The Spool. Clemmons Family Farm. 2016.
Channel: CLEMMONS FAMILY FARM IN VERMONT
Date: 09/07/2016

It was 1935 in a predominately German Jewish neighborhood of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Jack was waiting outside of the principal's office once again at Roosevelt Junior High School. Jack and his brother were the only African American children in the entire school.  Mrs. Lewis, the school nurse (also African American), was walking past and stopped to ask Jack why he was waiting for the principal. He told her he was in trouble for fiddling with the things in his pockets,  Mrs. Lewis told him to empty his pockets. Jack placed a collection of objects on a chair: a large iron nut, a wooden thread spool, clock works, a magnifying glass, marbles, a magnet from an old automobile speedometer, a small crystal embedded in lead. The only object Mrs. Lewis picked up was the wooden thread spool, which she held in front of Jack's nose. "What is this for?" The question shattered Jack. With tears in his eyes, he held the spool up to one eye and explained: "I see with it." Clemmons Family Farm. 2016.  Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs CC BY-NC-ND

Our thanks to Tom Graybael, for filming this video, and to VCAM in Vermont who graciously loaned the filming equipment.