The Friday Five

Late because it wasn't up Friday morning.

When you were a child...

1. what did you want to be when you grew up and why?

LOL. At which stage? Like every other little girl in 1960, I wanted to be a nurse. Then I wanted to be a vet, but it turned out (a) I was allergic to dogs, cats and horses, and (b) I found out I'd have to put them to sleep. Then I wanted to be an elementary-school teacher. Ironically, in an age when they are begging for teachers, people may find it hard to believe there was a glut of teachers on the market back then. My guidance counselor talked me out of it. I'd also wanted to be a reporter but I realized I was too shy to do interviews.

2. who was your favorite person to do things with (excluding your parents)?

That's a hard one because all of my friends as I got older generally had to go right home from school. Either their moms worked or they had chores to do. So most of the time the people I did things with were my parents.

3. did you love school or did you hate it? Why? Did that change as you got older?

I always loved school except for math and gym. When we hit algebra I was lost, although I enjoyed the heck out of plane geometry. I didn't like biology much due to dissecting things and raising fruit flies, and the teacher was terrible. She acted like she was teaching college-age students and most of us were over our heads half the time. My favorite science class was "Earth science" (hi, Mr. Plummer!). We studied geology, made contour maps and sundials, and studied my two favorite science subjects, anthropology and archeology. I still have several of my favorite anthropology books.

Gym was just painful. I'm not coordinated much at games and wasn't able to climb ropes or turn over on the rings. I did love jumping jacks and other exercises.

I loved English and history! Even "homemaking" (as we called it then) wasn't bad as long as we weren't sewing or making (ugh) casseroles.

4. Was your family close? What were your favorite family traditions?

We're Italian, of course we were. On holidays (except Thanksgiving) we would all get together at Papa's house and eat a big meal around the huge table (in the cellar) covered in oilcloth, lasagna and spaghetti and later cookies and coffee. Everyone would get together and play a few games of Pokeno, then the men (and some female cousins) would play poker and the women would talk and we kids would play.

On Thanksgiving the three of us went to a restaurant. This was a big deal--we didn't go out and eat much at all except grab a quick hot dog or hamburger on a summer day. This was a nice restaurant, too, with a hat check girl and a cigarette girl and a real piano player. My Dad's paisano owned it.

There was one tradition I always enjoyed; when my Papa was still living, Dad would go over every Saturday morning to visit him and especially when it was warm I went with him. We stopped at the chicken market to get a fresh chicken and then we went to the house. If it were any season but winter Papa would probably be working in his tomato garden. Papa kept his own garden and one for his daughter next door and his son across the street. When we had talked with him, we would go inside and talk with Aunty Margaret, who it seemed was always cooking, and her husband John (his nickname was "Johnnie Myers" after a famous baseball player). Then we would go next door to visit my Aunty Lisa and her husband Ralph (he sold cars and we got all our cars from him) and my cousin Kathy, and sometimes across the street to see Uncle Brandy and his wife Alice. (Actually, her name was Liberata but everyone called her Alice.)

5. did you think that being an adult would be cool?

Nope. I wanted to stay a kid as long as I could. Most of my relatives and friends' parents had blue-collar jobs. They mostly worked in factories. My godfather was our oil man. I saw Dad and Padine Angelo and all the men in the family come home tired and grimy. Our moms worked hard keeping the house clean and doing the shopping and washing. Being grown up meant going to a job you hated and having to do things like housework and cooking that took away time from reading and drawing and writing stories. You had to pay taxes and (ugh) cut the lawn. Who wanted to be grown up? As a kid all you had to worry about was school.

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 8:08:00 AM

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