THE DIDDLEY BOW--The early poor man's slide guitar.

For some reason, I can not control the font size on posts for this blog. Apologies until I get it worked out. Thanks!

During a recent ADD-inspired Internet foray, I came across a concept for early music production that compelled me to diverge from duty into a full-fledged investigation of what--once I was able to enter the productive wording--I'd learn is called "the diddley bow," also referred to as "the grandfather of all blues guitars." As is the case with various other forms of Americana and beyond, this rather uncommon artifact has recently seen a resurgence, by a variety of other names. Dedicated music and history lovers, would probably consider it important to know its origin. 

The diddley bow emerged from music belonging to the African culture, and perhaps because it was originally developed as a toy for slave children to play, the existence of this instrument went unrecognized or overlooked for too long in America. This being the case, no documentation and photographs have been found prior to the 1930s among American Annals, with recordings not dating back any further than the 1950s.

Among my research findings, this one--written by Steve Leggett, in the All Music Guide acquaints us with history of the diddley bow--its fascinating origins clearly illustrating man's unyielding drive to have music. The story of the diddley bow illustrates how even with access limited to cast-offs and crudely-fashioned components, no degree of impoverishment will thwart the creative passion of a true musician.

Adding to its organic appeal, all of the parts necessary for anyone to make this former toy for children could be easily extracted from the junkyard, with structural possibilities corresponding to the builder's degree of creativity. The inherent simplicity of a diddley bow helped it to become a culturally-shared form of children's entertainment. We mostly have the children who played with them to thank for sustaining its place in music as we know it today. These children became adults whose recounts of growing up produced smiles when interspersed with treasured details included playing on a diddley bow. 

Diddley Bows were a common sight--modestly designed--the basic template involved nailing two wooden blocks to the side of the house enough to allow an appropriate distance for sound production quality. The solitary single wire string would often have been harvested from its service in binding together broomcorn straws and securing to a stick that formed household brooms. This wire was stretched between nails driven partially into two wood blocks that usually had been attached to the side of a house. The wire's tension was gauged according to a desired sound and pitch. A glass bottle placed under the wire served as the bridge. On one end, various devices like glass jars, knives and such were held, usually in the left hand, and slid up and down or stopped on the wire to alternate the pitch.. The right hand held a stick or other tool for plucking or slapping the wire to make the sounds.

A man plays a Diddley Bow attached to a house. 
Courtesy,  Afro-American Folk Music from Tate and Panola Counties, Mississippi.)

Instruments that inspired the diddley bow continued to be played today in certain West African regions, relying on a variation contrasting the American style where (see the picture above,) diddley bows are single-player instruments. African children learn to play these instruments as a duo-effort, by two males. The African method requires one player to operate the sliding/stopping side, while the other one strikes the wire with two sticks.

Diddley Bow Played by Justin Johnson

WHERE AMERICAN BLUES BEGAN

Music proceeding from Mississippi's Delta region is recognized as a fundamental in blues music. Long Hailed as "The land where the blues began," the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman (better known as Parchman Farm,) known for its appalling treatment of inmates forced their inspiration to create songs in order to survive. The farm area of Parchman was designated as the prison's self-sustaining cotton plantation, with prisoners required to work long, hard hours in sustaining the farm. A portion of all cotton the farm produced was allocated to prisoners for making their own clothing. Food served to inmates was grown by inmates and harvested from the farm’s fields, as well as livestock they were tasked with raising. Prisoners were guards, required to shoot fellow inmates trying to escape. While prison reform would eventually disallow the continuation of such horrific and inhumane treatment of prisoners, the songs remain, proving that even in the most atrocious of conditions, supernatural victory prevails within the suffering heart of the inner-man, enabling those willing to transform agony into art. The style of music that came to be known as The Blues will stand as our quintessential evidence.

Bukka White Performs Parchman Farm Blues-one version 

Bukka White Performs Parchman Farm Blues--another version

The Diddley Bow Song, by Seasick Steve  

Willie Joe and His Unitar--1

Willie Joe and His Unitar--2

Sometimes referred to as a "jitterbug," "unitar," and "one-string," its formal term would be "monochord zither." Numerous off-shoots have followed with obvious inspiration from the Diddley Bow. Among these are found one-string cigar boxes, washtub bases, slide guitars, lowebows, musical bows, and canjos.

Three String Shovel, by Justin Johnson

CONNECTION: BO DIDDLEY-DIDDLEY BOW? 

