There was a time when Tádídíín, or corn pollen, was like gold. In our culture, we gather tádídíín from the corn tassel. My masaní would wake up before sun-rise to collect tádídíín from the corn field. My mother would wake up my sister and I to help her. She would give us a basket with a thin satin handkerchief. My masaní was a woman of few words. I remember her putting a sweater on like it was chilly. I always wondered why when it was about 75 degrees in mid-July. We would walk to the corn field with our scarves covering our baskets. As a 7th grader standing at about five foot six, my Masaní was probably about 5 feet tall. My mother showed us to gently tap the tassel on the top of the corn, and Tádídíín would fall into the basket. We would do this for what seemed like a hundred cornstalks.