I was thinking the other day as I worked in the kitchen (seems to be a good place to think) and I thought it would be fun to do a post about...me. I would wager there are things about me you didn't know. Some of you may know a few of these facts but I'd be curious to hear how many of the things below you DID know.
#1. Organ music for me is the equivalent of nails on chalkboards. I.do.not.like.it. It doesn't matter if it's on a pop record from the 60's or a well loved church hymn, from the very first note all I want to do is run screaming from the building. Mable, I did truly enjoy the accordion player video. I typed this post up well before that link arrived.
#2. I am not keen on Southern Gospel.
#3. I used to sing with a local Southern Gospel group. No, I didn't like Southern Gospel music, but I loved singing and the group of people I sang with were awesome. We travelled about several counties and sang just about everywhere we could. It was a load of fun.
#4. In my late 20's, I joined the local Jaycees group when I was manically volunteering for things left and right. I became chapter president within two years and was asked to fill a regional position right before I was hit by the drunk driver.
#5. I resigned the regional position three times and each time my resignation was refused. Then the same man called me to tell me I was 'fired'. I swear it was a power play. I simply laughed and told him as far as I was concerned I'd quit three months prior to him firing me and he'd been too foolish to realize it.
#6. When Amie and Sam were small a group of four other moms and myself formed an early morning 'Coffee Club'. We'd drop our children off at school and meet back at my house to have coffee, put on our makeup and laugh, chat, advise and whine for the next hour. Then we headed out to work, school, or home as the case might be. We met every school morning for a year. It was AWESOME.
#7. As a six-year-old, I met my great grandmother's aunt who was a number of years older than Big Mama. That makes her my great-great-great aunt. At the time I thought she was ancient. At 63, I still think she was ancient! She was the tiniest little woman I'd ever seen, and she wore a blue peignoir as her nightdress which seemed wildly impractical even to my six-year-old mind. It seemed especially so because I recall it was cold at Big Mama's despite the propane heater and I kept thinking surely this aunt must be cold!
Everyone called her Aunt Leeza, but I've discovered that her name was actually Eleazar. Yep, right from the Bible. I have several of her personal items which were given to me after she passed away because, according to Big Mama, Aunt Leeza was so 'taken' with me.
#8. Prior to either marriage I only went on one date with both men. My late ex-husband and I spent time together but only went on one formal date. We married six weeks after that first date. We were married for 14 years.
John and I had a 'date night at home' one night after work. I had a 2-month old and couldn't afford a sitter. After that first date, outside of work hours we were together pretty much 6 hours a day/7 days a week. There were always children with us. Between seeing him, full time work and caring for an infant, I was exhausted. We decided to combine households just so we could get some rest. And yeah. It was another six weeks courtship. We've been an official couple for 30 years and soon will have been married for 28 years.
What can I say? I make up my mind and I'm done.
#9. I've had more dates since I turned 60 than I had prior to marriage. Truth!
#10. I was in my 50's before I allowed myself to not eat foods I didn't like. Among the foods I.do.not.like (admittedly very few) are: baby corn (canned or frozen. YUK); any mushroom except baby portabellas which I love; fordhook lima beans. There may be more but that's all I can think of just at the moment.
#11. I wouldn't eat an apple for years because I hated getting that little seed pith caught in the back of my throat and I always got it caught in the back of my throat. And then I realized I was an adult and could use a knife to core an apple and get all of those seed piths OUT. So now I love apples.
#12. I find the color fuchsia jarring on anything except a flower and the rare woman who looks good in it.
#13. When I had the biggest box of crayons, the fuchsia crayon never got used. Nor did peach and that weird green that wasn't aqua and wasn't green. The rest were worn to nubs.
#14. Southern though I am, I do not think it's legal to call Jello/pudding and cool whip concoctions 'salads'. I think they are desserts.
