Overheard: Aliens Among Us

By Brenna Moore, 6-23-06

During the Lewis and Clark in the Rockies Bicentennial Festival, I overheard a mother and her three sons talking about the nature of the dressed up soldiers who were acting as an old-fashioned military group. They seemed to differ on the human quality of these reenacters.

Son #1 with a black shirt and a black backward cap: They're aliens.
Son#2 with a striped shirt and a tan backward cap: Then how come they're wearing dresses?
Son #1: Cause aliens wear clothes!
Son #2: No they don't!
Son #1: Yes they do. They're aliens.
Son #2: Then how come they're wearing hats?
Son #1: Cause aliens wear hats!
Son #2: No they don't, aliens don't wear hats!
Son #1: Yes they do.
Son #2: No, aliens don't wear clothes!
Son #1: Yes they do.
Mother with a straw hat: Boys, stop arguing.
Son #3 with a colorful button-up shirt: Mom, are they aliens?
Mother: Whatever you say, but they are people that were foreign to this land, that's what alien means. It means they were people who came here when they didn't necessarily belong here.
The boys stop talking. [End of article]