People Like Them: Birch Clump Village Reader 6

By Joshua Seidl

Collection of short stories and art. This is a continuing series about mostly baby boomers in their teens and young adult years. Issues on bullying is covered; how it was then, and how we see things today. Amos comes home from Vietnam with a Purple Heart. Dean marries Amos' former girlfriend. Billy bullies Taya for two year straight before things come to a head at a Church picnic. Stories deal with Native Americans, Euro-Americans and Metis (mixed race) relations in modern times. Taya is mixed race, son of an unmarried white mother. Bubba is a whimsical young man from a very troubled family background. He served time in juvenile detention, but rises above adversity with Sarge's help. Most of the author's works promote Indigenous cultural rights and lends to improved inter cultural relationships. Moving, romantic at times, traumatic, tearful and humorous. Dean falls in the river while proposing marriage. Plenty of descriptive illustrations by the author.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Dec 9, 2015
• ISBN: 9781329747050

Book preview

People Like Them: Birch Clump Village Reader 6

People Like them: Birch Clump Village Reader 6

By: Joshua Seidl

Edited by Charles M. Browne

Published through Lulu

Copyright: 2015 by Joshua Seidl

All rights reserved. No portion of this book, text, art or photos may be reproduced in any manner without specific signed permission by the author, Joshua Seidl.

ISBN 978-1-329-74705-0

Disclaimer

All of the characters in this book are fictional. Any resemblance to real persons living or deceased is coincidental. Exceptions may be for brief mention of well-known public persons, or if otherwise noted for a particular story. One example of an actual person is the name Ralph Hall credited as the originator of the orally given story, A Scholarly Bestiary of Tuff Enuff, to Charles M. Browne.

The incidents in all the stories by me, Joshua Seidl, found in this book are also fictional. Short sections may be reflective of actual events shared by acquaintances of the author; but even those situations have been highly re-worked into other settings and characters rendering them fictional. An example would the dozens of cases where several Native and Mixed Race individuals endured discrimination in schools, Churches and seminaries that I blended into a singular fictional character in this book.

This is the e-book version of the paper back published earlier this year (2015) by the same author, Joshuas Seidl under the same titel: People Like Them: Birch Clump Village Reader 6

Dedication

Dedicated to

People Like Them

In particular, for those with unmarked graves at the infamous Carlisle Indian School, Pennsylvania; there are 186 graves of Native American children and a number of those graves are marked Unknown. There are also an undetermined number of graves with no markers at Carlisle.

Acknowledgments

My thanks go to Uncle Charlie Browne for his continued help in editing, researching and proofreading of my books. The short story, A Scholarly Bestiary of Tuff Enuff is a contribution to this book by Uncle Charlie. It is a story that was told to him.

Thanks go to a number of people who shared experiences that I have been able to mix, match, and fold into new characters and settings for this book.

Introduction

It took me some time to decide on a title for this book. The stories are divided among three major characters. Two of them are main characters from my first two novels, Hawk Dancer and Cloudburst, Sgt. T. Douglas and Dean (Thompson) Phelan. A third character more recently developed, Bubba Jr.

The choice fell to Sgt. T. Douglas. His role dominates three short stories in this volume of the Birch Clump Village Reader.

People Like Them is a phrase often heard marginalizing a family or a segment of society.

Taya Douglas proved to be a unique example of ‘those people’, or as people like them. By appearance, he is an unassuming tall white man. He is friendly, of good character and moral, and rather gentle. He fits the mold of a typical Euro-American at first impression. No one is tempted to lock the car doors, roll up the window or cross the street when they see him.

Douglas is, as one learns soon enough, mixed race. His unwed mother raised him as an only child. His overall happy and secure childhood is not without a few seriously troubling moments because of race and because he was conceived out of wedlock. Our parents may have cautioned us about hanging out with people like them.

T. Douglas appeared in my first novel, Hawk Dancer. He played a supportive, though minor role in every book since. We first got to know him as an Air Force veteran. He served only one term, but the nickname Sarge stuck with him ever since. That was probably convenient for him, rather than dodging or explaining what the T in Sgt. T. Douglas stood for.

That was finally answered in the 4th Birch Clump Village Reader (BCVR), in the short story, Changing a Flat. It stood for ‘Taya,’ an expression of surprise or shock. It was not intended as a name, but that is what the hospital put down on his birth certificate.

(The hospital staff might have figured people like them had strange names anyway.)

I use three of Douglas’ names in this volume of BCVR #6:

Taya Douglas is used in accord with his birth certificate.

Most folks called him by his last name growing up because it sounded so much like a first name, Douglas.

Then, there is his name taken as a Dominican Friar, which is the Ojibwe name given him in ceremony, Onjishkawa’o. It means: Paddle-Against-the-Wind. The name seems to suit.

Amos Crow is also one of ‘those people.’

Metis, he occasionally feels the brunt of some White’s bias against people of color. Not much is said in this book regarding any racial slight that might be afforded him.

