Patrick's Place

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Saturday Six

1. What is the first movie you remember watching in a theater?

My sister Jean and Mom took me to see Oliver! in the theaters; I was a little over 5. I didn't make it past the scene where Mr. Bumble yells at Oliver when he asks for more food. They had to carry me out screaming.

2. Was the first phone you ever used a rotary or push-button style phone?

I was born in 1963, and since I didn't grow up in Pennsylvania in either one of the towns that product-tested touch-tone phones...yeah. Ironically, they debuted on my husband's birthday and he was geographically nearer them than I was. I'm not even sure where the first touch-tone phone I used was. My sister Ellen might have had one in the 70s...? Man, we had so much fun as kids messing with the rotary phones because they had all kinds of exploitable features, like being able to call yourself and have the phone ring!!

3. Was the first car you owned new or used?

The first one that had my name on the title was used, a brown Chevy Monza. What a nasty car that was; we bought it from a teenager when Beast's Pinto gave up the ghost.

4. When did you first think you knew for certain what you wanted to do when you grew up?

In all seriousness, I went three years into college trying to answer that question. My junior year they had a job-shadowing program and I was able to shadow someone from the nearby public library. One look at their backroom and the wonders of computerized cataloging and I was totally hooked! I'd already worked as a page in my library at home while I was in high school, and my sister was an academic librarian, so libraries were on the horizon anyway. The technical service side was pretty mind-blowing for me though.

5. How old were you the first time you set foot on an airplane?

I remember flying to Milwaukee as a family to see my sister; I remember my brother being really excited about it, and he didn't have the long "hippie" hair yet, so I must've been younger than 6. It was before Ellen and Dean got married, which occurred in 1970, so...5ish? That was a big year, apparently. ;-)

6. What’s the first book that you read and really enjoyed?

Ha ha ha ha ha ... I've been reading since I was about 4. I can tell you the name of the book I was reading/being read to when the light went on, but once I started reading, I didn't stop, which means I probably read well over 300 books a year as a child. One book I remember clearly and lovingly from before I could read myself was having Dad read The Little House to me; I was absolutely enchanted by that story (I still love it). And my first foray into the stories in another little house in Wisconsin on the shores of Lake Pepin was life-changing, but I don't think that was the first book I read alone.