I would drag my feet up the stairs to the sound of the tv show “Daniel Boone” as I went to retrieve the hair supplies that my mom used when she did my hair.
I look back fondly, although sometimes I didn’t always enjoy getting my hair combed.
Whether it was braids, a bun or a puff on the top of my head, getting my hair done while watching classic television was a part of our morning routine.
The show fascinated me – the tale of a racoon-skin hat wearing, westward pioneer often referred to the Columbus of the Woods. The Columbus referencing the infamous Italian colonizer.
I grew up as a history and classic television enthusiast, so my interest in the show wasn’t out of the ordinary. There were others tv shows I would watch on DVD or over-the-air.
Not long after my hair was complete did Daniel Boone end. Uncurling my legs from their criss-cross position, I stood up to return the Blue Magic, ponytail pins (what are also known as hair ties) and comb to their rightful place.
Returning downstairs, a few minutes before eight o’clock, the ads for medication and life insurance were my cues that the most awaited part of the morning had arrived. The “Eye Opener at 8” of the CBS This Morning newscast.
All that and all that mattered in less than 90 seconds.
My eyes were glued to the screen as I marveled at studio 57, the round eye table, and the journalists who anchored the program – the people who I aspired to be. During those seconds I wasn’t just a ten-year-old, but I was a watchdog to the world’s affairs.
Although surveying the news was important, I had a much more important thing to do as soon as the news intro ended.
I had to make my lunch.
Not only did my morning routine include watching Daniel Boone and the Eye Opener, but it included bringing my lunch to life with the same elements every morning.
A sandwich composed of a single slice of whole wheat bread, folded in half plus a slice or two of hard salami. I wasn’t a big fan of two pieces of bread, however the occasional slice of provolone made a guest appearance.
A cup of unsweetened applesauce emptied into a Tupperware container, topped with a dash of cinnamon. Followed by a single serving bag of chips emptied into another Tupperware container and another snack – usually a cookie or some other item.
The containers fit together like a cube-shaped puzzle and it all fit neatly in my cube-shaped crossbody lunch tote.
My morning routine stayed the same. Until it didn’t.
In the same light as Daniel Boone “discovering a new frontier,” it seemed that the same thing was happening with the elements of my lunch.
My world had long been untouched by the Daniel Boones of the world. It never occurred to me that some of the constant suppliers of my lunch puzzle would become distant memories.
The first to go was the hard salami. My dad and I used to go pick up the salami on Sunday nights at a small grocery store. Of course with us being regulars, my dad and the deli worker would chat.
The store was bulldozed in favor of new development.
The next thing to go was the assortment of chips. The convenience store was replaced by more new development, and so was the other one down the block. For weeks after the new development opened, I would catch glimpses of the new demographic.
It wasn’t long before murals on the sides of buildings began to fade away, empty lots were dug up for housing complexes and suddenly, so many parts of the community I grew up in were chipping away.
The Daniel Boone theme song states that the pioneer “could mow down a forest of trees.” It states that he had “a dream of a country that would always forever be free.” It reveres Boone with the line “what a boon, what a do-er, what a dream come-a true-er was he!”
Reflecting on the show I was so fascinated with, I recognize my own lunch story in the lyrics.
First, my lunch was like the forest of trees that Daniel Boone and his comrades would mow down for their desires. The stores that provided the elements of my lunch had already been established, but they were viewed as a new frontier for those who chose to ignore what had been.
The Daniel Boones that insert themselves into my community had their idea of how the land could be utilized, instead of revitalized.
Daniel Boone was regarded as a “boon” which translates to a blessing. This is obviously such manifest destiny language, so I beg the question of what blessing was Daniel Boone? He is glorified for bringing “civilization” to “unclaimed” land in the west of the 13 colonies—land that was already civilized and claimed by Indigenous tribes.
Erasure is at the heart of the conflict between what had been and the Daniel Boones of the world. Up to that point in my childhood, something like my lunch was untouched territory.
In a similar vein as the land and culture that the likes of Daniel Boone set out to erase, my lunch wasn’t just what I ate everyday.
It was laced with a culture and history that are now just memories. My lunch was akin to untouched territory; it was a reflection of my community.
