Friday Five

This week's:

1. How far back can you trace your family tree?

Well, my father's father and mother came from an area of Italy called Quarchina. I don't know the names of my great-greats from that side of the family. In Italy, people are not "hardheaded" or stubborn, they are "Calabrese," because apparently people from Calabria are the most stubborn people on earth. After years of dealing with my dad, my mom used to claim that "the Quarchinese" were just as bullheaded as the Calabrese. :-) She also said this was something I inherited from my father. LOL.

My mother's parents came from Ischia, which is an island off the coast of Naples. I don't know their parents' names, either, but I do know they were both the children of tenant farmers.

2. What is the most interesting (or strange) thing you've heard about one of your relatives?

My mother's father's mother was killed by a falling rock in an earthquake after Vesuvius threw one of its volcano temper-tantrums. She was protecting her baby, my grandfather's little sister, and a rock struck her on the chest. She survived for about a year but I guess had internal injuries and finally died. This was bad news for my grandfather since not only did he lose his mom, but when his father remarried he got the stepmother from Hell.

3. How do you feel about legacy names like John Henry Smith IV or naming children after other relatives?

Fine with me as long as it is not a name that will allow other children to taunt the particularly named child. However, James is a "II" not a "junior" because his dad had a brother who was a junior who committed suicide.

4. Would you consider yourself and/or your family to be traditional?

Oh, yeah. Very Italian traditional. We ate Italian food and my parents spoke Italian to other members of the family, although I never learned it. Some of my cousins did. My dad was so puzzled when he had his basic training in Georgia during World War II and talked to people in the area who were of Italian descent. They ate Southern food and could not talk Italian. He thought all people who had parents from the old country ate the traditional foods and spoke the language.

5. What is one tradition you have passed on to your children and/or plan to pass on to them?

Have no children to pass on traditions to. I don't think I can teach the dog to bake wine biscuits. She'd just eat the dough. :-)

Last week's:

1. Would you rather have a fun job that doesn't pay well or a boring job that does?

Depends on if the "fun" job gives you a living wage. I've no desire to be rich. I just want the bills paid and be able to buy books and to go on vacation once in a while.

2. Would you sacrifice your morals for a job?

No.

3. Would you ever take a job that requires you to be in costume?

Again, what kind of costume? Yogi Bear I don't want to be. However, being a docent at a historical site might be cool.

4. What is your fantasy job?

Research librarian at the National Archives or the Smithsonian. Imagine working with all those cool historical documents and artifacts. ::drool:: Of course that would mean I'd have to live in Washington  D.C. Darn. I guess I need to find a fantasy job in New Hampshire...

5. Would you like fries with that?

I'd prefer a baked potato with some butter, please.

Labels: meme

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