Down To The Raisins

By Jeremy Gulley

The papers I have to review seem endless sometimes. I have 23 students in one class, 19 in another, and the third has 16. Since each class writes at least three drafts of five papers, the stacks grow quickly. I like to give each one the attention it deserves, but sometimes it’s difficult, especially since I attend school and have my own papers to write.

I spoke to friend of mine this week and told him that, though I felt overwhelmed and had way too much to accomplish, my grading and writing were proceeding nicely and that I thought I’d be okay because I would soon be “down to the raisins”.

He gave me a blank stare, which I’ve become accustomed to, and asked what I meant by “down to the raisins.”

The phrase comes from a piece of our country’s history.

During the Civil War, I told him, Lincoln used to visit the telegraph office on a regular basis to read through the dispatches. When he finished, he would comment that he was finally “down to the raisins”.

The phrase went without comment for several months until the dispatch clerk got the nerve to inquire about the President’s meaning of the odd expression.

Lincoln obliged the clerk by relating the story of a little girl who was inclined to eat too much. One day she ate way too many raisins, more than were good for her, and then followed them with other treats, sweets and goodies.

Sure enough, she got sick.

Everything she had eaten came back up. After a while, the raisins began to come up, too. When the little girl saw the raisins, she turned to her mother and exclaimed, “Well, I shall be all better now, for I have gotten down to the raisins at last!”

Now I’m not equating grading papers with getting sick from overeating, but I, too often, bite off more than I can chew, and certainly more than I can swallow. Eventually, after I have overloaded myself with duties, tasks and other goodies, they have to come back up.

At times like these, I feel better when I get “down to the raisins”.

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Posted by admin on Mar 16 2011. Filed under Jeremy Gulley, Opinion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry