21 December 2008

HFG: Retrospective Voter

This morning, we awakened to single digit temperatures, another couple of inches of snow, and very high winds blowing it everywhere. And not a snow plow or salt truck in sight. According to the weather forecast, the winds are supposed to gust up to 40 MPH today --- meaning the wind chill is well below zero. Bottom line: there was no way we were making it to Mass, so the kids spent some extra time this morning making Christmas decorations. (The decorations will not actually go up until December 24th, however. Our family tries to maintain a very strong distinction between Advent and Christmas; we don't even have a tree yet.)

Anyway, while coloring one of her paper angels, nine year old Homeschooled Farm Girl (HFG) asked, "Can I give my angel an Afro?"

Mrs Yeoman Farmer immediately replied, "Absolutely not."

As HFG began giving her angel a different style of brown hair, Little Brother commented (no doubt drawing on his observations of MYF's family photo albums), "A lot of people in the seventies had Afros."

To which HFG replied, matter-of-factly, not taking her eyes off her crayon, "That's because Jimmy Carter messed everything up."

I laughed out loud, and couldn't help thinking of the cartoon at the beginning of Morris Fiorina's classic book, Retrospective Voting in American National Elections. Two grumpy old men are looking out the window at a blizzard, and one is turning to the other and commenting, "We never had winters like these past two before Carter took office."

Who knows? With the winter we're having here in Michigan, maybe some kid in a Democratic household is making the same observation about George W. Bush...

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