Tuesday Twosome

June 20, 2006

1. Do you possess any family heirlooms, and if so, what two heirlooms do you value the most:

I've somehow ended up with Mom & Dad's china, which is nice, since we don't have any other china (I didn't register anywhere when I got married--nowhere...oh the trauma!).

I've also got 8-plus boxes of (mostly) paper to sort through. Some is valuable (carbons of letters my dad sent, photographs); some is crap (a genealogical map of all the counties in PA--most of my family is from WEST of the Mississippi River!).

And about 10 years ago my mom gave me "back" my salt-and-pepper shaker collection...which I'd never seen before in my life. They were all wrapped up in newspapers dated in the late 50s...years before I was born. I still have all of those, most of them still all wrapped up. And now I actually do, sort of, collect salt and pepper shakers.

2. Did you have a childhood hide-out, and if so, describe it:

For all intents and purposes, I never really needed one: I was a de facto only child from about age 8 onward. I mostly "hid out" in my room. Or wherever the TV was.

3. Describe your relationship with your immediate family and how it makes you feel:

My relationship with my family-of-origin: convoluted, complicated, rarely easy, competitive.

It makes me stressed to think about it, and that's probably why we all live at least 500 miles apart (those of my generation). We get along best when we aren't sharing the same air. I would kill for them...and there are many times when I've wanted to just kill them.

My family-of-choice: inward-focused, somewhat competitive, jokey, intense.

Usually our relationships make me feel loved and cared for. Sometimes tbey make me feel more than just a little claustrophobic.

4. Do you and/or your family do anything for the needy, and if so, explain:

We just got back from MS, rebuilding houses. We do other stuff in local urban rebuilding programs. Not as much as we could (or should--oh, that hated word!). We also give plenty to church, some of which goes to local ministries: homeless, Habitat for Humanity, Heifer Project, etc. Every Christmas for th last 7 years or so we've contributed at least one complete Christmas Child box for Samaritan's Purse.

Damn, I feel like I'm writing my c.v.

5. Did you have a close relationship(s) with any of your grandparents? Describe your relationship(s):

All of my grandparents were dead by the time I was 10 or so. I don't really remember either of my grandfathers--one died 17 years before I was born--and my grandmothers were in their 80s when I was born.

There are vague memories of Mom's mom because she had ice-cold hands all the time, and lovely long white hair she normally kept in a bun on her neck, except when the grandkids came: we were allowed to brush it out for her. She was in a nursing home all the time I remember her.

I remember being sick once as a child and Dad's mom took care of me (why? was this one the times Fun Sister was in the hospital? hmmm?) and let me lie on her couch and do nothing all day. That's the only 'normal' memory I really have of her: she hit the nursing home when I was 6 or 7 and failed rapidly after that.