He is a recently returned Vietnam War veteran looking for work, 1971. The short story, Dear John, carries on from the three part Fishing Hole ventures in earlier BCVR books. Is there a chance to rekindle the romance with the one he fell in love before going off to war?

Dean helps answers that in his story, Dressed to Suit.

Bubba comes from people like them.

He assists T. Douglas in interviewing and researching the stories made for this issue of BCVR #6.

Bubba came from a broken home, drug addicted mother, alcoholic father, and a problematic older sister. He is virtually orphaned after his parents separate, his mother dies and both he and his father end up in prison. He feels guilt over his younger brother’s death.

How do people like them transcend adversity?

Though this is a work of fiction, there exists real discrimination in our work places, neighborhoods, places and institutes of worship and faith based organizations. Some is sly, unintended or unrecognized. Much is accepted out of ignorance, believing erroneous assumptions about People Like Them. Other incidents are overt and intentional.

Assuming the worse about people like them does not make it correct just because it was repeated enough times, even from persons we trust or hold in esteem. To assume, looking at its spelling, may make an ‘ass’ out of ‘u’ and ‘me.’

*Next picture: The author around 20010

Confession of a Chicken, Part 2

Note: This is the follow up of Confession of a Chicken found in the previous book, What Would Bubba Do. There are ramifications for Taya Douglas and Billy Wrangler resulting from their fight at the Church picnic back in 1967. Nearly everyone faulted T. Douglas. Yet, once the dust settles, the self-righteous realize that they too, might be accountable in light of Joel Buby’s injury.

*Next picture: Battle weary Dean from Confession of a Chicken: Part 1, in the book What Would Bubba Do: BCVR 5:

Recap from part one.

Bubba Junior interviewed Friar Onjishkaw’o (aka Taya Douglas) in the summer of 2014. This included an account of Douglas’ two-year ordeal evading the class bully, Billy Wrangler during his freshman and sophomore years of high school (1965-67). There were days Taya dreaded going to school. He worked out alternate ways to walk home against the general advice in those days to stand up to a bully. That was not an option for Douglas. He knew Billy would cream him if he tried. Besides, Taya Douglas was not a fighter. He and nearly everyone else knew he was afraid to fight. Never the less, many of them had hoped the two boys would fight anyway.

You can’t just let him push your around, one would say. Another might chime in, Stand up to him.

Show him you’re not afraid. … I know what I would do, another poked him. You’re chicken. Taya believed most of them saw him as such. Disputing their assessment or proving them wrong was not an option against the likes of Billy. Maybe he was a chicken.

Teachers told him to work it out. The school counselor explained Billy was simply a misunderstood kid from a broken home. His parish priest said, A good punch to the nose will make him think twice.

Billy would like nothing more than for Douglas to try for his nose.

His mother had the best recommendation, Don’t be a fool, son. Bullies that big don’t back down.

She figured the day was coming her son would come home beaten, battered and bruised. She taught him not to fight, Half the town thinks we’re trash. Don’t prove it to them.

Douglas had no choice in the summer of 1967, no place to run and surrounded by an anxious crowd urging him on. Forced to take on Billy, he did pretty well in the beginning, and then the battled turned against him.

The account of Taya Douglas and Billy W. Wrangler’s fight at the Presbyterian Youth Group Church picnic that summer ended with the following lines:

The kids were looking down on him when he realized Billy was no longer on top of him. He looked off to one side. Joel was still motionless, his face expressionless, eyes closed as the chaperones rushed in.

Need these? A kid handed Douglas his eyeglasses.

The episode continues, (Confessions of a Chicken – part Two)

Douglas flinched. Everything came to a strange stop. Kids were looking down at him. Eerily, calm voices abruptly supplanted the shouting.  Billy was no longer on top of him. He instinctively raised his arms to ward off the next blow. His effort was weak and perplexingly uncoordinated.

He needed a moment to assess the sudden change. Just a second ago, he and Billy were vigorously engaged in a fight. They were tangled up, wrestling on the ground. They traded punches. His last half-dazed recollection was receiving two or maybe three punches in a row. There were students shouting at or for them. His focus was on survival, intent on beating the living daylights out of his opponent, Billy W. Wrangler. The blows to the head disoriented him.

The fight was over.

His head lolled to one side. He saw mostly legs. He turned his eyes to see up. Astonished faces look down at him.

How did it end? he pondered quietly. He looked towards his friend. Joel was still unconscious.

Billy was standing a few feet away. His chest was heaving from his strenuous efforts. His nose was bleeding. Another boy positioned himself at point between Billy and Taya, whom everyone called Douglas. It appeared to be a complimentary stance separating the two combatants from any further fighting.

Increasing awareness of his acute pains took the place of the former frenzy. He let out a moan.

He’s coming around.

Douglas did not identify a face to the voice. He looked back towards Joel. Two boys stooped to examine or attend the limp body. Joel’s right arm was tucked under his ribs, the left hung loosely in front. The upper leg was cocked in the direction he faced,