"J. van Baardwijk" wrote:
>
> Jeroen who has heard all the insults for a kid with red hair... :-(
>
What's up with that, anyway? I didn't get insulted for my red hair. (I
got insulted for other reasons, but not for the red hair.)
When I was very young, the red hair was more of an asset than a
liability. By the time I was 5 years old, I was used to construction
workers calling out, "Hey, Red!" to me when I was walking by with my
mother. (We walked and used public transportation a lot, so we walked
by a lot more construction sites than we would have if she'd been
driving then.) It was clear that they *liked* seeing a little girl out
with her mother (and little sister), and the red hair gave me a nickname
that everyone could come up with immediately. "Red" was just my name
for people who didn't know my name.
I hadn't been past many construction sites in awhile at the start of the
summer when I was 14, but I walked past one every morning for a week or
two that summer, and the workers would call out to me, "Hi, Red!" some
mornings, and I'd smile and wave. (I think the smiling and waving
encouraged them to repeat the behavior.) It was as if I'd been given
something of my childhood again, and it gave me a nice feeling.
Is it a European thing? My mother was in Germany for a couple of years
in the 1950s and met a young man who was very nice, but who seemed to
have some hang-ups. It turned out that because of his red hair, he'd
been called "Child of the Devil" all his life, and it had a negative
impact on him.
I asked my (also red-haired, or at least it was in childhood) husband if
he'd had any problems with being teased about having red hair, and there
hadn't been enough for him to remember, anyway.
So, while I have red hair, I don't understand what you're talking
about. I wish I did so I could better empathize, but I'm glad I don't
because it sounds like it wasn't a whole lot of fun growing up with red
hair.
Julia
whose son is turning into a redhead, too (he's got his Daddy's red hair,
not his Mommy's, there's a difference)
