{"id":1312,"date":"2018-08-09T21:53:22","date_gmt":"2018-08-10T01:53:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gmachronicles.com\/?p=1312"},"modified":"2019-06-07T14:52:33","modified_gmt":"2019-06-07T14:52:33","slug":"live-from-the-peanut-gallery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gmachronicles.com\/index.php\/live-from-the-peanut-gallery\/","title":{"rendered":"Live from the Peanut Gallery"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s Howdy Doody time!\u201d<\/p>\n

Shouting that storied response from the Golden Age of early television was the happy chore of a few dozen Boomer kids watching the popular live show from the bleacher seats known as \u201cThe Peanut Gallery.\u201d\u00a0 Those lucky devils—who among us didn\u2019t want to be one? \u2014 also provided the spontaneous live laugh track for the long-running show featuring America\u2019s favorite, freckled puppet and his pals.<\/p>\n

Legend has it that the term \u201cPeanut Gallery\u201d originated in vaudeville, where attendees in the cheapest seats took a freestyle approach to their feedback, shouting insults and hurling peanuts at performers who failed to deliver the goods on stage.\u00a0 This tradition, along with the Howdy Doody version, spawned a common parenting phrase, heard many times in our rowdy house of four children.\u00a0 When too many of us were talking at once (i.e., most of the time), my father sometimes interjected sternly, \u2018Hey!\u00a0 That\u2019s enough from the Peanut Gallery.\u2019\u00a0 Or, when back-talk wandered into the danger zone, he often shut it down with a firm, \u201cNo more comment from the Peanut Gallery.\u201d<\/p>\n

I heard echoes of the Peanut Gallery the other day when a duologue version emerged in the back seat of my car.\u00a0Late summer brought a great chance to spend some extra time with Buddy and Sis (now ages 7 and 5) while helping their working parents cover some gaps in the summer camp schedule.\u00a0 As we tooled around town in the car or hung out at home, I soaked up a constant stream of commentary, spontaneous debate, and the occasional shockingly precocious projection about something weighing on their minds or seen out the window. The snippets below are offered as evidence that kids do indeed—to use more Boomer vernacular\u2014say the darndest things.\u00a0They are re-created as accurately as possible, though I swore off actually recording these chats.\u00a0\u00a0 (G-ma maintains a rather strict viewpoint on the use of devices for anything other than quick snapshots when the children are around.)<\/p>\n

(Scene:\u00a0 En route to produce market; kids buckled into back seat.)<\/strong><\/p>\n

G-ma:\u00a0 Hey, guys, you want to get a watermelon?<\/p>\n

Both (shouting):\u00a0YEAH!!!!<\/p>\n

Sis:\u00a0 I know!\u00a0 I know how to tell if it is ripe!\u00a0 You touch it and cut it open and see if the seeds are the right color.\u00a0 You can eat the white seeds but not the black ones.<\/p>\n

Buddy:\u00a0 You can eat the black ones, but you don\u2019t have to eat any seeds.\u00a0 You can dig them out and leave them on the table.<\/p>\n

Sis (top of lungs):\u00a0NO!\u00a0 BECAUSE I\u2019M THE ONE WHO WILL HAVE TO CLEAN IT UP! (This an apparent reference to her recent acquisition, at her own request, of a child-sized cleaning set.). And the seeds get squished.\u00a0 And if they get squished something might come out of the inside of them and MAKE A MESS!!\u00a0AND I\u2019M THE ONE WHO HAS TO CLEAN!!\"IMG_7168\"<\/p>\n

Buddy (with patient condescension):\u00a0 Seeds don\u2019t get squished.\u00a0 They might fall out, but they don\u2019t get squished.\u00a0 And I\u2019ll help you clean it up.<\/p>\n

____________________________________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n

(Scene:\u00a0 Back porch, dusk falling, kids finishing after-dinner popsicles<\/strong>.)<\/p>\n

G-ma:\u00a0 Look, guys, the lightning bugs are out!<\/p>\n

\"IMG_7126\"Buddy:\u00a0 Evie, are lightning bugs nocturnal?<\/p>\n

G-ma: (Stunned, very slow to stutter an answer.) Yes.\u00a0 That\u2019s correct.<\/p>\n

