crossing woman hollering creek
by diy danna
the year was 1993 – back to campus in fall.
mother is driving and i’m listening to de la soul
on the walkman – not disturbing the car radio.
on the highway in the slow afternoon, i’m reading signs.
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In the title she limits it to a mother/daughter disentanglement. At the origin of the river, a woman hollers across to a woman hollering on the other side.
This is so teen /young woman! Especially the use of “mother” rather than “mom” or “momma” or some other endearing term. It speaks of less intimacy, a separation, between mother and daughter (of course, it could be a son). The Walkman and staring out the window and going back to campus in the fall are all ways that the parent and the child are enmeshed in the natural separation that must occur with every parent /child relationship. Funny though…enmeshed and separation should be distinctively opposite terms, yet in the parent/child dynamic they are definitely not.
The title /photo add dimensions to the mother /daughter thing too. A hollering mother certainly divides. Headphones on a teenager to block it all out. I see it in my own house these days.
I really love the sentence fragment “i’m reading signs”. That alone can say so much about so many things.
Good stuff.
aside: I can remember my first experience with a Walkman. I was amazed…had never listened to music with headphones before…and the sound! So amazing! I sat in a corner and listened to a tape (Joan Jett) for HOURS.
Right on. I love the brevity of this piece. Stakes Is High.