Friday, June 10, 2011

python snakes...

Yesterday's story reminded me of another 'kid story.'

More than 20 years ago, I was a fairly new art teacher in southern Oklahoma. My 2nd graders (age 7) had just entered class and I had gotten them started on their project. I was gathering up some paint and other materials that I had been working on, for the school play, prior to the arrival of this class.

I had some brushes, tape, a sketch, and of course some water based acryic paints.

One little boy... noticing that I was cleaning up a brush that had paint all over it said, in his easy, slow, southern drawl like only southern children can manage...

"Miss _______, you know what that paint SMELLS LIKE?"

"That paint smells like P.. Y.. T.. H.. O.. N snakes."

I replied, "Oh it does, does it?" He said, "Yep!"

I asked him had he been smelling PYTHON SNAKES often? He answered with a very serious face.... "Yep."

We continued with our art lesson and about 20 minutes later he said with a little smile playing on his lips... "You know what Ms. ____________?" "I was just joking about that python snake."I still laugh when I tell that story. Of course it does help that I can drawl my words out nice and slow just like he did.

Now, I know for a fact that it is quite unlikely that he had ever seen- much less had EVER smelled a PYTHON SNAKE! However, I just loved how his mind worked to connect an unfamiliar (but not strong smell) with a python snake?

1 comment:

Cheryl in AZ said...

Funny you should bring that up... my dear friend (from Germany I might add) tells the story of when her youngest was told he needed to try some sort of new food (what it was I cannot recall). This child was adventuresome to say the least and had gotten into many unusual situations and dilemmas as a young child (aprox 5 at the time).
So he tries 'said food' and proceeds to announce to the family "Mama this tastes like cat pee!!!" My friend and her husband looked across the table at each other and chose not to ask how he should know such a thing. :)