Although a connection is obvious, there's no conclusive information as to how famed doo-wop, R&B and blues musician Ellis Otha Bates earned the permanent stage name of "Bo Diddley." Among his more memorable distinctions were trademark "shimmering" sounds he would produce on his guitar. One popular belief is that the nickname was given to him by peers, as a form of playful insult. About this time, a slang use evolved as a put-down, "Bo Diddly" which means "absolutely nothing." There have been others in the spotlight who took on the moniker of "Bo Diddley," as their stage name.

Bo Diddley Plays

ONE OF A KIND VACATION GETAWAYS CLICK HERE TO SEE THEM ALL!

WET LOVE

Was at Hilltop Home today, and a young girl whom I've watched over the years transform from a completely discontented often wild-child into the ONE whom they make sure is always  positioned a foot or so from me when I play, gave me some almighty love today that I'll treasure in my heart forever.

Of the children there, she's always indicated enjoyment of the songs I play, and I suspect that her awareness of how much I love her is taking root. So today, as I played for about 40 mins, she responded with exuberant clapping like never before--during and after songs. A lot of the time when she wasn't clapping, her hands were in her mouth, and she was salivating more than I've seen in the past.

When I'd finished and was getting ready to leave, I leaned toward her and astonishingly this lovely young girl stretched out one hand to place it against one full side of my face. This touch was a completely wet one, and while my initial impression found me imagining a need to wipe saliva away, I rapidly realized that she had given me a very precious gift that in no way called for undoing.

While a lot of people may not understand this--or my reason for sharing--I'm hoping at least a few will "get it."

She showed me today that SHE REALLY LOVES ME. What a Heavenly Gift! Thank you, God, for allowing me to feel so important to someone who has never, in the years I've known and loved her, ever extended herself in such a demonstrative way.

While if any of you ever deposit saliva on any part of my person

, I will not waste time in undoing it, I will always accept her wet hand as a Divine Gift from the Purest Expression of Love, ever.

MAJOR SHIFT IS REQUIRED NOW IN LAWS GOVERNING DISPOSITION OF APPREHENDED ADDICTS

The same thinking (that has resulted in almost everyone in the condo community where I have lived for the past year to regard me as some kind of sick fiend to avoid at all cost,) is behind current strategies imagined to be effective in "dealing" with the addiction pandemic. 

Our society is egregiously divided into two staunchly-held postulates. The first one consists of entirely misguided thinking that actually believes that implementing more unkind methods of "cracking down" is the surest way to "fight" drug addiction activity.. Members of this group erroneously believe that they are somehow more enlightened and belong to a higher class of the populace -- and by working to segregate themselves from all forms comprising the curse of addiction(i.e. parents of addicts,) they can remain pure and unaffected. This group has yet to grasp the prodigious shift of addiction casualties -- once confined mostly to the ghettos and slums to infiltrate all higher forms of demographics.

Unbeknownst to a majority of these "ideal citizens whose kids were raised the 'RIGHT' way -- among many of today's addicts you can find practicing doctors, nurses, lawyers, clergy, legislators, police officers, teachers, scientists, astronauts, members of the FBI, CIA and DEA, counselors, airplane pilots, social workers ad infinitum -- or the children of such professionals. Addiction is no respecter of class, education or integrity. And until this group is enlightened, addicts will surely be mistreated from a continuation of fruitless, incompetent and costly countermeasures.

The second group -- the one into which I was surreptitiously inducted -- is chiefly comprised of decent, caring people who are related to, love or personally know one or more addicts. Thankfully, our group includes members who may not have personal experience, but are kind enough, empathetic enough and smart enough to logically deduce that current remedial methods (laws, interventions and forced stays in jail and rehab facilities) ARE NOT WORKING, as evidenced by the unabated horrific addiction avalanche. Our group understands how blindly continuing (and intensifying and escalating the harshness of current punishment modalities) we (i.e. everyone,) can only expect a pandemic explosion to occur.

SILENT SAM AND UNC'S MISSED OPPORTUNITY TO TEACH PEACE

Many of the world's problems could be fixed if we, from the very beginning of the education process, stressed the importance (adequately equipping w/skills,) of LOOKING FOR WHAT'S RIGHT about any given task, lesson and "problem. Teaching to FIRST identify the positives (inherent in every matter,) and let that be the capstone for instilling a lasting paradigm in the minds of students.

