A bit of foolishness follows from humorist Allison Hawn, whom we have interviewed on this blog. This is an excerpt from her her book, "Life is a Pirate Ship run by a Velociraptor." It's available on Amazon.
Everyone Follow Your Heart…
Except You
Allison Hawn
There’s
that age-old phrase that little girls are made from, “Sugar and spice and
everything nice.”
Aside from having too many “ands” in
it, that phrase could never have been used to describe me. I was more made from,
“Wit and guile and everything wild.”
I was not a complacent, little
child. I refused to wear any dress that had ruffles or lace on it. The only way
you could get me to sit in a chair for long periods of time was with a book,
and even then my legs would be swinging away.
I never understood why in Sunday
school I couldn’t color Jesus purple and draw green antennae on his head.
Apparently, a four-year-old can commit “blasphemy” even though she can’t say
it.
I
also did not understand why it was weird for me to want to be Robin Hood as
opposed to Maid Marian for Halloween. I mean, come on, Robin Hood had a bow and
arrow. What did Maid Marian have, needlepoint?
And,
though I was shy at first with most adults, if prodded enough, I definitely had
an opinion on absolutely everything. I know, that last one is particularly
shocking.
When I was in kindergarten, I lived
in Eugene, Oregon, a magical place where both the super conservative Promise
Keepers religious group and the Grateful Dead once came to town on the same day
and held performances two blocks away from each other.
Directly behind me lived a little
boy, about two years older than I, named Todd. Our back fences, which were
actually just some super tall hedges, met with a gate in the middle. Every time
I went over to Todd’s house to play it was like I was traveling through the
portal to Narnia or the Secret Garden.
Todd wasn’t super popular with a lot
of the other kids because he was extremely hyperactive. I loved him for it!
We
had the most amazing adventures, and we both ended up with some of the most
fascinating scrapes and bruises. Of course, then we later had to explain to our
parents how we got our injuries. The trick was doing so in a way that made it
seem like playing Tarzan from the roof of the garage had a more logical thought
process behind it than, “Let’s jump off the roof and swing from a bungee cord.”
Todd introduced me to an amazing
amount of pop-culture. I first watched Power
Rangers with him and quickly learned why no one wanted to be the blue Power
Ranger when groups of us kids got together to pretend to defeat giant robots
(cardboard boxes).
I first saw World Wrestling Federation, my eyes wider than one of Hulk Hogan’s
biceps, from Todd’s parents’ couch. Of course, my four-or-five-year-old brain
knew it was fake. That did not stop me from attempting to body slam Todd nor
him trying to get me in an effective sleeper hold every chance we got.
Probably the best and most
influential piece of culture that Todd brought to me was Jurassic Park.
This
was not a movie that I really was supposed to have been watching. However, at
the age of five, I operated under the principle of, “Ask for forgiveness
instead of permission,” more often than Keira Knightley is photographed with
her mouth slightly open.
I already loved dinosaurs, but that
movie doubly solidified my adoration for the long dead creatures.
Dinosaurs
were awesomely rad; they didn’t have to go to bed at nine, they didn’t have to
listen to their teachers and they most certainly didn’t have to brush their
teeth at least twice a day. Heck, dinosaurs couldn’t even be stopped by an
amazingly good hunter, his skill being evidenced by his Australian accent, with
a gun. What chance did parents have against that!?
That movie was the true deciding
factor; I wanted to be a dinosaur. To that end I quickly adopted my dinosaur
persona, namely, that of a velociraptor. I would stomp around, making
velociraptor calls and keeping my arms tucked in with two fingers protruding
like claws.
Of course, at four or five years of
age, adults tend to write this kind of behavior off as adorable. Somehow, I’ve
discovered, as an adult people think it’s less cute when you snarl at them.
I did not want to be “adorable.” I
wanted to be fierce! This was a point that did not go over well when I chased
after the other kids in Sunday school, roaring and snapping my teeth.
To
answer your question, no, I did not have a lot of friends my age when I was a
kid. Why do you ask?
Now,
I had learned to read by the time I was in kindergarten, and not just little
kid, “See Spot run,” type books. I had chapter books under my belt by then and
was happily working my way through books I found on Greek Mythology, dragons
and, of course, dinosaurs.