#15. Lady though I am, I argued the point with another lady at a dinner who was as adamantly for Jello salad as I was against it. She started it. She asked why I hadn't gotten any of her salad when I fixed my plate. I told her how much I loved it, but I preferred it as a dessert. She began to argue the point and I didn't let it lie. We agreed in the end to disagree, but it got a bit fierce before we did. And yes, I had some AFTER dinner as my dessert, and ate it while she glared at me from across the table. Thank goodness we were friends!
#16. I wrote my first story when I was in third grade. I very nearly couldn't read it because I laughed so hard at my characters situations. I wrote many more stories thereafter but fortunately for my class was never required to read them aloud to them.
#17. I wrote a book in the mid 1990's. It was called "The Goddess Within". At the same time, I was writing my book here in Podunk, Georgia, Sarah ban Breathnach and Jennifer Loudon were writing their own books, both of which were published. Sarah ban Breathnach's Simple Abundance became a mega best seller. Jennifer Loudon's first book (Comfort Queen? I think that was the title) isn't even mentioned anywhere online but she began her own online website, with the same name, for which I supplied a few pieces way back in the early days of internet. Most of my pieces were pulled from the unpublished manuscript of my own book and polished up. Loudon was gracious and did me a great favor in accepting my work to stand beside her own.
#18. I have a deep seated fear of escalators. If it's the only way up or down, I'm going home. Period.
#19. My family always promoted the idea of our being descended from an Indian 'princess'. Number one, there were no princesses among the Cherokee (one side of the family's story) and the other side only vaguely said "Indian". Per census records for the mid-1700's they were mulatto and per studies from the University of South Carolina, might be a race known as the Lumbee which were NOT Indians, but no one has quite explained what they ARE. Others claim the Lumbee doesn't exist and never did. Another theory is that a lost tribe of Sephardic Jews might have settled in that area of the New Country and that was where the olive complexion and black hair came from. It's obviously some racial mix that hasn't yet been quite figured out but family surnames common amongst the Lumbee are rife in my family history on both maternal and paternal sides and all originate from North or South Carolina.
As far as I can tell my family mostly is British, Scottish and Irish with a bit of German tossed in for mixing things up well. And maybe a little more of who knows what. I call it Heinz 57 American Mutt mix.
Whatever my ethnicity, I have been told I look 'exotic'. I'm often asked if I've ever been told I look like Liza Minelli. I don't think I look anything at all like her. When asked most recently it was this week as I was getting my hair cut. I said, "I do hope you mean before her plastic surgeries, which made the stylist in the booth next to me snort loudly.
#20. I really love being a homebody. And a blogger. And a mom. This is the only 'career' I ever wanted.
12 comments:
Jell-O has a cookbook out that has a list of salad, since most contain veggies, you would be eating it as a veggie dessert... I had to laugh. I eat desserts first anyways, I can imagine what that conversation would be
Fuchsia is one of my favorite colors. When wearing it I have been told it's really "my" color. I think it looks great against my pale skin. Now, I can't bear orange "anything" and hate really pale colors like tan, beige etc. To each her own, right?
This was really interesting. I laughed out loud when you described your six-week courtships -- you make up your mind and stick with it. My husband and I met on a blind date and were engaged six weeks later. We said the same thing!
This was so fun! Thanks for sharing. Very interesting about your family heritage. Blessings, Shirley
Interesting post. (And thanks for saying you did not hate the accordion piece, because when I read the first line I thought, "Well, I sent it for John anyway." Ha! Ha!
I, too, despise escalators. And I am with you on the desserts issue. I like jello concoctions (usually) but not as the main meal. Too sweet.
Juls, I do sort of understand the vegetable based salads or even the simpler fruit ones (peaches in strawberry jello) with a dollop of cottage cheese on a lettuce leaf...But NOT those made with pudding and pie filling or with Jello and additional sugar!
Mable, Yes, you did say it was for John, and he loved it. I listened because it was interesting and wanted to let you know that. And yes, there is either a flight of stairs or an elevator somewhere in any building with an escalator and I usually find them.