Sadly, in every aspect of life, we learn to look for what's WRONG in any initial assessment. (for example, I recall my parents' tendency to first and sometimes only--comment on my report card grades that were Bs or Cs.)

So often, throughout the various aspects of life, like raising our children, at work or home, in sizing up others and choosing our mates/friends and determining our responses to pretty much everything --our first inclination is to make sure we have properly isolated what's wrong. We then make conclusions about our consequent course of action or reaction.

Currently, newsworthy info must detail reports of unfairness and a variety of tantrums and hurtful actions taken by angry people/mobs. The only possible products of such are fear and hated. Are there that many ignorant people who believe that violence, yelling, suing, etc. could in any way be effective for winning others over to their point of view?

No anger can be assuaged by returning the same emotion.

Logic reveals that being heard, being understood and being respected (whether by those with differentiating opinions or not,) must always begin with the establishment of a friendly environment, where dissenting opinions are allowed and do not provoke outrage and fury from either side.

Within every life disappointment (ie--not getting my way,) I've learned incredible lessons that have subsequently empowered me. And it's all about "turn the page." Just a transfer of focus from what's wrong (what seems to be offensive,) to what might actually (at least in part) have a capacity for being right.

In an across the board rudimentary effort grounded upon prioritizing THE POSITIVES as the most important component in every situation, it seems to me that we would affect a ubiquitous change.

WHITE GIRL MISTAKES TURKEY AT YOLANDA'S THANKSGIVING DINNER

The year I was a guest for Thanksgiving dinner at Yolanda's house, the meal was styled as a serve-yourself-from-the-stove meal. My eager eyes darted first to the lovely, large cast iron skillet, full of awesome white meat turkey -- which host Yolanda had even taken the time and trouble to thoughtfully differentiate from the rest of the bird in its own location. In abandonment of mannerly resistance, I transferred a generous serving onto my plate. Once seated, our Thanksgiving Prayer was made and the eating began. The turkey constituted my first stomach-destined full-fork-payload. Can't remember if it was 1 or .001 seconds before my taste buds convinced me that what I'd shoveled into my mouth was not turkey. The foreign foodstuff remained loosely atop my tongue, while I strived to maintain a perfect stillness capable to block ensuant taste perception. For what seemed like an eternity, I managed to part my lips just enough to continue the protocol requirements for polite dining, while making sure to enable the minimum volume of air-intake necessary to sustain life via mouth-breathing. I held this position until I managed to discreetly transfer "it" to my ready and waiting napkin. I proceeded to enjoy the other meal components, all the while imagining a possibility whereby at meal's end, the subsequently undisturbed "turkey" that had been staring at me from my plate would not be noticed by my dining partners. In looking back, I am convinced that any such wishfulness is inherently preposterous, as ever since my own indoctrination, you could say that I would now like to one day play the "smug bystander" in witnessing to someone else's first bite of chitterlings.

Yolanda laughed. 

INTERVENTIONS ARE A SHAM--SPREAD THE WORD

I have begun a mission to prevent people who, in desperation, willingly give often all that they have, believing pricey intervention and rehab will save their child or loved one from the murderous bane of heroin addiction.

What I share here pertaining to heroin also takes into consideration the class of drugs most commonly dispensed as pain-killers, with awareness of how very difficult breaking the addiction to all of these drugs is. Sadly, the current massive move to make it almost impossible to buy them is making life less bearable for countless people with debilitating, chronic pain. And even worse--it's creating an unprecedented rise in abusers simply moving on to HEROIN. Heroin is far more plentiful, it's way cheaper and sold everywhere. And as horrible detoxing from opiate/narcotic addiction is, HEROIN withdrawal is far worse, and mostly KILLS its victims.

I must counter all of the misguided positions being publicly disseminated at large on the efficacy of performing all forms of intervention--particularly those conducted as "phase one," with "phase two" being carting off the addict for ineffectual treatment by a rehab facility.(and they're ALL incapable to follow-through on their promises.) Longed-for cures that are facilitated by anyone other than the addict, regardless of intention, desperation and all the cash they'e able to hand over up-front. ) I have not read about nor heard of a single case to disprove this sorrowful postulate, as much as I've yearned for and prayed about. And here find me, living on a dime while trying to not think about how very much that $40,000.00 (and more) would help me now. My purpose in broadcasting this truth is to prevent so many other parents who are as desperate as I was, and more than willing to cash-in everything I owned in this world so that I could

SEE THE PRECIOUS SPARKLE IN MY BEAUTIFUL SON'S EYES AGAIN

The grave disappointment I suffered from my own i,experience when coming face-to-face with the severe limitations of ability to authentically help a heroin addict break their addiction are fueling my purpose in sharing so candidly what I dearly wish I'd known before throwing away well over $20 K--from selling my home to access the funds. I hope to prevent others from such costly, false hope.

