Mostly I wish to be taken at face value since I loathe artifice and am pretty damned bad at it anyway. I couldn't bargain with a rock... I think I'd still lose.
I was born in St. Louis in 1965. I had a pretty typical midwestern suburban lifestyle growing up, except when you consider my family. My parents were both "plain country kids" but they always strove to expand their minds and are very creative people to this day. They both have high school educations and worked hard to give my four brothers and I a good life. I wish I could live up to their amazing standard. So, creativity and learning surrounded us while growing up. It was okay to ask questions and see where your mind and imagination could take you.... heck it was encouraged.
My father worked as a truck driver for the Kroger grocery company for 40+ years... he served in the Marine Corps in WWII and Korea. He got to Camp LeJeune, SC on the day that the A-bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. He was always considered weird by his family as well since he preferred reading to going out and playing baseball. He was raised in rural Crawford Co. Missouri... born in Cherryville in 1927. His father was an alcoholic and philanderer. His mother died of TB when he was 11 years old. He got to hear his aunts deciding which of them would take care of him and his 3 brothers. He was the one that they didn't want. However they took him in and he managed to avoid following in his parents' checkered footsteps. He was the best father anyone could ask for. I love him and look up to him so very much.
My mother was born in rural St. Louis County in 1931. Her family moved around eastern and southern Missouri quite a lot. Eventually, they moved to Steelville in Crawford County and she met my father at a high school basketball game when she was a freshman and he was a senior. She had 9 brothers and sisters. One of her brothers died on the USS Arizona in Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941. She told me the story of going out to the mailbox and taking the Christmas telegram into her mother and watching her mother's tears begin to fall. Despite the privation and hardship of growing up during the Depression, her family was large and happy and the wonderful stories are many. Simple things like her grandparents bringing crayons and coloring books every Christmas for the kids. Her family was greatly creative, several of my uncles became cabinet makers, my mother used to work as a photo colorist (painting over photos to make them look like oil paintings) for a company in St. Louis.
My folks were engaged and my dad was working as a railroad telegrapher in Thermopolis, Wyoming when my mother took a train from St. Louis to marry him. Her father gave her $75 to buy a wedding dress... and my dad sent word down the line for the conductors to be on the lookout for "a little bitty girl carrying a great big suitcase." My mom is only 5'2". Married life for them started in Pastor Paul Spitz' living room in Thermopolis. It then took them to Kalispell, Montana and then back to St. Louis, then Barry, Illinois and finally to Florissant, MO where I grew up.
I have 4 older brothers who range in age from 6 to 16 years older than me. Tom is a carpenter and printer who lives in Florrisant. He has been happily married for over 30 years and is son just got married and his daughter just graduated from high school. Dan is a retired Naval Officer who lives in Virginia, he's been married for 20+ years and has 2 kids. Mark lives in N. St. Louis County with his wife and daughter. His son has been married since 1997 and has 2 kids of his own. Matt lives in Florissant too with his wife and 3 kids.
I live in Columbia, Missouri with my husband Mark and 2 wonderful kids. We live in a modest house that constantly needs cleaning. It also needs to have the pool removed from the backyard since it is full of weeds now. I am a nurse at a local hospital, which I love doing... but I would prefer to create things and sell them for a living. I love to think I live a thoughtful life. I am generally a liberal bundle of contradictions. I like many disparate things.... I just kind of live instinctually and try not to harm others. If you would like to see my daily thoughts, you can visit my blog.
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