posted on August 5, 2001 08:54:10 AM new
I wonder how much some of our disagreements are fueled by our backgrounds, particularly where we have lived. I was born in New York, lived briefly in St. Louis , then spent my childhood in Georgia. After I graduated from high school, I moved to the Washington,D.C. area where I've lived since 1966. My husband was born in California and grew up in Kansas and Alabama.
posted on August 5, 2001 09:05:33 AM new
Born in Queens, NY
Grew up in upstate NY
14 years in San Francisco
9 years in FL
A year in Toledo, OH
3 years in Hoboken, NJ
About 3 years in WA state
posted on August 5, 2001 09:27:50 AM new
I lived in:
Oklahoma, Colorado, California, Kansas, back to Okahoma, back to Kansas, Ohio, Minnesota, Michigan, and back to Ohio.
There are two sides to moving so much. On the negative can be the lack or, preceived lack, of roots and belonging to any one place. On the positive side, it gives you insight and, hopefully, appreciation for the differences that exists. And, when you think about it some of those differences, they aren't so great. We're more alike than we realize. Maybe it's because of the ease of communication/commerce that has blended us. Walk into any airport, shopping mall, or movie theather, for example, and they are all alike no matter what city you're in.
posted on August 5, 2001 09:34:26 AM new
Various towns in Montana, a year and a half in the sandhills of Nebraska and then Washington state. I will be here forever, the hubby hates to move.
posted on August 5, 2001 09:42:57 AM new
crankyoldhag, my husband doesn't like to move either. In addition to the places I mentioned , he's lived in France, Germany, and Turkey -all as an Air Force brat. He also went to Korea and Vietnam for a year. But we love to travel. It's too bad, as margot mentioned, that so many places have begun to look alike.
[ edited by saabsister on Aug 5, 2001 09:45 AM ]
posted on August 5, 2001 09:56:19 AM new
Hi saabsister & all ^^^^
how much some of our disagreements are fueled by our backgrounds, particularly where we have lived My opinion is it has less to do with backgrounds, and more to do with our own personal experiences.
5 years plus 18 full summers on a farm in Northern Indiana.
50 years in big cities: Santa Monica, CA., Huntington Beach, CA., San Jose, CA.
2 years (retired) in north-central AR. Small town USA.
posted on August 5, 2001 10:09:17 AM new
Hi, Linda_K. It's also dependent on the times in which we grew up. I lived in the South of the 50s and 60s - a pretty volatile era. I'm sure much has changed particularly among younger people. Had my parents been native Southerners, my background would have been different. We travelled a lot between New York and Georgia so the contrasts were strong as a child.
posted on August 5, 2001 10:29:22 AM new
saabsister - Agreed. Especially with the It's also dependent on the times in which we grew up.
With your family traveling between two such varied states when you were young, I can now better understand where you're coming from.
Trying to make myself a little clearer.....I guess what I was saying is that I feel it's the 'sum' of our total experience in life, that influences how we judge (see) things. Which is, IMO, probably why we (collectively) often do see things differently.
posted on August 5, 2001 11:41:32 AM new
Jumpinjack, which did you prefer - the transiency of the Witness Protection Program and the cardboard box, the transcendentalism of the monastery,or the permanence of cell block C?
posted on August 5, 2001 12:34:49 PM new
I grew up in a very very small MS town 100 miles from Jackson and 150 miles from Memphis.
I have lived in Jackson metro area for 17 years.
Never actually "lived" anywhere else but when I was a kid, I was a "pipeline kid" so every summer was spent somewhere different. Usually always in what the noth would consider "the south"...TN, GA, FL, TX, AL, etc. Also Montana.
Oddly though, every place that I spent the summer, usually in a "nicer" mobile home parks, we would drive for days. Then pull in and feel "home" again because almost every tag in the place read "Webster/Attala/Montgomery County MS". We just took "home" with us wherever we went...."houses" and all for 3 months then all the wives and kids came back to start the school year. None of us knew eachother at "home" but we all lived within a 60 mile radius.