Today's drug addiction epidemic has created a FLOURISHING INDUSTRY OFFERING TREATMENT FOR THE RANGE OF ADDICTIONS. While there are many success stories, no lasting help for heroin addicts can be found, unless the addict is the one making the choice to quit. The commercials and ads are everywhere, with zero differentiation citations that reveal the chasm between overcoming heroin addiction and the rest. Charges and amenities for these programs comprise the sum total of contrasting features between providers, and vary greatly. Numbers of acceptable outcomes continue to reveal no distinction, across the board.

MY EXPERIENCE IS NOT UNIQUE:

1. The admitted addicts were given more freedom and monitored with less frequency than we had been assured to expect.

2. Everyone there is an addict, with the exception being what I now feel is a serious shortage of staff to adequately oversee all the criminal activity going on. This stay was one of a succession of multiple returns for several there, and drugs are bought and sold regularly within the facility. A janitor provided the hook-up.for buying and selling at the facility where we sent my son.

3. Among the others in treatment with whom my son became friends, every one is now dead from an OD, post-treatment.

4. No refunds, discounts or other forms of compensation are available for the many treatment failures, many that go on to fatally OD after their "treatment."

5. I found the responding attitude of the director to be reprehensible, when I called him in tears when I realized they had not helped my son one bit, soon after he was released. I would say the best word to describe his demeanor was "apathetic."

6. Because the entire industry of drug addiction intervention and treatment has encountered only failure upon failure to cure heroin addicts who did not admit themselves, THEY KNOW IT BUT ARE UNWILLING TO PUBLICLY DIVULGE: that every dime they charge under these circumstances is misappropriated.

While successful rehab efforts exist, returning addicts to their families and loved ones with a second chance at living, turn the page to find zero defeats on heroin addiction. Heroin is a hell-bent monster that belongs in a category by itself. Statistics show relapses commonly following any period of "being clean" as the most fatal, with countless citations of life-ending OD after OD (having to do with certain common dosing mistakes made by the relapsing addict.) No matter how heartfelt, externally-imposed remedial efforts for ending a heroin addiction can not succeed, regardless of which type they get within the currently available spectrum of treatment options. Treatment victory must always begin with the addict asking for it.

Heroin addiction recidivism rate statistics all but murder hope for the heroin addict's loved ones. Permanent recovery stories are shared by those fortunate enough to have not died. These are the few who at long last, interpreted horror while addicted that was powerful enough that it compelled them to reach out for help, No amount of love or money can turn an addict away from heroin's seductive lure.

What my first-hand experience has taught me will not be publicly disseminated -- even within the medical community -- primarily to avoid funding cuts. In actuality, the only outcome to proceed from the agglomeration of research grants, misguided research efforts and conduction of clinical trials is an insight deficiency.

That TV show "Intervention" is contributing to the lie in the

worst possible way. Because I had watched it, I imagined that i knew what to expect when we bought one for $5,000.00. Hah.

We are no closer to discovering valid, addiction-ending incentives that can work when facilitated by loved ones of heroin addicts. Much remains a mystery surrounding addiction, and heroin's unique and malignant complexities. What's needed is purposeful isolation of heroin from all other forms of addictive substances, followed by passion-driven research that is willing to tap into new, unconventional therapy modalities.

With a heavy heart, I stand firm in everything I share on this subject, and having paid dearly for the learning, my battle is far from being over, as always-lurking in my mind is prayed-against fervently but not gone--a knock on my door.

FACE-OFF WITH COULROPHOBIA

coulrophobia

Pronunciation /ˌkəʊlrəˈfəʊbɪə//ˌkɒlrəˈfəʊbɪə/

NOUN

mass nounrare 

• Extreme or irrational fear of clowns.

