Indian headdress where water meets land in west Michigan

Near the Grand River's delta into Lake Michigan are many bayous: lawn ornament.

In many parts of USA until the 1990s or 2000s sometimes a cast-iron and smartly painted African-American lawn figure dressed in the livery of a carriage driver or attendant could be seen. Originally some of these were sold with large metal ring in the hand as a convenient anchor point for a horse rider to secure her or his horse when visiting the property owner. Still today there are a few left here and there at relics rather than tie-ups for people who travel by horse, but there are not so many of the cast-iron figurines as before.

The photo on this page is much less common, since the subject is an imagined representative for Native Americans (men). And yet the prestigious headdress in not universal, but pertains to a place and time among only certain societies. Similar to the coachman or carriage attendant described above, this lawn figurine is diminutive and non-threatening to the owners, their guests, and neighbors. Apart from its physical properties, what might be meant by the property owner positioning it far from the house (top left of the photo) near the place that water meets land, facing the approach to the house?

Without talking to the residents and neighbors, it is hard to know which meanings are foremost, and what significance is indirectly expressed at the same time. But here are a few lines of meaning that could potentially intersect in 2020 at this location near Grand Haven, Michigan.

1. Heritage: perhaps the owner has some lineage connected to the Plains Indians.
2. Honor: perhaps the owner has no personal stake, but studies deeply and respects the Native ways of life then and now.
3. Habit: perhaps the owner today is following an earlier generation's lawn decorating decision and maintains the property's look little changed from the 1970s or 1950s.
4. Satire or parody: perhaps the owner sees a conflicted double-meaning. The injustices of past and present are given a visual reminder, even as the pop culture attaches heroic or noble symbolized meanings.
5. Abstracted aspirations: taking the figure to stand for many appealing things, instead of as a person in a social setting and moment of history, perhaps the owner chooses this figure from the lawn ornament retail lot to symbolize things like: living off the land, unfettered by tax collectors, judicious, wise, ancient, embodiment of 'liberty', strong and governed by integrity.
6. Class project: perhaps the owner or family or friend created the statuette as art project and this is the display space it occupies now from that day to today.

Grocery patriotism a month after Independence Day

Sunday afternoon grocery shopping in the peanuts, dried fruit, snack section.

Although the waist-level grab shot makes the Star-spangled Banner look very large, in fact this is the normal retail size that homeowners display on poles attached to the front of their house. Since this instance is indoors and cannot flutter in the breeze, the supporting structure holds the full rectangular shape rigidly unfurled.

The range of possible intentions by the grocery-store corporate headquarters, or the local branch store manager could be one or more meanings. Without probing in conversation, though, here are a few ways to interpret this public display on private property indoors, listed in no particular order of significance.

1. Initiated around the time of the July 4th national holiday in celebration of the Declaration of Independence from the colonial powers in London, this show of The Colors is a traditional sight, albeit normally outdoors instead of in the food rows.
2. Ever since the pandemic arrived at the end of winter season, little by little the small and large impositions on people of all ages and social circumstances has led to tension and irritability, tribal outbursts and blaming one another. So perhaps this national unity statement is a reminder that all citizens (and tacitly, too, the undocumented non-citizens) are members of the same team.
3. At the risk of overthinking the possible primary or secondary meaning, maybe what began as traditional July 4 exhibition has slowly taken on a new meaning as the federal government, starting with the POTUS, has failed to lead a response to Covid-19, including the Black Lives Matter movement, and will soon face the November election, preceded by the August Primary Election. Thus this flag might be a visual reminder to shoppers that times are bad for life expectancy, for social interaction, and for economic livelihoods and therefore it is time to elect fellow citizens who actually do have leadership credentials, plans, and results demonstrated in their careers.
4. Lastly, and not particularly compelling as a purpose for displaying the national flag, it could well be that this one location in all of the vast store, at shoulder height or higher to most shoppers, is meant as nothing more than a cheerful, comforting, decorative and status-quo declaration: "we were here before, we are here now, and we will be open for business tomorrow, too."

Cars parked: you can have any color... as long as it's black

Attributed to the father of factory production of horseless carriages, automobiles, this joke pointed to the original mass production decision to mimic fine hand-built buggies and carriages in sleek black paint or lacquer. Most paints, other than black, performed poorly in the powerful light from the sun. In the generations before Henry Ford a great deal of (adult) clothing was in dark colors, including black, too. But 100 years later the technology to paint personal automobiles has advanced and there are many choices of standard color when placing a new car order; in principle a person could place a customized color order, too. Therefore, it is reasonable to expect that whoever purchases a new car is expressing an opinion about color preference. Or at least the reverse may be true: the colors that do not sell well communicate to the maker how to revise the number of cars in each color to produce in the future. The interesting point is that predominance of colors varies in each society; possibly within a single country differing by region, as well. What might contribute to this state of affairs?

