flashback… to August 2005…
the scene: a small tourist shop in AZ along route 40/ old route 66…
Tay: Mom! MOM! I just saw the coolest thing, and I want you to tell me what it is!
Me: what was it?
Tay: it was some kind of animal, some kind of animal like I don’t know what it is!
Me (still looking at the beaded and silver jewelry): so, what did it look like?
Tay: it was small and it had horns.
Me: horns like a cow?
Tay: no, like a deer.
Me: like a baby deer? (hmm… what is the shopkeeper laughing about?)
Tay: no, it has ANTLERS I mean.
Me: so you saw a small deer. Deer are smaller around here than you’re used to seeing.
Tay: I don’t think it was a deer.
Me: was it outside? is it still here?
Tay (very agitated now): I want you to come see it.
Me (totally engrossed with the jewelry): Cay, go see what your sister is talking about.
((Cay wanders off, returns a bit later))
Cay: mom, you’ll want to see this, it’s a REALLY COOL ANIMAL.
Me (sighing and following):Can’t you just tell me what it looks like?
Cay: it looks like a rabbit, only it has horns.
Me (stopping and jaw dropping): a Jackalope?!? (the guy behind the counter now is bursting out laughing, trying to stiffle it) A JACKALOPE?!?! YOU’RE TAKING ME TO SEE A JACKALOPE!?!
((now I’m laughing and looking at the shopkeeper, who is trying very unsuccessfully to keep a straight face))
ME: kids, Jackalope’s aren’t real. They’re a very VERY old joke. I didn’t think they still did it.
Tay: but I SAW it, it’s real.
Me: no, it isn’t. It’s made up, and they made the jackalope out of other animal parts to make it look real. It’s an old joke, and a long time ago before you were born lots of people used to believe the jackalope really DID exist.
Tay (slowly, as if talking to a small child): Mother, I saw it myself. It is real.
Tay took me to see the jackalope on the upper shelf of the store. I asked the shop keeper if he could take it down so I could show it to her. She touched the fur and the antlers, and decided both were real. She knew that with taxadermy you don’t have the whole animal on the insides, and acknolwledged that the eyes had been added even though they looked real.
We got in the car and left, still arguing about the jackalope. It took well over two hours to convince her that the jackalope wasn’t real. Finally, she agreed that it could have been done with Super Glue…
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