Excerpt from longer article in Wikipedia:
"Clown costumes tend to exaggerate the facial features and some body parts, such as hands and feet and noses. This can be read as monstrous or deformed as easily as it can be read as comical. The significant aberrations in a clown's face may alter a person's appearance so much that it enters the so-called uncanny valley, in which a figure is lifelike enough to be disturbing, but not realistic enough to be pleasant—and thus frightens a child so much that they carry this phobia throughout their adult life.^[3]"

Not that, in my wildest dreams, I EVER aspired to be a freakin' CLOWN (the antithesis of every life ambition I had,) When I found myself to be the sole parent and provider for three amazing young lives, I recognized the lucrative mix of cash and employment security directly connected to the profession on a local level as irresistible. So, as my history continues, in spite of my higher aspirations to become a worldwide acclaimed serious and formidable artist. And actually, a significant frequency of publicity, albeit local, is something...right?

Usher-in here the head-of-household-necessitated birth of Cotton the hometown clown, then inform all my creditors that the check is in the mail.

Featured in News & Observer 

September 2017 

BY JOSH SHAFFER:

Based in Raleigh, Tricia Cotton Dean has performed across the Triangle as Cotton the Clown for decades, recipient of.numerous awards on both a local and national level. 

When audiences invariably ask if she’s seen “It,” Dean said, “Ooo. Pennywise? Oh, yeah. Mmm, he’s a cutie.”

Dean graduated from the North Carolina School of the Arts without any intention of being a clown.

She prefers intellectual humor over slapstick and did musical programs for kids at museums, libraries, schools and on the coffee shop circuit, she said.

After four or five months though, she found her offered family entertainment sold much better when she packaged herself as a clown.

But, Cotton the Clown stopped painting her face white years ago.

“I do not understand the origin of that fear,” she said. “It’s just. It’s got to be, really? Very? What’s the word I’m trying to think of … it’s like … it’s real, basic.”

That base terror must stem from a repulsion ingrained into the bedrock of such psyches, she said.

Cotton lost her makeup forever after a day spent performing at a street fair in Wake Forest during the mid 1990s.

That day, Cotton clowned down the street encountering a 75-year-old woman, who upon seeing Cotton the Clown – in full white cosmetic, red-lipped glory – panicked, screamed and with unusual agility for a woman her age, threw herself behind her companions.

“There are people who like clowns and ones who don’t like them,” Dean said. “I think there are certain people, for one reason or another, develop this fear of not being able to see a person’s real hair and real face. I wish I could help them.”

To Jordan, My Beautiful Boy

Bonnie Raitt's song written to her dad

is my song to my son

I never knew a heart could be broken

in so many ways

DISPENSING WITH TEA PARTY SMALL TALK TO ADDRESS THE BURGEONING HEROIN CRISIS

EXPOSING THE LIE

Everyone needs to know that every single advertisement for heroin addiction intervention and rehab sources is absolutely worthless. Intervention people get about $5 K and upwards for spending a couple of days to perform the intervention, and rehab facilities command anywhere from $20 K to WAY more.
Everyone needs to know that (with a recidivism rate for heroin addiction recovery in the 95% range especially,) all such organizations and professionals already understand (from the obvious history of failure upon failure of all their clients addicted to heroin--often ending in a death) that UNLESS THE HEROIN ADDICT IS THE ONE COMING TO THEM FOR HELP BECAUSE THEY TRULY WANT IT, the services they advertise WILL BE COMPLETELY INEFFECTIVE. AND THERE IS NO AMOUNT OF MONEY--NOT MILLIONS OR BILLIONS THAT IS ABLE TO IMPROVE HEROIN TREATMENT EFFICACY.

WHAT THIS MEANS:
Every professional, program, facility and operation making claims that offer successful rehabilitation for heroin addicts is clearly drawn by the enticing profitability now to be extracted by pioneer exploiters. Even a modicum of experience in treating heroin addiction will sufficiently reveal to any thinking person nothing more than a wasteland of failed efforts where standardized treatment was implemented to defeat the bane of heroin addiction.

We can not rely upon conventional treatment strategies for heroin addiction rehabilitation, no matter how effective they have been in healing other forms of addiction. Expect to witness a rise in numbers of treatment types all aimed at profiting from desperate, torn apart, confused, ill-informed, heartbroken clients, many of whom cling to promises made as being their last chance to save their heroin-addicted son, daughter, mother, father or friend.

Desperate countless clients are willing to give every penny and everything they own (that hasn't been stolen by their beloved heroin addict,) to save their addict's life. Any individual, organization or service provider with claims to succeed in freeing a heroin addict from their addiction is outright LYING to every client they manage to snare. Currently, countless new emotionally destitute loved ones of heroin addicts do, sadly, only to later discover that they might as well have used that money as kindling for a fire.