So many cars in black or white, so few in other colors - what could it mean?

In the life cycle of cars there are the new car buyers who can exercise their desire for particular added features, choice of tire, color and so on. Later the person trades in the car to a dealer, or sells to family or others. The cycle of buying and selling continues until the car is too old or too unreliable (requiring too much care and repair) to attract a buyer, even at low price. Then it could end up in trade in ("we accept cars in trade, functioning or not") or donation to a charity that derives a few dollars in scrap or cannibalized for used parts.

With regard to colors on view in any particular parking lot, the demographic segment that shops there or works there is represented. If most vehicles there are 1-3 years old (new and new'ish), then the color probably was a deliberate factor in the buying decision because part of that transaction was to accept or reject the car present in the showroom or dealer lot, or shown in the database for delivery. And if the vehicles in a parking lot are a mix of new and used, then the choice of color originated upstream at the point of original buyer. Subsequent buyers of the used car will have found the color acceptable to their tastes or needs or requirements, thus indirectly expressing selectivity in color.

This photo comes from the north side of Grand Rapids, Michigan, where cars predominantly can be seen on the road or in parking lots in white or black. There are other colors, of course, and this picture is an extreme case of *no* other colors. But still the predominance of black or white is noticeable. Having spent 1995-2015 in middle Michigan, a rural and suburban town, where a wider range of dark colors and light colors was normal, this predominance of white (too easily shows the dust on country roads and the road grit on city streets; invisible in snow storms) and black (too somber and old-timey) stood out as a minor culture shock.

In the half-dozen years lived in rural Japan since 1984, it is white cars that predominated until around 2012 or so: as much as half or more of personal and fleet cars there came in white. Occasional visits to the UK presented a different mix. Red, white, or blue predominate; occasionally black or some other color (burgundy, silver, dark gray or green) is what buyers select. Thanks to online satellite views, it should be possible to zoom in and record screenshots of parking lots in big cities and small towns for a range of countries where personal automobiles are commonly owned and operated. Surely the mix will not be uniform. But what meaning or meanings might color preference signify? And supposing that clear patterns or at least trends seem to emerge, why could that be relevant or consequential when trying to understand the society and its members?

Back in the 1980s as a college student at the University of Michigan the fall football season brought a wide range of sports fans to the surrounding parking areas nearest to the stadium. The expensive seats (and parking locations) seemed to be filled with fancy cars in dark colors like navy blue and charcoal gray, among others. The rest of the parking spaces had a wider variety of colors and generally older cars, but perhaps there was a slight pattern in that colors were lighter overall (beige, light blue, brown, red). So a working hypothesis at that time was about SES (socio-economic status): managerial class presented themselves in more formal and expensive cars, relative to the others (probably middle-class and maybe alumni/college educated sports fans).

Why all the Japanese owners in Japan driving white cars? A working hypothesis for the 1980s-2010 could be related to the proverbial wisdom of the folk, "出る杭は打たれる" (deru kui wa utareru; variation, deru kugi wa utareru); the nail that sticks out will be pounded back down. In other words, the advice of the generations is not to draw attention to yourself, but instead opt for the standard, normal, unmarked presentation of self. These hypotheses are interesting speculations, but to return to the question: what could patterns of car color reveal about the people (and community) there?

The above photo illustrates the predominance of black or white cars (one neighbor had 4 or 5 white cars and a white truck recently) in the city of Grand Rapids (population 200,000). This city is the biggest on the west side of the state's lower peninsula and historically has welcomed immigrants and resettled refugees sponsored by the many active church communities in the area. The initial waves of immigrants were conservative Dutch rural people in the 1840s-1900. Even 6 or 7 generations later this part of the state is generally socially conservative, too. Perhaps the "black or white" expression of car color is consonant with that worldview and self-concepts or upbringing identities. Religiously affiliated precollege (and college) education is widely supported in the area and church attendance is relatively vigorous in spite of national trends of fewer participants. So as a working hypothesis as of 2020 perhaps there are ways to test (interview, observation and documenting) the following idea:

Suppose that drivers of black cars shun any other color because of a desire to present a serious (or at least someone to be taken seriously and be respected), mature, grown-up, or responsible-member-of-society value (a public-facing person). And by contrast, suppose that drivers of white cars wish to avoid conflict, avoid standing out, avoid attracting attention but instead cling to a private, undisclosed standpoint - like a blank sheet of paper that potentially can carry the Gettysburg Address, a love note, or a shopping list. White can stand for any number of meanings: pure, morally untainted or possibly superior, inoffensive to others, infinite potential to take.just about any form. All this supposition is wildly abstract and unmoored from individual lives and buying decisions. But nonetheless the predominance of white cars and black cars persists. It is not random chance, but the aggregate display of so many individual decisions that comprise a visible result.