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08-29-2015, 01:02 PM
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#1
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Senior Member
Join Date: May 2013
Location: ..., New Mexico
Trailer: 2013 Esc19/'14 Silvrado
Posts: 4,193
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So Sioux me
I’m in Albuquerque, wearing my Wyoming Cowboys tee shirt, the one with the brown shoulders. I am at the checkout counter of a hardware store. Was about to pay for a couple 40 packs of number 6 paper coffee filters for my Melita. (Upcoming ET19 trip.) I see a guy walks into the store and then he stops to look me over. He is really looking me over, like he knows me. The guy is nearly my height but is much more heavy set. I pay the clerk. He approaches me, asks if I am from Wyoming. I think, Huh?
His beefy face is darkly reddish skinned, very broad, a smiling, really sun-dried tomato. We are otherwise similar, formidable physical specimens. Long black hair tied behind his neck. I’d lost all mine. I’m maybe dozen-twenty years older than him, certainly more good looking. It is evident my Wyoming tee shirt got him curious, maybe hoping to meet kin from the Great Prairie.
I prefer my tee shirts plain. Sometimes though, it makes me feel good to broadcast an association to favorite places. I get it a lot: “Oh, Cape Cod, are you from there? No, I just wear the shirt. Oh, Notre Dame, did you go there? No, I just...” Well… some people just won’t leave you alone. Have no hesitation wearing my Sequoia NP sweatshirt because it is self-explanatory.
Engagements with strangers not my thing but this guy seemed to mean no harm. I grew up tall and skinny on the east coast; summers leery of rip tides at the Jersey shore, fighting mosquitoes, keeping clear of rude ethnic gangs. I’ve been befriended and bullied, by my kind and by others. Years later discovered beer and filled out significantly. New Mexico is a place the polar opposite of all I once held dear. It is all tumbleweed, big skies, cowboys, Indians, horses. I like that. I own a cowboy hat, something every true (northern) Jersey boy would think is insane. So this guy, this stranger who approached me in that store, was to me exotic, like nothing from Jersey, or the moon, but close.
Spontaneous conversation with total strangers is not my thing in a hardware store. But he got me curious. Never spoke socially with a true Native American before. Am I from Wyoming? No, “I got the shirt while trailer camping in Wyoming. Great price, I say, couldn’t pass it up, a mere fourteen bucks boondocking in a Cody WalMart.” Feeling collegial, I add, “You from up there?”
The name North Dakota comes from a Siouan Indian word meaning “friendly” or “allied.” Here would be a good place to add, there are four federally recognized Indian tribes in North Dakota today incorporating the Arikara tribe, the Nakoda, the Chippewa, the Hidatsa, Lakota and Dakota Sioux, and the Mandan tribe. I looked it up.
Wow! Ethnic diversity, a never tiresome experience, like the Great Plains so wide, so wide open. I must get out more. Being old, cranky, suspicious and isolated is bad. Old, can’t fix, but alert, curious and outgoing is doable. I was buffaloed by my brief encounter with this guy, so much so that I had to write this down.
He said no, he was not from Wyoming, but his dad was from the Great Plains in North Dakota, near Medora, I think. Meeting over, we smiled, went about our business. He must have been a Dakota Sioux.
__________________
Myron
"A billion here, a billion there...add it all up and before you know it you're talking real money." Everett Dirkson
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08-29-2015, 01:19 PM
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#2
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Senior Member
Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: North Vancouver, British Columbia
Trailer: 2009 Escape 17B 2020 Toyota Highlander XLE
Posts: 17,136
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Love the authentic, sacred, American Indian billboard.
__________________
What happens to the hole when the cheese is gone?
- Bertolt Brecht
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08-29-2015, 02:02 PM
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#3
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Senior Member
Join Date: Jan 2014
Location: North Van., British Columbia
Trailer: 2014 Escape 19, sold; 2019 Escape 21, Sept. 2019
Posts: 8,743
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MyronL
We are otherwise similar, formidable physical specimens.
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That you are Myron
Great narrative and nice to see the amount of use you're getting from your Escape.
Ron
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08-29-2015, 02:22 PM
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#4
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Site Team
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: Portland, Oregon
Trailer: 2014 Escape 5.0 TA
Posts: 11,023
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Myron, you always have the best travel stories!
__________________
Donna D.
Ten Forward
2014 Escape 5.0TA
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08-29-2015, 02:50 PM
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#5
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Senior Member
Join Date: Mar 2015
Location: Vancouver Island, British Columbia
Trailer: 2012 Escape 17B, 2011 Ranger FX4
Posts: 184
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I love the way you write . As good as some of my other favourite travel writers. More, please?
Happy trails.
__________________
Lotar & Wendy
"Sit loosely in the saddle of life" (Robert Louis Stevenson)
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08-29-2015, 06:42 PM
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#6
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Senior Member
Join Date: Aug 2015
Location: Benton County, Iowa
Trailer: 2013 Escape 21 Classic Number 6, pulled by 2018 Toyota Highlander
Posts: 8,235
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Native Americans
Myron,
I have spent considerable time in the land of the Sioux and many of the other Plains Indian and northern Rocky Mountain tribes. Their history, relationship with the land and native flora and fauna has fascinated me for 60 years. I do prefer the Canadian terminology of recognizing these folks as First Nation Peoples. I have had a number of encounters with Sioux people, all positive. . A couple of other groups, not as much but still very acceptable.
It's sure hard to discuss ethnic groups, native Americans, and other groups of people without offending someone. I worked for a guy who was very proud of his German ancestry, I am Czech and Irish. And we both worked for an African American. We had many many discussions comparing our cultures, laughing at stereotypes and kidding each other about our shortcomings. Unfortunately that is not common enough in our culture today. If it were we'd all be better off and happier. Ought to make a tee shirt that says my folks came to America, and I'm very lucky to have this shirt on my back.
Dave
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08-29-2015, 11:32 PM
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#7
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Senior Member
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Calgary, Alberta
Trailer: 2012 Escape 15 A
Posts: 1,505
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Completely agree with all the sentiments here ....
__________________
All things in life are easier to swallow with a good cup of tea .....
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08-29-2015, 11:36 PM
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#8
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Senior Member
Join Date: Apr 2014
Location: Gig Harbor, Washington
Trailer: Escape 21 'Toto'
Posts: 301
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Wow, niece piece, Myron. Thanks for sharing your experience. Well done.
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08-30-2015, 10:00 AM
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#9
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Site Team
Join Date: Jun 2014
Location: Canyon Lake, Texas
Trailer: 2015 19 "Past Tents", 2021 F150 Lariat 2.7L EB
Posts: 10,222
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I must have missed this thread for being too busy last week. Nice post Myron.
__________________
"You can't buy happiness, but you can buy an RV. And that is pretty close."
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08-30-2015, 10:01 AM
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#10
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Senior Member
Join Date: Oct 2014
Location: Cleveland, Ohio
Trailer: 2015 Escape 17B - 2009 Chevy Tahoe Hybrid
Posts: 551
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Great post, Myron, loved it!
__________________
You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.
–– C.S. Lewis
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