Jiminy Cricket!
A cricket (the insect)
After discussing ideas for our Bugs & Insects blog post in our weekly meeting, I knew I wanted to center my blog post about ladybugs. I reminisced on my childhood and thought about searching for ladybugs and grasshoppers in nature, as they were seen as good luck. However, the search results for both of these terms did not elicit as many stories as I hoped, with 5 results for ladybug and 24 stories for grasshopper. Since grasshopper yielded more search results than ladybug, I began to think about similar insects to the grasshopper and thought about another insect within my childhood: the cricket
The search term, “cricket” yielded 104 search results. I decided to utilize the Search Tag, “Nostalgic” and search “cricket” again. This search result yielded the same number of search results (104). When diving into the search results, I discovered that the stories featured cricket: the insect and the sport!
A player on the Jamaica Tallawahs, the country’s national cricket team
The Sport
Corporate chief executive Wayne M. Hewett (1964-) details cultural differences between the United States and Jamaica and remembers his first time playing baseball in Miami, Florida:
“I remember my first gym class. I remember playing baseball. In Jamaica you play cricket, you don't use a glove. And they're like you need a glove in the field. I'm like this is in junior high this was like what are you talking about. And they're like you can't be on the baseball field without a glove. And I'm like, I'd never been on the cricket field with a glove. And they looked at me like I was nuts and I remember I was standing for some reason at, at, at between second baseman position or whatever without a glove 'cause they gave me a glove I threw the glove behind me. And they're all looking at me nuts and it just so happened the guy hit the ball to me, I caught my bare hand and I threw it to first base and the guy was out. And they all looked at me like, is this guy, we love the fact he did this thing, we would never think about catching the ball with our bare hands. And all of a sudden I went from this--I was still an alien, but now I went from a bad alien to a good alien.” [1]
Side-by-side comparisons of baseball and cricket
Additionally, newspaper reporter and television news correspondent Charlayne Hunter-Gault (1942-) on her experience in reporting in Zimbabwe for the 2003 International Cricket Council (ICC) World Cup:
“And they're very selective about who they let in. They don't let the--the BBC is totally banned. And every now and then, they let me in, but the more it tightened its noose on information, the more difficult it was. And we couldn't get in just on general principles. So the world cricket cup was, was being played, and they had a game, had games there. And I got--I signed up--I didn't know a cricket from a wicket from thicket, but, you know, I read up a little bit on cricket (laughter) in case they asked--of course, they didn't. And I actually went and covered a cricket match, but it was the match in which one of their key black players, a guy named Henry Olonga…and another white player [Andrew Flowers] wore black armbands in protests for the repression that was going on in the country…” [2].
Cricketer Henry Olonga wears an armband during the 2003 ICC World Cup in protest of humans rights violations in Zimbabwe
Crickets in Virginia:
When asked to describe the sounds, sights, and smells of his childhood, physicist and academic administrator, Col. James Stith (1941-) describes his home in the Virginia countryside:
“We were tobacco farmers, so the smell of tobacco. During the curing season, the smell of curing tobacco in the barn. It was distinctive, and I still miss it. And always having lots of animals. In the evening, just listening to the frogs and the crickets and all of the--those--nature's creatures that are out there.” [3]
A tobacco field located in Brunswick County, Virginia, the community in which Col. James Stith resided during his childhood
Painter and high school art teacher Malcolm Brown (1931 - 2020) also details his childhood community in Crozet, Virginia:
“You come at night, and there's nothing, just pitch dark, the crickets--you know you hear all these noises and it's very quiet and the street lights--not a lot of street lights on. You had to be careful when you come down a certain roads because you may get sprayed by a skunk. You had to be careful of where you walked, and it's quiet.” [4]
ABOVE: HistoryMaker Malcolm Brown in his art gallery in Shaker Heights, Ohio
BELOW: HistoryMaker Malcolm Brown’s painting, The Market
Moreover, the founder of the Trice Edney News Wire, Hazel Trice Edney (1960-) recalls how she wrote poems as a teenager about the environment around her:
“Because when you grow up with them you know them. And so we could hear the lowing of the cows at night. The crickets--I, I used to write poetry when I was a teenager, and I would talk about the largest choir in the world--you know, going to sleep to the sounds of the crickets and the frogs down at the pond; and you know, bugs that you know, you don't know exactly what they are, but they were just strange sounds in the night--the whip-poor-will--some, some sounds that we never could identify, but yet they occurred every night, you know, out in the woods.” [5]
ABOVE: A cricket at night
BELOW: A frog at night
Jiminy Cricket!
