06.16.07
Posted in Life, the Universe and All that Jazz at 11:44 pm by Meg
A post over on Gookins reminded me of a story from when Boy was 2 years old. I started to add it to their comments and then decided to post it here because of it’s length.
We were living in Monterey, California - a city that is full of little parks and had a ton of activities for kids. One of those parks was about a block from our house and rarely a day went by that we didn’t head over there. The park was often full of other little kids and this day was no different (though I think it was just Boy and another little boy this time).
We had met this boy before because his mom and I were both friends with another mom and her son, but at this point, only once or twice. But this day, he was at the park with his grandmother, who I recognized but had never said more than ‘Hi’ to.
The two boys had been play and having fun, but were now sitting side by side on the bottom step of the climbing/sliding structure.
Boy looks at the other child, and then himself. Again and again. Then out of his mouth comes….
“Mom! Look! We’re different!”
I just about died, but before I had a chance to try to say anything or redirect the comment….
“Look! My shirt is completely red, and his only has red stripes on the sleeves!”
Yep, the other child was a different ethnicity and had skin that was a different shade than Boy’s. But Boy didn’t register on it. Just like Don said in his post.
Permalink
06.14.07
Posted in Life, the Universe and All that Jazz at 8:54 pm by Meg
He was a character. He had his problems and flaws (like us all), but the one thing he taught us (his kids) was acceptance of people’s diversity. It’s something that I hope I’m passing on to my kids.
Let me tell you a story (or 2) that will show you what I grew up with.
Dad was a full professor at SUNY Binghamton from 1970 until he retired in the 90s. He also fiddled and repaired anything that came his way. In fact, he had quite a side business of buying broken ‘whatever’ from the local stores and then fixing and selling (usually at a profit). All without the convenience of Ebay!
What did he fix and sell? Well, it depended on what was the hot item. Some of the things I remember are: 10 speed bikes, 35 mm cameras, CB radios, stereo systems, and then in the early 80s, he got into computers. I’m still using one of the cpus that he worked on right before he died in 2001. (though I’ve updated it a bit.)
Anyway, what this all meant is that when Dad had someone over you never knew what to expect. It could be someone from the university - a colleague, a grad student (possible foreign), or a current student; it could be someone to whom he was selling (or fixing) something - in which case it could be anyone; or it could be someone from the neighborhood - while we lived in a community with a strong IBM presence as while as the university, we had chosen to live where we could keep our horses, cows, sheep…… which was where all the old hillbilly families were.
To quote my brother (in about the only conversation we have ever had as adults) ‘you could never tell who the visitors were, but they were treated to the same amount of courtesy and respect.’ We never saw our parents treating these visitors as anything but honored guests and they all received the same sort of treatment.
His behavior impacted more than just us. After Mom died, Dad remarried. Step-mom was an elementary/junior high music teacher. Her classes would include some sort of performance for parents (you remember that sort of thing) and while they performed, Dad would rove about with a camera taking pictures.
Well, of all the people that came to Dad’s funeral, the one that really struck me was the janitor at Step-mom’s old school (she’d since retired.) He had come to appreciate and respect Dad, enough to come out for the visiting hours and then to find and talk to me. It turns out that while the teachers at the school regularly snubbed him and treated him lowly, Dad had spoken to him as an equal. The janitor was flattered that the ‘highly educated’ professor (which he assumed the teachers would have respected) considered his work important. That was just the way he was.
I can only hope that I’m modeling similar behavior for my kids. The diversity of the homeschool population certainly gives them plenty of opportunities to interact with people from all backgrounds. We regularly get together with homeschoolers that have different views and backgrounds. The kids get chances to see that different views, while they aren’t ours, do have value.
Hopefully it’ll stick.
Permalink
06.12.07
Posted in Life, the Universe and All that Jazz at 8:37 am by Meg
Well, Hubby and Boy got home about midnight Sunday night. They had had a good weekend (if you count 3 days of banging sticks together fun!) and a relatively safe drive.
This had been a baaad year for us with driving. Starting with a semi pushing me off the road last August, then the blown tires in January, and now Hubby had a thrown up rock crack his windshield. As many miles that we put on the cars, I suppose it could be worst, but we’ve never had this kind of record.
Anyway, the big news from the weekend is that both Hubby and Boy received promotions. They both do a couple of different kinds of martial arts, but this weekend was focused on Modern Arnis, a Filipino stick fighting style. Hubby’s old friend in Buffalo runs the World Modern Arnis Alliance.
