Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Screwed Up

I was surprised tonight. Surprised in a bad-oh-my, my-eyes-burn sort of way.

Walking out of a store, I watched an extended family come in. If I were to describe them in too much detail it would seem heartlessly biased against impoverished rednecks from the hill country... but these folks hadn't seen running water this week. Wife-beaters were the shirt du jour,

But that wasn't what caught my attention and made me stare.

What made me swallow hard and choke a little was the last child in line... probably ten years old or so, carrying the youngest member of the family. The baby, perhaps six months old, had no hair. But, to make things right, the baby had its hair DRAWN ON with a sharpie. At first, I thought it was something the kids had done, in jest. Then I saw that there were three distinct colors of Sharpies used, and three distinct styles of scribbles. In essence, this baby had its hair DRAWN on. How messed up is this? They drew on a baby's head, with a permanent marker which uses wicked-nasty solvents to carry god only knows what in the ink... on the scalp of a baby!!!

It sure made me wonder. I am just waiting for the family portrait... blind gramps with drawn-on googles, down-and-out dad with a moustache hastily scribbled on, maybe Mom with a night gown on that says "MOM" on it. It was almost like a photoshop session for real-life. Surreal.

Now, if I had gotten a picture of it.... it would have ended up on one of those internet sites we all love to laugh at. No such luck.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

i try to tell people in kentucky that this sort of thing is all over and even up north and they don't believe me. the movie deliverance has secured kentucky in the minds of america as the central location for this. when i was 17 in central NY state, we used to take my 1973 ford maverick and drive in the country looking for dirt roads to explore. once we were driving through the woods and came to a small ravine and we thought we could make it down and up the other side as opposed to backing up for miles through the woods. it was a bit muddy from a recent rain. we got stuck on the uphill side and then when we tried to back up we got stuck there too. stranded in the middle of the woods miles from a paved road a man and his boy came moseying by on horseback who much fits your description. we asked for help and he mumbled that there wasn't anything anyone could do, we were stuck for good, then rode off. thanks alex for helping me retrieve this long latent memory... still wished you had gotten a snap.

CB said...

Yeah, how funny is it going to be when the poor child's hair follicles are permanently damaged, or s/he develops severe dermatitis, or melanomas, or who knows what? Nice. Real nice.

DirtKicker Pottery said...

In my part of the country (NV) that would be considered child abuse and the child would be put in protective care while the situation was investigated. That treatment of a tiny child makes me just ill. :(

cookingwithgas said...

you have to take a test to drive a car- but just about anyone can become a parent......
We have seen some strange things here as well, but I think there are strange people every where.