When searching in the results, “cricket”, I also found some mentions of a character in the Walt Disney adaption of Pinocchio, Jiminy Cricket. The search term, Jiminy Cricket yielded four results:
Television executive Winifred Neisser (1953-) discusses her efforts in educating children through television programs, and remembers how Jiminy Cricket educated her in her childhood:
“But we worked really hard to try to figure out how to get some of those messages out to kids and how to do…short programming. Things like, we didn't do 'Schoolhouse Rock!,' but 'Schoolhouse Rock!' would be an example of that, you know, how you plant the seeds in kids' mind by using--by using television. I can still--every time I write encyclopedia, I can hear Jiminy Cricket singing the 'Encyclopedia' song that I saw on the Mickey Mouse show ['Mickey Mouse Club]” [6]
A clip of Jiminy Cricket spelling “encyclopedia” in an episode of The Mickey Mouse Club
Additionally, chef and nonprofit chief executive Jeff Henderson (1964-) briefly mentions Jiminy Cricket when detailing a story about memories in elementary school:
“--and we used to watch the Disney movies. And I remember Jiminy Cricket and all the different movies. And she would leave her purse under the desk. And when the movie was going, she would leave the class and go and tend to business as she had to have been, and we would crawl down the side of the wall and take money out of her purse.” [7]
Jiminy Cricket in the 1940s adaptation of Pinocchio
SEARCH RESULTS:
“Ladybug” [5 results]
“Scorpion” [12 results]
“Crickets” [104 results]
“Crickets” with the Topic Search Tag, “Nostalgic” [104]
“Grasshopper” [24 results]
“Grass hopper” [0 results]
“Cricket + player” [9 results]
“Cricket player” [1 result]
“Jiminy Cricket” [4 results]
“CRICKET + VIRGINIA” [6 RESULTS]
REFERENCES
Wayne M. Hewett (The HistoryMakers A2007.001), interviewed by Shawn Wilson, January 3, 2007, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 2, story 9, Wayne M. Hewett describes the differences in Jamaican and American culture
Charlayne Hunter-Gault (The HistoryMakers A2006.092), interviewed by Larry Crowe, June 17, 2006, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 2, tape 10, story 1, Charlayne Hunter-Gault reflects upon reporting in Zimbabwe
Col. James Stith (The HistoryMakers A2010.083), interviewed by Larry Crowe, July 14, 2010, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 2, story 1, Col. James Stith recalls the sights, sounds and smells of his childhood
Malcolm Brown (The HistoryMakers A2004.023), interviewed by Regennia Williams, March 15, 2004, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 1, story 9, Malcolm Brown describes his childhood community in Crozet, Virginia
Hazel Trice Edney (The HistoryMakers A2013.339), interviewed by Larry Crowe, December 3, 2013, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 2, story 5, Hazel Trice Edney describes the sights, sounds and smells of her childhood
Winifred Neisser (The HistoryMakers A2013.299), interviewed by Larry Crowe, November 17, 2013, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 5, story 4, Winifred Neisser recalls working with Phyllis Tucker Vinson Jackson
Jeff Henderson (The HistoryMakers A2007.128), interviewed by Paul Brock, April 7, 2007, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 1, story 13, Jeff Henderson recalls Kit Carson Elementary School in San Diego, California
Ambassador Update:
Aside from completing my blog post, this week I created and posted on our social media page (@huhistorymakers) on Katherine G. Johnson (1918-2020) in honor of Women’s History Month.
For the post, I knew I wanted to select a clip to share with viewers, as reels and Instagram stories are more likely to draw in engagement due to changes in the algorithm. When selecting a clip, I accessed The HistoryMakers Digital Archive from my mobile device (iPhone) for the first time! I can’t believe that I did not access the digital archive from my phone sooner!
When accessing the digital archive on my phone, I was surprised at how user-friendly it was! I found the playback features and video quality remained the same as accessing it on my laptop. Before our tenure is complete, I plan to post a tutorial of how to access The HistoryMakers Digital Archive from a mobile device by screen recording from my phone. I will also continue to post reels of HistoryMakers within the archive and with instructions of how to access it from the Harvey Library website!
When doing my blog post on bugs and insects, I featured a quote from chef and nonprofit chief executive Jeff Henderson (1964-). Upon reading his biography and watching some clips, I found his life story interesting; Henderson served 10 years in prison, and worked his way to becoming an executive chef in Las Vegas.
Katherine Johnson featured on the HU HistoryMakers Instagram
Additionally, my professor in Stuttering contacted me about presenting and doing a short activity with The HistoryMakers Digital Archive in class! She said Thursday, May 4 would be the best date, but is looking for a date in April. If the presentation falls on May 4, I will still present and share photos from the event!
I also contacted the library staff for a meeting discussing on the possibility on planning a final event for the HistoryMakers. I am awaiting to hear their response.
