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When my mother was in kindergarten...
Apr. 8th, 2008 02:28 pmThe teacher asked her when her birthday was.
My mother answered: "April April" (Her birthday was April Eighth-- the words kinda sound the same).
When she was a little older (Third grade, maybe?), the teacher asked the class what the first sign of spring was. While other kids answered: "Robins," or "Flowers," my mother answered "Mud."
She was, if I recall correctly, the only girl in her class in the 1950s attending the Bronx High School of Science, one of the earrly, specialty "magnet" schools (The school in the TV show Fame was the Bronx High School of the Performing Arts -- same system, different specialty).
When she was a teenager, she dreamt of becoming a test pilot.
When she was in her junior year of college, she got an offer from Eastern Airlines to be a stewardess, and settled for that, instead, leaving school.]
Several years later, she attended a party hosted by one of the Eastern pilots, with her boyfriend, and there, she met my father, a mutual friend of the host.
Their casual friendship turned into a courtship (if I recall correctly) when they realized a) that they both loved Gilbert and Sullivan, and b) could both outdrink everyone else in the bar.
It was my mother who proposed marriage to my father, on the grounds that if they were married they could move out of their own apartments, and buy a house together where they would be allowed to own cats.
Back in the day, airline stewardesses were not allowed to be married, so mother was forced to quit her job with Eastern.
When I failed completely at my first attempt at college, I started taking college classes part time at a community college, to get my GPA back up, so I could transfer, and Mother decided that she'd like to take a journalism course that was being offered, so she could use the knowledge in her volunteer work. Even though she joined the class six weeks late, she caught up on all the work, got an 'A,' and was offered an internship by her proffessor. She then rematriculated in college, starting with the junior year she'd interupted years before, and earned her degree in journalism from the State University of New York at New Paltz. She worked as a reporter for several local newspapers from 1986 until 1990, when her breast breast cancer made it too difficult for her to work. She said it was the most fun she'd ever had.
Happy Birthday, Mom...
My mother answered: "April April" (Her birthday was April Eighth-- the words kinda sound the same).
When she was a little older (Third grade, maybe?), the teacher asked the class what the first sign of spring was. While other kids answered: "Robins," or "Flowers," my mother answered "Mud."
She was, if I recall correctly, the only girl in her class in the 1950s attending the Bronx High School of Science, one of the earrly, specialty "magnet" schools (The school in the TV show Fame was the Bronx High School of the Performing Arts -- same system, different specialty).
When she was a teenager, she dreamt of becoming a test pilot.
When she was in her junior year of college, she got an offer from Eastern Airlines to be a stewardess, and settled for that, instead, leaving school.]
Several years later, she attended a party hosted by one of the Eastern pilots, with her boyfriend, and there, she met my father, a mutual friend of the host.
Their casual friendship turned into a courtship (if I recall correctly) when they realized a) that they both loved Gilbert and Sullivan, and b) could both outdrink everyone else in the bar.
It was my mother who proposed marriage to my father, on the grounds that if they were married they could move out of their own apartments, and buy a house together where they would be allowed to own cats.
Back in the day, airline stewardesses were not allowed to be married, so mother was forced to quit her job with Eastern.
When I failed completely at my first attempt at college, I started taking college classes part time at a community college, to get my GPA back up, so I could transfer, and Mother decided that she'd like to take a journalism course that was being offered, so she could use the knowledge in her volunteer work. Even though she joined the class six weeks late, she caught up on all the work, got an 'A,' and was offered an internship by her proffessor. She then rematriculated in college, starting with the junior year she'd interupted years before, and earned her degree in journalism from the State University of New York at New Paltz. She worked as a reporter for several local newspapers from 1986 until 1990, when her breast breast cancer made it too difficult for her to work. She said it was the most fun she'd ever had.
Happy Birthday, Mom...
