Once Upon a Time… (The Origin of MindBites)
Posted by Keith · April 8th, 2008 It all began in the dreary everglade region of a now forgotten village, at some obscure date in the early 17th century. It may have been Guy Fawkes Day. 
Guido, an Italian immigrant olive picker with an increasingly severe case of head lice, was enjoying a holiday afternoon perusing the local fish market. In this particular region, at that particular time of day, the moorage dock was especially balmy, and Guido’s infestation was festering something awful. He brooded in agitation. By chance, a Turkish date peddler had set up shop nearby, where the overwrought Westerner was clawing at his scalp. The merchant, a pompous walrus of a man, watched the foreigner with ever-growing delight, his sadistic glee for an outsider in agony for all to see.
Throwing tact to the wind, the rotund glutton let ring a bellow of a laugh that shook hard the precarious structure of the wooden jetty. All the market turned to see our poor Guido lampooned by the guffawing elephant. But sweet kindness lent her blessing upon the scene, and a usually demure milk maid, grocery shopping at the behest of her ailing grandmother, found a buried confidence and marched straight up to the villainous hedonist, and with poise and grace, those lauded gifts so absent from peasant manner, grabbed the behemoth’s bulbous nose between two fingers, and twisted sharply till the rogue screamed in agony.
By now, all market activity had ceased and, in the new light of such events, threatened never to begin again. All eyes focused sharply on the scene; the elfin peasant girl defeating the Goliath merchant. Guido’s thoughts transfixed upon the milk maid, his tender scalp gone numb in admiration.
Releasing her squealing victim, the milk maid shook a deft finger at the merchant, who by now was rolling around in fits upon the planks, and turned to look at the poor soul who’s life she’d just entered. Attraction flared up in both hearts and the two strolled off hand-in-hand through the awed audience who parted subserviently as the new lovers passed unobstructed through the crowd. As they moved toward the diving sun, Guido felt the itching in his scalp subside to be replaced by a warm, fuzzy feeling…a feeling called love.
The seasons died and were reborn as Guido and his peasant bride, Gresselda, joined together their once isolated lives. She versed him in the ancient ritual of milk gathering and he shared all his earthly knowledge regarding olives. The two spent many evenings, engulfed in the fire light from their cottage hearth, wrapped in each other’s arms, discussing knowledge and their love of their fledgling education. Gresselda would always end the evening with a simple kiss upon Guido’s crown, soothing, what she had dubbed, his “mind-bitten” head, in reverence of the lice infested day that brought the two together.
The term was attached to their evening lessons, which continued and was passed along to their children and their children’s children, until the fateful day when one of the descendants decided to share the gift of knowledge with the world. And to this day, whenever we at MindBites encounter either a petulant date merchant or a disease infested Italian, we remember the momentous day when a milk maid and an olive picker fell in love.
And that children, is the story of Guy Fawkes Day. Oh, wait….
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| Posted in Life and Learning, MindBites News and Notes |
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