Hubby is now a level 5 black belt (it goes to about 10) which gives him the right to the title ‘Master’ (though this style doesn’t use that title). Boy was suppose to test for a brown belt, but they were short one for the black belt test (odd numbers don’t make pairings work well), so they put him in that group. And he was promoted all the way to black!!
My son, the Black Belt. Pretty darn neat.
Permalink
06.10.07
Posted in Meme at 8:01 pm by Meg
I found this over on Carrie’s blog and while I have another meme sitting in my draft box, I’m going to do this one first.
The game is SCATTERGORIES…it’s harder than it looks! Here are the rules: Use the 1st letter of your name to answer each of the following. They MUST be real places, names, things…NOTHING made up! If you can’t think of anything, skip it. Try to use different answers if the person before you had the same 1st initial. You CAN’T use your name for the boy/girl name question.
Your Name: Meg
1. Famous Singer/Band: Monkeys
2. 4 letter word: More
3. Street: Margaret Street (there actually is one in this town)
4. Color: Magenta
5. Gifts/Presents: Marbles
6. Vehicle: Mercedes
7. Things in a Souvenir Shop: Mementos
8. Boy Name: Mark
9. Girl Name: Mary
10. Movie Title: Mad City
11. Drink: Mint Julep
12. Occupation: Miner
13. Celebrity: Matthew McConaughey (Do I get extra credit for both names?)
14. Magazine: Mademoiselle (It’s now Glamour)
15. U.S. City: Minneapolis
16. Pro Sports Teams: Mets
18. Reason for Being Late for Work: Motor died
19. Something You Throw Away: Messed up work
20. Things You Shout: Make it go away!
21. Cartoon Character: Mickey Mouse
If you decide to do it, let me know!
Permalink
06.09.07
Posted in Life, the Universe and All that Jazz at 11:34 pm by Meg
Hubby and Boy are off to Buffalo for a martial arts seminar. An old friend of Hubby’s from high school runs it.
Now Hubby and I have never been the type to call every day when one of us is traveling, but we usually keep in pretty close email contact. Now, I know his access to the internet on this trip is touch and go, but I’m finding myself checking my email a couple times an hour tonight as I look to see if he’s found time and the opportunity to send me a note.
Waaaay to obsessive. I need to just turn this machine off. They should be home late tomorrow night.
Permalink
Posted in Life, the Universe and All that Jazz at 1:03 am by Meg
Has it really been more than a week since I’ve posted something? I guess it’s been a little crazy around here. Anyway, here’s a few boring highlights from the last week. I have been avoiding my computer to work on leather. This
will be a guitar strap for Hubby’s uncle when I done. He plays in a country/western/soft rock band up in Rochester and requested it.
Boy took the SAT I for the first time on Saturday morning. I hope he did well enough that he won’t have to take it again. A couple of the schools that he is interested in want SAT II tests, and so, next fall he’ll need to knock those out. So keep your fingers crossed for him. He gets the SAT results after June 21 and the two AP test results the first week on July.
Sunday, Tochter went through the graduation ceremony for the local high school she was attending. She got a little bit of a kick out of it because she still has 2 years of school left back in Germany.
Monday, we let her hold a going away party. About 35 kids showed up and some stayed for more than 7 hours! She definitely made some good friends. I figured that I’d be feeding them and purchased enough hamburger to make 2 burgers for each of them. We went through one pack of 24. I’m having no problems storing the extra beef, but anyone want some buns? They did eat just about everything else.
Tuesday, She left.
Wednesday, I did the leather workshop for the 4H kids. And Hubby and Boy left for Buffalo and a weekend martial arts seminar up there. The leather workshop was a big success. The beginner section was full and I had 5 kids in the intermediate session. Including 6 repeats from last year! The county agent said that it was the largest workshop of any that they are running.
Thursday, one of the local homeschooling groups held a used book sale and some people from our group put some stuff out. I didn’t sell much, but I didn’t expect to. If anyone had been looking for the middle-school stuff I had out, they would have gobbled it up. It was fun hanging out with friends though.
Today, Girl and I spent the afternoon in Indy. Fun, though she went pouty at the end and kind of ruined it for me. We hit the Tandy store to return unused projects (bought more than we returned though) and then ran into Micheal’s to pick up beads for a friend. After a quick meal we hit Target for a new bathingsuit for Girl and then hung out in Barnes and Nobles for a couple of hours.
And that’s the week in a nutshell.
Permalink
Next entries »
