It’s a chilly spring day here at la Casa de Madden. Pixie and I are in the backyard, relaxing. Hubster has taken the Princess to church. They have an all-day Sunday school today, in preparation for Princess’ upcoming First Communion.
It’s hard to believe that Princess is old enough to be preparing for such an event (especially since yours truly is Buddhist). Not that long ago, she was a chubby-cheeked baby, who screamed all night and spit up into my cleavage at random intervals. Those were the days! Now she’s going to school, learning science, taking karate… She’s gotten so big!
Last week, Princess had to do a school report on an important figure in American history, and had to dress up as that person for the presentation. She chose Rosa Parks. This left me a little confounded, as I had no idea how to turn my goofy 8-year-old daughter into one of the most important figures in the American Civil Rights Movement. Fortunately, my sister, the actress, came to the rescue. She found a website that listed the details of the outfit Rosa Parks was wearing the day she was arrested. We also did a search online and found Rosa Parks’ arrest photo. A quick trip to the clearance rack at Target and our local craft store got us everything we needed, and I only had to do a little sewing to pull the outfit together. Then we spent quite a bit of time reading about Rosa Parks and discussing segregation and the Civil Rights movement with Princess. Those were very interesting conversations, you can be sure.
Here’s a picture of Rosa Parks on the day she was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on the bus:
And here is Princess in her costume:
What astonishes me most about these two photos is this: over 50 years after Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white man, a small white school girl with a serious addiction to Disney Princesses wants to look just like her, because Rosa Parks was the coolest person in the world.
Of course, Rosa Parks probably didn’t have spaghetti sauce all over her face when she was arrested…
