education, Family, Kids, Travel, Uncategorized

Identifying Marks

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Daughter told me that when she was at a farmers market in Tacoma last Saturday, she ran into another graduate of Concordia  College.  (I and both our children graduated from there). I asked her if she knew the person. Daughter said no, but the woman recognized her Concordia ring and identified her as a Cobber. As you can see from the header photo, it is a pretty plain ring and not all that easy to spot on someone else’s hand.

The College magazine is full of stories of Cobbers encountering  other Cobbers in odd places, always identifying each other by their rings. “Marlys Swensrud (’64) was surprized to meet up with Lars Lindstrom (’88) on a bird watching trip in Cyprus last August”.  You would think all we alums do is stare at people’s hands hoping to find a fellow graduate.  It isn’t even that the ring tells much about what sort of people we are, only that we have a shared experience of a certain place.  I think that if I wanted to let people know about me by wearing something symbolic, it would be small ceramic pins in the shape of a pie or a garden hoe, or perhaps a Welsh Terrier.

What symbol would you wear to let people know about you?  What do you think are some symbols that could identify us as Baboons?

29 thoughts on “Identifying Marks”

  1. I’m not an habitual hat wearer and I don’t own many hats, especially not ones with an insignia or motto, but I do have a baseball-style hat that was given to me as part of my membership in the Ampersand Club, an organization of book-oriented people. We were up in a cabin near Grand Marais in early October and decided to go into town. Because the day was quite windy and a little chilly, I threw on my Ampersand Club hat. It briefly occurred to me that, wearing the hat, I might run into other Ampersanders, which is what happened almost immediately upon getting out of the car.

    As to a token of membership fo the Baboons, this is something I’ve sort of fancied, although we might have to devise a custom design since none of the readymade ones quite fill the bill:
    https://fez-o-rama.com/collections

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  2. I have a pair of earrings with a tiny bird sitting on a branch that I could think of as somewhat symbolic. I wear them all the time, it seems, and they attract other bird- and nature-lovers.

    For baboons, the animal doesn’t quite do it – you’d need something about music and books and cooking and gardens and …

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  3. there are several baboon tatoo options available but i can’t copy and paste

    you’ll have to help me choose the one we’ll make the trail choice

    i’ll set the appointment schedule up at the tatoo parlor

    who’s first?

    baboon tattoo images

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  4. People seeking partners through online dating sites face an interesting challenge. They must describe themselves in just a few words. Anything you specify about who you are is going to attract some possible partners and send others fleeing for the exit door.

    The least imaginative tribal affiliation was occupation. For me, that was a loser. If I described myself as an “outdoor writer,” many people wouldn’t know what that job is. Worse, that would link me to a group of people I don’t especially respect (boozers, unthinking patriots and all those guys who call themselves outdoor writers because outdoor manufacturers send them free stuff). Yuck.

    Another mistake was when I said I liked the television show “My name is Earl.” That show was witty in a sly way. A lot of women didn’t know that show and wrote letters to me addressed to Earl. Gack.

    I considered saying I had an MPR decal on my Outback. People who know cars would see that as proof I was somewhat unconventional and stood left of center on politics. But not that many people know cars that well.

    I finally identified myself as “a public radio guy,” a definition that hinted I had a college degree and was politically progressive.

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  5. Rise and Shine, Oh Ye Fellow Baboons,

    My suggestion is that we develop a Crest, ala the UK tradition of families with crests. Of course, the central symbol in said crest, would be a Golden Banana and a Trail icon of some sort. I nominate Bill, our resident visual artist/AdMan, to develop it further. The beauty of a crest is that it can be put on a fez (shudder—was there ever a more unattractive hat? Sorry Bill), a t-shirt, a charm to be worn around the neck, a patch, A flag, etc.

    This idea comes from my current project of scanning family history documents into the computer to provide the family with a digital record. Along with all those pix of cows and pigs, was the Stewart (Northern Ireland) crest from 3X great grandmother Mary Elizabeth Stewart Newell who left Ireland in about 1843.

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    1. Some guy phoned my father and said that, for a bit of money, he would send Dad a copy of the Grooms family crest. Dad laughed. He said, “The people I come from didn’t have crests. They stood on the ground holding the reins for people who DID have crests.”

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  6. If I were going to design a pen for myself, it would probably be a dog reading a book with a wooden spoon in his or her paw, with icing dripping off of it.

    As for baboons, we actually have had pins made (although technically I suppose they weren’t really pins). A whole group of us wore goat pins to a Peter Mayer concert and we had Dr. Kyle pins when we went to Tom Keith’s memorial.

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    1. It’s been a great day so far. I had my free Caribou this morning and I had my free Red Robin burger at lunch with YA and later this afternoon we will have cake that I made yesterday. Bride cake with raspberry jam filling and cream cheese white chocolate frosting. And sprinkles of course.

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  9. OT – Just got word that Michael P. Smith who wrote so many memorable songs, including the Dutchman, passed away peacefully yesterday afternoon after a long illness.

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