Kim, I know what you mean. I was at a buckskinner's encampment at the annual Leonard's Mills Living History Days. Someone walked into our camp, looked at the plank chair and asked (I am not making this up!) "What are those chairs for?"

My father enjoys messing with their minds. He made a small box out of birch bark and put some burdocks inside. Then he labeled the box "Porcupine Eggs" and set it out for people to look at. A good percentage of them asked if that's what they really were.

TV, and the media in general, make people put their minds on hold or something.

(In Maine burdocks are round fuzzy seed pods that attach to hair, fur, or clothing and are next to impossible to remove. They come apart when you try to remove them and stay stuck in the fur. The burdock plant can grow up to six feet tall and provide hundreds of the damned things. My parents have to shave their dags every year to get them cleaned up.)