Tagged Again!

So instead of punching me in the eye, my dear friend Stef tagged me with another meme (which, of course, means she does not get to hit me). This one is hard, seven things I haven't previously disclosed on the blog (and which I actually would want to disclose). I'll see what I can come up with:

1. My grandfather (my father's father) was a professional photographer.

He first worked for the Portland Museum of Art, and during WWII he worked at the Portland Shipyard, for Kaiser Motors (which was sold to AMC in 1970). Kaiser transferred him to Michigan after the war and he retired from AMC in 1974 (??) Some, or all, of their family vacations were centered around taking vehicles out to places like the Grand Tetons or Badlands to take advertising pictures. Thus my grandmother, father and his sisters appear in some Kaiser Motor print advertising. I'm very proud of this legacy.

2. My grandfather's reason for working at the Portland shipyard was to gain some extra points and avoid being drafted. My father went to college (at the University Michigan), got married, and had me and thus avoided being drafted for Vietnam. I'm very pleased to have helped. (My mother's father, on the other hand, was a doctor in the armed services during WWII. I'm not sure whether he served overseas, but I think he did. He died of ALS when my mom was 5.)

3. I majored in history at the University of Michigan. My two favorite classes were a class on the Vietnam war and a class called "The Social Experience of 20th Century American Wars". Because it is a tiny little world, one of Len's sisters took a version of the second class at Eastern Michigan University from the same instructor, Tom Collier, and because he was such a great teacher, she loved that class, too. I still have the same fascination about the experience of war -- not the guns or troop movements, but the experience of those fighting, those left behind, and those of us watching from the sidelines.

4. My parents divorced when I was 8. My brother Ken (who is a little older) and I were raised by my dad (my younger brother and sister went with my mother -- no, I won't say why -- who then had my youngest sister Sarah). He raised me on lesbian-feminist music, e.g. Cris Williamson, Meg Christian and Margie Adam, as well as Holly Near and Joan Baez. I didn't lack for the influence of women in my life, but I never learned to wear lipstick.

5. I lived with my mother for a couple of years, while she was attending seminary and acting as part time pastor of the White Pigeon United Methodist Church. It was. Interesting. My mom was the first female pastor, and there were people who quit because of it. I was the church secretary for a time. I could say a great deal about that time, but I'll stick with this: one of the lessons I learned was that even when people are individually very kind, as a group, they may still be very cruel. That church had many kind, loving people but it was not a nice place to be.

6. I have to borrow one of Stef's: After high school, I spent a year in France (kind of a miserable experience, to be honest). I came back fairly fluent in French and considered majoring in the language. Now, while I can understand some written French, I can't speak a lick of it or understand it when it is spoken.

7. And. I worked at Kinko's while in college. This was great training for office work because to this day, I am not afraid of copiers. Jammed? Out of paper? No problem! The store where I worked was across from the law school. My friend Stef notwithstanding, they were some of the dumbest people I've ever met.

There you go. 7 things you may or may not have known about me. I'm not going to tag anyone specifically. I think there are some people who read this blog regularly who I don't know (either through comments or in person) -- if you would like to try this, please tell me, so I can get to know you!