Friday, March 20, 2009

Tolerance, even for our vegetable friends

A few days ago, I had all the kids with me on a trip to Walmart. At the checkout line, I realized that I needed, and had forgotten to get, a tomato. Knowing the snail-like pace that is always the checkout line at Walmart, I sent the boys off to grab me one from the produce department.

They came tearing back, giant tomato in hand. Chase set it on the conveyor belt and announced, in his unmistakably loud voice, "Bad news, Mom. It's a Mexican."

I look up in horror, smile at the African American check-out girl, and try to say loudly, "That's okay, Chase. I'm sure MEXICAN TOMATOES are delicious."

To which he practically shouts, "But, Mom, we don't really like the Mexicans." [I know he was only thinking the tomatoes would taste different. The kid has love for all god's people. Honest.]

My ensuing lecture about how we really do like everyone was lost in the murmurs and shame that was our hurried walk out to the car.

For the record, we DO like the Mexicans.

And their giant tomatoes.

34 comments:

Ginger said...

AWE-SOME!!!
Love those moments. :-)

TheCatLord said...

kids....gotta love em!!!

the wrath of khandrea said...

OWWWWCH!!!

do you need to borrow my husband for some good ole fashioned butt-whooping around your place? it means more coming from a black man.

diane said...

I love Mexicans. Esspecially the ones that clean my house and yard. My son just married the cutest Mexican of all.

He was a racist boy too.

Jane of Seagull Fountain said...

Wow -- I think your Walmart is more diverse than mine. We only have plum, roma, and on-the-vine. Oh, and beefsteak, which always sounds vaguely pornographic to me.

Annemarie said...

Oh crap.

Christie in Dallas, TX said...

I swear they will only remember the times that YOU embarrassed them, never the other way around!

Gotta love 'em...

Lindsey said...

Um, Yeah, welcome to my world.. That is just how life with Jaxon is... DAILY.. and just FYI I had to take him to my post-pardom exam today. I am sure you can only IMAGE how that went down.

Mique (as in Mickey) said...

Phew- I made the cut. I was nervous for a second (I'm 1/4 mexican). ;)

Heidi said...

My daughter, when we moved out of Utah, was so impressed with all the African Americans here in Texas that she would point and yell, "Look, Mom, there's another black person!" Oy vey.

Lauren in GA said...

I hate it when stuff like that happens...it always happens in public too, it seems.

Take comfort in knowing it was a misunderstanding...the other day on the way home from Cub Scouts Brian announced, "My mom says you are mean to Adam and she doesn't like it." to the little boy that comes from a less active family but will come with us every week to Cub Scouts. I said with a nervous chuckle, "Brian, I did not." He countered, of course, with a "Yes you did...on the way to pick him up..."

Whoopsie daisy. I am happy for you that the tomato wasn't offended.

May I just comment on how beautiful his blue eyes are!!

Bonnie said...

That's funny! One time I referred to someone or something as Mexican and my boys gasped. "Mom that's not nice". They thought just the word Mexican was derogatory. Isn't that sad? I explained to them there is nothing wrong with using that word referring to people or things..

Unknown said...

All I can do is laugh. I wish I has some whitty thing to write but I am laughing too hard :)

Mel said...

Kids say the darnest things! Too funny and I would have been the mom snorting with laughter had I been there. Have a great weekend.

calibosmom said...

I love it when other peoples kids make offensive and innapropriate comments (by mistake of course). I love a ripe and juicy Mexican!

Anonymous said...

and we don't like white people

Anonymous said...

Oh, that was funny. I am sitting here waiting for baby #4 to arrive and feeling pretty miserableand irritated at my own 3 boys, but that made me laugh out loud. THANK YOU!
Lara (M's sister)

Diane said...

I remember a trip we made to Colorado one year and the kids were trying to pick out all the different license plates they saw. Suddenly Robyn asked her dad to speed up and get close to the car on our left so she could see something. When we were right next to the car, she peered closely at the people inside. I'm sure they could only see her eyes looking over at them. She stared for a few moments and then exclaimed..."They look just like us!" We didn't know what she meant until she said that their license plate said "New" Mexico. Amazing that "new" Mexicans look just like we do! She was amazed!!
Your tomato story will grow to be a family favorite...I'm sure! Too funny!! I'm sure all of us are going to look for these tomatoes next time we're in the produce department.

Travelin'Oma said...

There are just so many ways to put your foot in your mouth nowadays.

anna jo said...

hilarious!

I thought he was going to say that it was bad news because the tomato was shipped all the way from mexico, which is bad for the environment...

Michael said...

Maybe he was just worried that buying a Mexican tomato would in some way help fund the murderous drug lords on the US-Mexican border.

My favorite part is that he had probably planned on saying that from the moment he picked it out and inspected it.

danandcindy said...

I always knew that you were a bigot.

Michelle said...

LOL!! That is too funny! Don't you just love those moments. We love Mexican's too, so long as they are legal.

queenieweenie said...

why is having children so darn humbling?

Becky said...

I can just picture him running back, ready to say the funniest thing ever- and thinking all of WalMart would be laughing. Well,...it WAS funny. Can you blame him?

3leftturns said...

You know, kids can be pretty insightful...

mahina said...

oh the embarrassment! but makes for an awesome blog post!

Emily said...

Stie, I am sitting here at my computer of a monday morning when I should be getting my oldest dressed and out to the bus but I can't stop laughing. Hilarious. And it would be Chase--Chase of the House of Seven Gables to shout out something like that at Walmart. Can't wait to pass it on to Chris.

gab said...

He is so dang handsome. All is forgiven when you are as gorgeous as he is...

Joy & Casey said...

Funny! Too bad I wasn't in the checkout line with you-I've experienced Christie in TONS of situations but never as a mom with a crazy situation-I probably would have laughed hard enough to pee my pants! Sorry I couldn't be there with you! :)

Joy & Casey said...

Funny! Too bad I wasn't in the checkout line with you-I've experienced Christie in TONS of situations but never as a mom with a crazy situation-I probably would have laughed hard enough to pee my pants! Sorry I couldn't be there with you! :)

Terra said...

OH Poor you! I bet that was fun.

Dalene said...

SO FUNNY.

Cindy said...

Hilarious!