I admit that I am all "warm and fuzzy" where others don't feel the same.
T
Also I was born in 1965. Schools intergrated in 1967 or 68 in my town. According to my mom who was still in school then (while the "study hall period was often "babysitting" me on the playground), not one eventful thing happened there. Everyone just went to school, there were new faces in the class, they studied, they went home...and that was it. I just remember swinging.
[ edited by jt on Aug 5, 2001 12:41 PM ]
posted on August 5, 2001 12:41:05 PM new
Natchez, Mississippi
Midland, Texas
Morgan City, Louisiana
New Orleans, Louisiana
Bogota, Colombia
Punta Gordo, Venezuela
Puerto La Cruz, Venezuela
Caracas, Venezuela
Independence, Kansas
Houston, Texas
Issaquah, Washington
Sunnyside, Washington
Seattle, Washington
Houston, Texas
Anchorage, Alaska
Biloxi, Mississippi.
Shortest stay was in Natchez (I was 6 months old when we moved) longest stay was Anchorage (13 years)
posted on August 5, 2001 01:07:32 PM new
This is still bothering me. how much some of our disagreements are fueled by our backgrounds. Not sure why though.
What I've been thinking about is my background. One of the strongest things that comes to my mind is my parents. They both served during WWII. After the war was over, and from my birth until the day they died, I can forever remember them calling the Japanese people...Japs. Very negative comments were *constantly* being made about 'those Japs'. When making purchases (years later) they were enraged when the US started importing Japanese made items. They wouldn't buy a thing made in Japan. (trying here to explain their total hatred of the Japanese people).
So, my point is.....that was my background. But what are my feelings about the Japanese? After meeting many, getting to know them personally, being around them in different circumstances (living in the same neighborhood, etc.) I think they are a very gracious race/culture of people. I admire many of the qualities they practice and value, and have a great respect for them. So, *my childhood* (background) experiences did not influence *my experience* with that race.
posted on August 5, 2001 01:18:49 PM new
Remember the oil and gas boom? My uncle was (and still is) one of the head honchos for a pipeline construction company. He hired most of his crews from his home area. They went in to states on contract construction projects then moved from town to town across the US building the pipelines. My dad was first a dozer operator and later a gas co. inspector. Everyone had a "real house" and usually also a large mobile home and a truck to pull it. The men were gone 9 months out of the year so for the 3 months of no school the families went there to this "already established Southen town" which was wherever.
My dad also spent a year in South America from the mountains to the Amazon, two years in Africa, and a year in the Middle East. If you saw maybe last year on the news the Kuwait pipeline where the pirates keep rupturing it to steal gas and causing expolsions...he built that one.
The proper term should actually be "pipeline brat". I am 1/2 pipeline brat and 1/2 postal service brat.
I am wondering why all the rest of you moved around so much???
T
Like you, I found those contrasts between New York and Mississippi absolutely awesome.
It's given James and I over a year's worth of conversation. LOL Can I say that here James? I don't want to give you a bad reputation for smoozing with the white trash or anything.
[ edited by jt on Aug 5, 2001 01:24 PM ]
posted on August 5, 2001 01:25:58 PM new
I was an airforce brat, and when I turned 17, went in the army.
Born in Florida
Oklahoma
New York
Ohio
Canada (Alberta)
Kansas
Michigan
Texas
Germany
West Virginia
and back to Florida
[ edited by Microbes on Aug 5, 2001 01:27 PM ]
posted on August 5, 2001 01:29:44 PM new
Oh...interesting, Terri. My dad was a restless soul, but mostly into construction equipment procurement...then ended up in the Middle East running a charter airline. Then, my husband was transferred around with the Associated Press.
I really thought I wanted to settle down, and stay in one place, but, as you may have noticed, I'm getting a little restless myself.
