Monday, November 7, 2011

Eggmus: Occupy Thomas the Tank Engine

Thomas the Tank Engine has taken over Chez Barefoot. Epsilon was sick a bit ago, so we let him watch Thomas on Netflix and You Tube. Now he points to the computer every morning, demanding "Thomas Tank!"

We went to Occupy Near Me this weekend. As a courtesy to my train obsessed toddler, we took the subway to the tent village. A plastic Thomas came with.

Our normal weekends of teaching Epsilon to share have gotten boring. It was time to talk about sharing elsewhere.

We hung around the tent village for a while, got to know people. Epsilon is bored. He wants to go back to the subway.

The day's rally starts around naptime. We go anyway. Between identifying that there is a group of drummers in the crowd and finding them, my partner taps me on the shoulder and points to the stroller. Epsilon's asleep.

Oh no! I think. I should stop chanting with the hundreds of people in the street.
What if he wakes up?

At some point Epsilon's sleeping hands finally loose their grip on Thomas, which skitters through the street.  I am left chasing after a plastic blue box on wheels, made in China, that is now an ankle breaking hazard. This isn't what I remember protests marches being. Is it me?

Epsilon woke up after the march, and wants to go back to the subway. I might think he's missed the point of the day. But he'd argue otherwise.

4 comments:

  1. Cinders and ashes! Lucky that the loose Thomas didn't cause confusion and delay!

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  2. I imagine he'd think that you were distracted from the day's real purpose by that silly protest thing.

    There is an Occupy cell coming to my university this week and I'm excited to see it.

    I liked the imagery of you chasing Thomas the Tank Engine down the protester-filled street. It just goes to show that activists are mothers, too.

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  3. Brightened Boy, Have fun with your local occupiers!

    Canuck, no confusion or delay. Although the mix between boys boarding school director and railroad manager in Sir Tophamhat has always made me slightly uneasy, in a Oliver Twist/Hard Times sort of way. Anyone else?

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  4. The role of the internet in these very important protests has been wonderful. AT&T and Time Warner internet connections are abuzz with OWS stuff. Everyone who has a Microsoft/IBM/Apple computer can now spread the word on Youtube, Blogger and Facebook! Stop the evil corporations!

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