Just
because I could not pronounce half of the words I read, did not mean that I did
not understand them. This was a fact my kindergarten teacher quickly learned
when I asked her for help with how to say a word and she said, “Oh honey, you
don’t need to know what, ‘peculiar’ means.”
I
replied with, “I know what it means, it means weird. I just didn’t know how to say it.”
At
first my kindergarten teacher was extremely excited that I could read, but then
she realized how dangerous this truly was.
One
day, we had “Career Day,” where we were all going to talk about what we wanted
to be when we grew up.
Looking
back on this as an adult, it makes about as much sense to have a “Career Day”
for kindergarteners as it does to have scrapbooking classes for sparrows.
I
am currently twenty-four years old, and I honestly have no idea what I want to
do with the rest of my life. How do you expect a kindergartener to know?
In
any case, my teacher went around the room asking each little boy and girl what
they wanted to be when they grew up. “Remember, if you try hard enough and stay
in school, you can be anything you want to be!”
Liar.
She
started at the front of the class.
Suzy
said, “Doctor!”
Matthew
said, “Fireman!”
Sarah
said, “Figure skater!”
Devon
said, “Truck driver!”
It
came to my turn, and being absolutely honest, I piped up with, “Velociraptor!”
My
teacher sighed and blinked at me, “No, honey, you can’t be a velociraptor when
you grow up.”
“Why?”
“Because
little girls can’t grow up to be dinosaurs, pick something else.”
I
mused for a minute, “Okay, I want to be a Pegasus when I grow up!”
The
teacher blew out some air, “No, try again.”
“Gryphon?”
“Nope.”
“Mutant
Ninja Turtle?”
“No.”
“Phoenix?”
“No!”
We
went back and forth like this for some time. I would list off a mythological
creature or some strange alien being, and my teacher would look more and more
like she wanted to visit a bar after work that day. Finally, she agreed to
“President-ninja-Batman,” as it was at least human and moved on.
She
may have moved on, but I was not giving up my dream of velociraptor glory.
A
few weeks later, the kindergarten class was to put on a little mini-play about
safety at our school assembly. Everyone in the class got a part.
My
teacher, knowing my propensity to forget and then ad-lib things, gave me a part
with one line. I was a random businessperson who was supposed to say, “I sell
good veggies!”
Practices
went well enough. I delivered my line, and moved off stage and my teacher
seemed to take fewer and fewer of the little white pills she kept in her desk
with each passing day.
The
day of our debut performance, in front of a bunch of other elementary school
kids, finally came. I looked out at the crowds we would be performing for, and
immediately knew that my one line was too much for me to utter.
I
was terrified. With all those little eyes watching me, I just knew that I was
going to do something awful and embarrassing, like forget my line, walk off the
edge of the stage or have to be the blue Power Ranger next time we were all
playing together.
My
teacher, attempting to herd all of her kindergarteners into place (a task much
like herding weasels on crack) quickly dismissed my fears by saying, “Just
pretend that you are what you want to be when you grow up! Think about how much
courage you have to have for that job!”
Apparently
my teacher had forgotten, one week later, that my vocational goals were as
follows:
1.
Become a velociraptor.
2.
Run around roaring and eating animals.
3.
Never have a set bedtime ever again.
4.
Generally be awesome.
The
performance went smoothly enough, and then, it came the time for the shopkeeper
to come on stage and say her one line.
I
got up on stage, looked out at the crowd of other kids, and immediately
channeled my inner-velociraptor.
My
hands came up into their claw position, I bared my teeth and I roared. The rest
of the teachers looked at my teacher for a minute, almost believing this might
be part of the play. Their hopes that this was planned were immediately dashed
against the jagged rocks of reality, as I roared again and proceeded to chase
Jimmy off of the stage.
Despite
the punishment waiting for me at home, I never gave up on my velociraptor
dream. Granted, today, I can’t really roar at non-compliant clients and chase
them out of my office, but if you’re around me enough, you might catch me in a
moment where just a little bit of the velociraptor shines through.
So,
what scraps of knowledge can be picked from the bones of experience?
1.
If you want normal, rather bland children, don’t teach them to read early. However,
if you want awesome children, with huge imaginations, who can solve problems
and think things through, then teach them to read as early as you can!
2.
The weirdest kids on the block oftentimes simultaneously have the biggest
bruises and the most fun.
3.
Don’t try to cage the velociraptor, it will only come back to bite you in the
end. Sometimes literally.