Linda K...
I'll bet your upbringing did affect you...made you absolutely determined to be fair. No?
posted on August 5, 2001 01:41:37 PM newMy dad also spent a year in South America from the mountains to the Amazon, two years in Africa, and a year in the Middle East.
My father also chased the black gold. After I left home he and my mom continued to be heavy duty gypsies. Peru, Indonesia (14 years), Turkey, Scotland, China. My dad has some interesting experiences. In Peru he had to fly to a place on the other side of the Andes, when the plane had to climb over them passengers were given a rubber hose to breathe from to keep from passing out. In a exploration unit in the Amazon one night the camp was raided by rebels, everyone was roused from bed and lined up at gunpoint. The rebels then stole everything in site. Dad didn't tell my mom about this till years later when he confessed how he had really lost his watch. In China he was called on the carpet for giving his interpreter a baseball cap, he was told not to give any baseball caps out unless he had 1 billion for the rest of the country. He gave a shipping crate away, again called on the carpet because he couldn't supply one for the rest of the population. His interpreter turned up missing one day, a month later he showed back up. Seems the interpreter had to go to a re-education class because he had grown a mustache. My mom wasn't allowed to live in China so he had to do a lot of commuting for 4 years.
I heard similar stories. Some were sad... helicopter crashes or flying home with bodies because of construction accidents.
In Africa my dad would give the natives ice. They would hide it somewhere. At the end of the day they would be fighting over who stole it from them.
There was a man who wanted my dad's work boots and continually offered him two of his children for them.
He told me how they would slaughter cattle down stream from a crossing in the Amazon to keep the piranas from attacking the cattle.
He killed a HUGE boa and had my mom a purse made of it. He gave me a llama rug and an ivory necklace for my 12 birthday.
When I could go with him in the US, I would ride his dozer until lunch then we would eat viennas that cooked on the engine. I wish I could do that with him now.
I must vanish to list and cook before my husband becomes a widower. Bye for now.
T
posted on August 5, 2001 02:21:55 PM new
The reason we moved so much was that's where the jobs were. Lets see, I was born in Livingston, Montana, lived in Wilsall Montana, some time following a sheep shearing crew, some time up the Gallatin where dad was logging, lived in White Sulphur Springs, Montana, moved to Dillon, Montana, moved to Nebraska on a ranch in the sandhills 40+ miles from anywhere. While I was in Nebraska, I went to school in a one-room schoolhouse, K-8 in the same room. Went to half of 9th grade in Alliance, Nebraska, then we moved back to Wilsall, Montana where I graduated high school with a total of 11 in my class. Let's see, 2 years in Helena, Montana attending college, then to Spokane, Washington, then to Everett, Washington where I still am 11 years later.
My non moving husband, on the other hand, lived in Spokane all his life. Before I met him, he had moved once... to the new house next door. I managed to get him out to Everett, but he has put down roots again and who knows if I'll ever get him moved!
posted on August 5, 2001 02:27:43 PM newSome were sad... helicopter crashes or flying home with bodies because of construction accidents.
We lost 5 co-workers in a light plane crash. They were taking off to come to work (Alaska oilfields) one survived and was in a burn unit for almost a year. To make matters worse if possible it happened on Christmas Eve. That Christmas day was one of the worse days I've ever had on the job. One was a close friend, I think of him often and our fishing trips.
posted on August 5, 2001 02:47:22 PM newLinda_K, perhaps background is too limiting a word. Life experience is perhaps a better choice. My siblings and I had similar upbringings but we're quite different indiviuals - shaped by our parents, our friends, our schools, our genetics,our times. Police know that ten eyewitnesses will give ten different versions of "who shot John". Also, to a large extent we determine who we'll be by choice. Some of us saw some ugly things in our histories and determined not to repeat them.
I am 1/2 pipeline brat and 1/2 postal service brat.