Sis:\u00a0 What\u2019s not, not-turnal mean?<\/p>\n

G-ma:\u00a0 NOC-turnal means something that comes out at night.<\/p>\n

Sis (waving popsicle-free hand for scornful emphasis):\u00a0 Then you can just say, \u2018lightning bugs come out at night.\u2019\u00a0 You don\u2019t have to say not-turnal.\u00a0 Right?<\/p>\n

______________________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n

It is a wise woman who remembers, even with grandchildren of her own, to listen to her mother.\u00a0 Chatting with mine on the phone a couple of days later, I shared some excerpts from the Peanut-Gallery-of-two improv act, as Mom loves to hear what the children are up to.\u00a0 \u201cYou better write these things down,\u201d she directed, rather ominously.\u00a0 \u201cYou\u2019re going to want to remember them later, and you\u2019ll be sorry if you don\u2019t.\u201d\u00a0 So, I continued giving that my best when they returned the following day.<\/em><\/p>\n

(SCENE: \u00a0Children snarfing through dripping peaches while seated side-by-side on the porch, where their grandmother has been nurturing a small garden of blooming plants in pots.\u00a0 G-ma arrives to catch the tail end of a conversation already in progress<\/strong>.)<\/p>\n

Buddy:\u00a0 \u2026..Spit doesn\u2019t do anything for plants.\u00a0 Plants need dirt and sun, and that\u2019s what makes them grow.\u00a0Spit does not help.<\/p>\n

G-ma:\u00a0 (Pausing briefly to achieve nonchalance, glancing at the thriving red salvia in the large pot in front of their seat):\u00a0 Did you spit in the plant?<\/p>\n

Both (solemn, wide-eyed).\u00a0No, ma\u2019am.<\/p>\n

Buddy (in effortless diversion):\u00a0 Spit has DNA in it.<\/p>\n

Sis (shouting assent):\u00a0YEAH!\u00a0 LIKE HAIR!<\/p>\n

Buddy:\u00a0 Yeah, DNA is in hair and spit and everything in the body.<\/p>\n

Sis (with expression of distaste):\u00a0 Like BLOOD?<\/p>\n

Buddy (diversion achieved, still determined to make point):\u00a0 Yes, blood and hair and spit and skin and everything.\u00a0 But spit doesn\u2019t help plants.<\/p>\n

______________________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n

(Scene:\u00a0 Kids in back seat again.\u00a0 We have just left a local market where I\u2019ve given each a dollar to insert in a donation box supporting a local rescue mission for the homeless.\u00a0The proprietor matches the donations<\/strong>.)<\/p>\n

G-ma:\u00a0 Hey, guys, remember the other day when you asked me if we should give some money to that man you saw standing on the corner with the sign saying he was homeless?\u00a0 Well, that box where you put the money, that money goes to help lots of people like that guy.\u00a0 So, you can give to an organization that helps him and lots of people or you can give to the individual.\u00a0 There\u2019s more than one way to help.<\/p>\n

Sis:\u00a0 Yeah!\u00a0 Let\u2019s give to that organization, like you said, because they need clothes and maybe they give clothes to lots of people.<\/p>\n

Buddy: They have clothes!\u00a0He was wearing clothes!<\/p>\n

Sis:\u00a0 But he only has one pair!<\/p>\n

Buddy (shaking head in disagreement):\u00a0 They need money to get a job, so they can work and get more money and get a house.\u00a0It costs money to get a job.\u00a0Maybe he would have taken the money and used it to get a job.<\/p>\n

Sis:\u00a0 What if he took it and spent it all on candy bars?<\/p>\n

G-ma: (Silence, biting tongue severely.)<\/p>\n

Buddy (with firm finality):\u00a0He wouldn\u2019t do that.\u00a0 No one who needs a job would do that.<\/p>\n

And that, for the moment, was that.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cIt\u2019s Howdy Doody time!\u201d Shouting that storied response from the Golden Age of early television was the happy chore of a few dozen Boomer kids watching the popular live show from the bleacher seats known as \u201cThe Peanut Gallery.\u201d\u00a0 Those lucky devils—who among us didn\u2019t want to be one? \u2014 also provided the spontaneous live […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1578,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,7,16],"tags":[69,70],"class_list":["post-1312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-grandkids","category-humor","category-siblings-2","tag-back-to-school","tag-sibling-arguments"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmachronicles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmachronicles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmachronicles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmachronicles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmachronicles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1312"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gmachronicles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1312\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmachronicles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmachronicles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmachronicles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmachronicles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}