On Sunday, the boys and I had a blast hunting for the Jersey Devil. We made a little film of the boys’ adventure. This is the trailer to the film. Hope you enjoy it!
Posts Tagged ‘Jersey Devil’
Jersey Devil Hunt
Posted in Musings and Epiphanies, tagged children, Jersey Devil, paranormal on November 7, 2011| Leave a Comment »
Grimm fiction and fact
Posted in Musings and Epiphanies, tagged children, fairy tales, Grimm, Jersey Devil, lies, Michael Jackson on November 4, 2011| Leave a Comment »
I really am enjoying Grimm. I like the use of the fairy tales and acknowledging that the stories were, in fact, grim in their original incarnations. The fantastical stories have always been ones I’ve enjoyed. It would be great if the show inspires folks to read the stories again and revives fairy tales in the world of literature. I am optimistic that the actors will start to relax a bit and settle into their characters. They took care of the necessary exposition within the first two episodes, I hope. Now just keep getting deeper into the legends, the rules, and how the blond chick is involved. A little bit of X-Files conspiracy action is slowly being built into the series…I hope.
Not changing the channel quickly enough, I then got sucked into another grim show. Dateline was covering the Michael Jackson trial. I wasn’t there, I didn’t know the man, but the doc seems like he was involved. It’s tacky, really tacky, to continually change so many parts of the story when the only person who could truly and accurately counter the doctor’s version is dead. That’s grim. Why do people feel so compelled to lie? In the case of Jackson’s trial, it’s a big deal to be dishonest. But there is dishonesty in so many parts of this world. Students lie to teachers, children lie to parents, (and sometimes parents to children) but usually these lies are small lies that won’t impact anything in a large way. So then why not tell the truth and deal with the consequences (because I can’t let go of Santa yet!)? I know why the doctor doesn’t want to necessarily tell the truth-he could go to prison. But why tell the little ones?
Like when I asked my sons who played Tic-Tac-Toe on the wall going up the stairs the answer was “not me, not me.” Then who did, a ghost? I know my mother-in-law wouldn’t write on my walls and that’s the only ghost I know of in my house. Why do they stick with the lie? But the writing is on the wall-it doesn’t particularly matter that neither one owned up to it, they both will have to work at getting the writing off the wall. Not as grim as the show or the trial, but still…
Speaking of grim, the fun plans for tomorrow include hunting down the Jersey Devil. My oldest son is psyched and really hopes we find him. My youngest son wants nothing to do with it and claimed to have a stomach ache this evening laying the groundwork to cancel the hunt. It is tricky to satisfy both boys’ hopes for tomorrow. “Yes, we’ll probably find the Jersey Devil…well, maybe we’ll find some evidence and just enjoy a nice walk in the woods”. I just hope the “evidence” we find doesn’t include any carcasses. The older one has already collected bird bones from the neighborhood that he attributed to JD. Yes, I made him wash his hands for two or three hours.
Ah, boys. It can be grim.
My Lunch with Josh Gates
Posted in My lunch with..., tagged children, Destination Truth, haunting, Jersey Devil, Josh Gates, paranormal, Pine Barrens, Weird NJ on August 25, 2011| Leave a Comment »
My sons have discovered the Jersey Devil. I introduced them to this fine piece of folklore over a year ago, but one has to meet children where they are. They weren’t ready to connect to the Jersey Devil last year, but now they are ready to embrace this awesome connection to living in south Jersey. My oldest has been researching JD on the web and discovered the episode of Destination Truth in which Josh and company trekked to exotic south Jersey and our beloved Pine Barrens to search for Mrs. Leeds’ thirteenth child.
If you aren’t familiar with the lore, grab a copy of Weird NJ by Sceurman & Moran and you will bring yourself up to speed with fun recollections from some locals, Pineys and non. The short version is that Mrs. Leeds found herself preggers once again way back in 1735. She cursed the child, calling for this one to be a devil. While the baby was born human, it quickly transformed into a creature with hooves, wings, a horse-like face, and the ever popular red devil eyes. It killed everyone in the room and burst out of the house. He’s been haunting south Jersey ever since.
I’ve been hooked on JD since 1978. In third grade, my art teacher had us do a unit on the Jersey Devil. We learned the folklore and, then based on the descriptions we read, we created our versions of JD in various mediums. This is my favorite kind of learning–face it, it’s every kid’s favorite type of learning–interactive and purposeful, with built-in assessments that are fun. I didn’t think about the fact that my pieces were going to be graded, I simply focused on making the best JD art I could.
I shared this story with my boys and they were very intrigued. We’ve been reading Weird NJ and one of the young adult novels…The Weird Club: The Search for the Jersey Devil by Fairbanks. They are hooked. After my sons watched the Destination Truth clip they told me, “Mom,you know that show you watch with the guy who goes places and you’ve tried to make us watch it? He looked for the Jersey Devil!” This was shocking for my sons to think that we have a shared interest that they don’t feel is dorky.
I think my sons would love to hang with Josh Gates. I’d love to hang with Josh. Please remember, when I say hang, I mean hang out, not hang for dear life on a perilous bridge or on a zip cord. I don’t know that I’m adventurous enough to be on the DT team, but I wouldn’t mind being a researcher for the show. I love the concept of the show. I agree with some of the online postings about the contrived nature about the team (for the record, I don’t care who is schtupping whom). Overall, the idea of going on adventures that are centralized around the amazing myths, legends, and folklore of our world is awesome. But I couldn’t be on the team-I couldn’t eat the foods they eat.
Thus our lunch would have to be at a restaurant that Josh would probably consider bland. His website says that he hopes the show and his adventures inspire children to go out and have adventures of their own. So many children just don’t do that anymore. I am fortunate that my boys do this all the time and have connected to Josh on their own, validating that what they like to do is cool. It would be neat to chat with Josh about the Jersey Devil and some of the other trips they’ve done on the show. The trip to the Antarctica and the search for the Yeti would have to be discussed. Particularly the hair sample found while searching for the Yeti that was determined to be an unknown DNA sequence by the DNA people would be explored at length. How cool is that?
I would also seek Josh’s advice. The boys get a wee bit creeped out after spending some substantial time on different legends. This leads to the classic child to parent question, “Do you believe in…?” How does Josh handle such a question? I know how I handle it…I tell my sons that there is so much I don’t know about the world that I can’t say it’s not true. How can I prove that these creatures aren’t out there, managing to hide from our intrusive existence? I can’t. I also don’t want my sons to lose their sense of wonder quite yet. Then again I haven’t lost mine yet. Neither has Josh, or at least it seems that way. And why should we lose that sense of wonder? That belief in what we can’t see?
It’s awesome that the show offers some television time that isn’t us versus them with our boys. Yes, we have Looney Tunes, Three Stooges, and a ton of movies that we all find entertaining. We also enjoy our Animal Planet and Discovery shows. But DT has some science AND entertainment. By combining his love of archeology and theater, the show covers a lot of ground and Josh has some great expressions and reactions, particularly when eating various animal parts that no human should ever ingest.
Did I mention we would be at a bland restaurant? Quite possibly some “safe” chain place with overpriced appetizers?
Well, it’s past the witching hour for me. Mrs. Leeds’ thirteenth child is roaming the Pine Barrens somewhere, possibly searching for a place to bunk when Hurricane Irene shows up. An earthquake and a hurricane all in one week for Jersey. Quite a lot of fun. A big adventurous week for two small boys. Possibly even enough adventure here for Josh. I’d let him know he has a standing invitation to dig in our backyard with the boys. They’re searching for a Hadrosaurus.
ohbloodyhell8 