Anne, I'd admire it on you, I'll just bet. I have seen women upon whom fuschia was a most excellent color and I'd almost like it myself then. But not for me.
Cindi, I've always been a bit ashamed that I made my mind up so quickly but I did...both times!
Shirley, so glad you enjoyed this!
Fun post, Terri, and an opportunity to match commonalities with others! I only dated two men and married both of them! College sweetheart and I wed at twenty and had two boys before he was killed in an auto accident four years later (sons were two years old, and nine months old.) A year later I had met and married my this great guy (engaged after two weeks!!) and we celebrate our 50th this year. Growing up I had four sisters and I carefully evaluated all of their dates/husbands so I think I had a clear idea of what I wanted in a mate (and God delivered!)
I loved this post. What a nice school year having coffee every morning! And I laughed out loud at you and John moving in together "just to get some rest"
I don't eat Jell-o for love or money but if I didi it would be as dessert! And actually I do think you look like Liza Minelli! (before the surgery of course ;)
Okay, so I've "known" you for well over 20 years now, and the only thing on your list that I knew, was #20. Lol.
Jello salads - many years ago the church ladies had a salad luncheon for our Christmas gathering. Each lady was asked to bring a salad. We had well over a dozen salads and with the exception of my taco pasta, ALL of them were Jello or whipped cream based. Of course, my bowl was scraped clean because I'm the only one who brought lunch, and the next year when it was suggested to do the the same sort of "meal", I voted NO. I do not begrudge any of the little elderly ladies their Jello/whipped cream "salads", but some of the ones my age could have whipped up something with a little protein in it.
Ancestry - my mom always told us she had a Cherokee grandmother way back in her lineage. She didn't know anything more than that. Once we had internet, I started researching and never found her, because she didn't exist. The dark skin, hair, and eyes came from Ireland - Black Irish to more specific. The term is commonly used to describe people of Irish origin who have dark features, black hair, a dark complexion and dark eyes. I look more like my dad, light skin and hair, blue eyes. He was of German/Russian descent, but my mom had all dark features.
Liza Minnelli - I've not met you in person, but from the few photos of you I've seen, I can agree that you resemble her. As a teen I was told I looked like Sally Struthers. I'd take Liza any day!
Tammy, Yes, that's exactly what I mean. There are so many good salads one might take to a dinner and then you show up and everyone has a sweet one on the table. Ugh.
I expect there's black Irish in us as well. However, the ancestors of which i speak all settled here way back but how far back and how to trace them is a mystery yet. It's both my dad's grandmother who certainly had the look of an Indian as did Grandmother and Daddy. All deep olive complicated and black hair. Finding her mother's history has proven to be more difficult.
On Mama's side, the same. Black hair, dark brown eyes, olive complexion but I see none of the high cheekbones. I've traced that segment of Mama's back to the mid 1700's and on every census they were listed as mulatto. This particular family line is so very fascinating anyway for more reasons than the mulatto designation.
I have to agree - jello/pudding and cool whip are NOT a salad, but a dessert.
Funny story I must share about the "Indian" issue. My mother-in-law has been really into genealogy for years and years, even a DAR member like 2 or 3 times over. For the 30 years I've been in the family, she's had a story about her great-grandmother being Cherokee but not being able to prove it due to an adoption back in the day when the original birth certificates were destroyed. Further, the adoptive parents died so she was adopted again. Anyway, the Cherokee ancestry could never be proved. My husband gave her a hard time for years, jokingly. They do have the dark hair, the dark eyes and some of the other Native American physical similarities but couldn't ever really prove it. Then came the DNA tests from Ancestry.com. My mother-in-law, of course, took a test. Guess what? Not a trace of Native American DNA. My husband gave her an even bigger hassle about it. LOL A few years back, my husband and I did the same DNA tests. His ancestry includes 1% Native American and 1% Jewish. LOL We thought that was hysterical. We still laugh about it to ourselves.
Just thought you'd enjoy that story. I loved this post! Always love getting to know you more.
Post a Comment