TIME TO END THE SUBTERFUGE
Everyone must STOP sending their heroin addict to any of these type places--at least the ones that require any form of payment for their services. OK to try all the free ones you can find--they'll minimally be just as effective as the sources that charge a fee. The heroin addict will NEVER recover UNLESS and ONLY IF the addict comes to a point in their agony where they are ready to get help and ASK FOR IT THEMSELVES.

We must put an end to the unmerited aggrandizement of this insatiable jackpot. Once the truth is made clear and made known, all these operations will be obliged to desist from future exploitation of the bereaved.

The numbers are readily available that clearly confirm the across-the-board failure within the realm of currently approved treatment for curing heroin addiction. The lie that promises the same methods will cure the heroin addict is perpetuated everywhere--in broadcast venues, commercials, print publications and even in radio and TV interviews with medial "experts" in the field of addiction.

Whenever I see an advertisement for these "services and sources" I become enraged in knowing how so many trusting souls will, in absolute desperation, trustingly hand over all they own -- to sources that know upfront that they won''t be able to help the heroin addict to quit.

ANOTHER PRIMARY ISSUE NEEDING EXPOSURE:New efforts to regulate dispensing of opiates and narcotics by our misguided government is only making it really difficult for those in true pain to get the relief they dearly need. Evidence proves that when someone becomes addicted to a controlled substance, removing their access to it simply pushes the addict to resort to using illegal substitutes on the street, heroin being the most commonly chosen. So by the government blocking legal access to the high, it's assuredly the BEST way to create THE HEROIN ADDICT.

SOMETHING RADICALLY DIFFERENT IS NEEDED
We must shut down every single proposed resource that claims to rehabilitate those with a heroin addiction.
There is a dire need to find truly effective methods. Not any of the facilities and services currently in operation, many of whom are featured frequently in TV and Radio commercials--not any are accomplishing what their ads prompt viewers to believe. 

Because the problem of heroin addiction has infiltrated the middle, upper middle and upper classes, and with such voracity, everyone is scrambling around, stuck in reliance upon conventional addiction treatment methods that WILL NOT WORK on heroin addicts. The problem is new enough that we're learning as we go, however there is an enormous chasm between what we know and what we need to know in order to make any real progress in rescuing a heroin addict.

JAIL IS THE VERY WORST PLACE TO SEND A HEROIN ADDICT, yet that's where they're sent, over and over.

Not my typical post, but the time has come for me to emphatically share what I am absolutely positive of, in the hopes that much needed changes will be forthcoming--to save money, but more importantly, to save lives,send them home and return them to the prosperous life confiscated by the heroin monster.

Please share this with everyone. Some of you may need to copy and paste it. The heroin epidemic is growing faster than anyone can imagine.

Shards of First Grade

I loved my beautiful and endearing 1st grade teacher Miss Vann, and so did my mother, who enjoyed doing nice things to show her appreciation through that first year of her daughter's primary schooling. On one occasion, she had purchased a lovely little porcelain something for Miss Vann that had come in its own pretty decorative box, which my mom painstakingly wrapped in lovely gift paper, finishing it off with a dainty little coordinated bow. As I was embarking for school the following morning, she handed it me, instructing me to be careful and to present it to Miss Vann as soon as I entered the classroom. I remember nothing of this event, but according to my mother, I managed to obediently get the gift into Miss Vann's hands that morning.

It wouldn't be until the end of first grade that my mother would accidentally learn the final disposition of the gift for Miss Vann. 

Specifics as to the number of transformative effects on porcelain occurring along a half-mile route, as entrusted into the hands of an eager 6 year old will remain ambiguous. I can imagine the details providing entertaining conversation at an adult bridge game or cocktail party. Not a whole lot of reasoning is necessary to conclude that the number of times whatever it was that happened was sufficient and could not have been more effective by an increase in quantity.

As the story goes, somewhere between waving "goodbye" and completing round one of my twice-a-day, half-mile sidewalk trek that linked our front porch to the doors of Fred Olds Elementary School, the gift in my safekeeping had apparently been subjected to considerable turbulence. When I transferred the gift to my thankful teacher, it appeared to be in the same condition as it had when my mother handed it to me, and I couldn't have been any prouder at that moment. I confidently headed for my desk and took a seat while mentally amassing the impressive volume of love-points now due me for this gesture.

Once unwrapped, a box full of porcelain shards would remain Miss Vann's secret for most of the remaining school year.