reading this book with a teddy bear. He is a hero to many. As I left to go home waaaaaaaay too late I noticed that this hallway will wake me up and brighten my days this school year. This deserted, quiet hall will be filled with activity and noise on Tuesday. Change always happens in any institution. My friend and principal decided in August to take early retirement after a scary car accident the day of graduation in June. My teaching partner will now be principal for most of the day, but will teach science in our middle school hall in the afternoon. I think the transition will work well for the students since they have already built relationships with their new principal. Tuesday will be here before we know it.