putting off going to bed
from altfriday5
1. What is your earliest memory?
Sitting in the back seat while my mom got into the driver's seat and my father got into the passenger seat, in Michigan, so I couldn't have been over 3. that...also might have been the last time that happened...
2. What is your earliest memory of being aware of your race? How about gender? Socio-economic status? Religious identity?
i think i was (am) so surrounded by whiteness that i wasn't really aware of it. i was more aware of being an immigrant's daughter and even then, i keep forgetting that other people don't have relatives who don't speak the same language they do.
gender...i was always told Girls Can Do Anything They Want To DoTM. obviously being a girl was way better, because we could wear pants or skirts and cry or climb trees or do whatever we wanted, and being a boy sounded really boring, even though girls still had to do all the housework for some reason (i was in college before i realized there were other options for that). and i never got into makeup or clothes or whatever because by the time i was old enough to care, i figured i was unattractive enough that it wasn't going to make any difference and i would just look like i was trying too hard.
socio-economic status...i didn't really notice until middle\high school. our school was a pretty well-off part of the county...my parents and i lived in a rented townhouse and almost everyone i visited had decent-sized houses. one of my best friends lived in a trailer, but at the time i parsed that as a "house" and therefore better than our place. (it was a nice trailer.) it was all about houses, though, because i always thought spending a lot of money on brand-name clothes and stuff was stupid anyway (someone subscribed me to Zillions at a formative age) and i didn't really have a concept of how much other stuff cost. so i didn't realize how well-off my family was (relative to most of the world), until i had some friends who were economically fucked. and then i got pissed off because it wasn't fair.
religious identity...uh...i was vaguely aware that some other kids went somewhere besides the catholic church, but it seemed we all went somewhere. and i could never keep straight whether all catholics were christian or if all christians were catholics, i just remembered that i was both. but that was before i was old enough to realize it was something you could pick, and then i became an atheist...oh, and then there was the time the mom of the Token Jewish Kid in my kindergarten brought in potato pancakes and told us about Hanukkah, and i wanted to be Jewish, because you got presents for eight days instead of one. i do remember hating the pancakes though. i have since been enlightened.
3. What kinds of things do you remember easily? What's hard for you to remember?
anecdotes and basic storylines are easy. details are harder. i don't think i have a very good memory in general, but being an only child means no one can tell me i'm wrong.
4. What do you think of as the first historical or political event you were aware of?
i think i remember watching the challenger disaster on tv at school. my mom took me to a dukakis rally in '88, and i have some vague memories of watching my dad watch oliver north on the news but not really understanding what was going on.
5. How connected do you feel like your childhood memories are to those of others of your generation? Does that still influence you today? If so, how?
the 80s was kinda based on TV, which i've never been an enormous fan of. i spent most of my childhood reading and then watching star trek. i can still identify enough Robot Chicken characters to be amused, though.
i mostly hang out with boys these days, and i wasn't allowed to/wasn't interested in most 80s boy's toys. (i wanted to see Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles but was taken to Little Mermaid instead because it was too violent. when Reed heard that he bought me the DVD, which i ... should get around to watching.)
also, dan continually accuses me of not participating in my culture, which has always been true, i suppose, depending on what you consider "mine".
1. What is your earliest memory?
Sitting in the back seat while my mom got into the driver's seat and my father got into the passenger seat, in Michigan, so I couldn't have been over 3. that...also might have been the last time that happened...
2. What is your earliest memory of being aware of your race? How about gender? Socio-economic status? Religious identity?
i think i was (am) so surrounded by whiteness that i wasn't really aware of it. i was more aware of being an immigrant's daughter and even then, i keep forgetting that other people don't have relatives who don't speak the same language they do.
gender...i was always told Girls Can Do Anything They Want To DoTM. obviously being a girl was way better, because we could wear pants or skirts and cry or climb trees or do whatever we wanted, and being a boy sounded really boring, even though girls still had to do all the housework for some reason (i was in college before i realized there were other options for that). and i never got into makeup or clothes or whatever because by the time i was old enough to care, i figured i was unattractive enough that it wasn't going to make any difference and i would just look like i was trying too hard.
socio-economic status...i didn't really notice until middle\high school. our school was a pretty well-off part of the county...my parents and i lived in a rented townhouse and almost everyone i visited had decent-sized houses. one of my best friends lived in a trailer, but at the time i parsed that as a "house" and therefore better than our place. (it was a nice trailer.) it was all about houses, though, because i always thought spending a lot of money on brand-name clothes and stuff was stupid anyway (someone subscribed me to Zillions at a formative age) and i didn't really have a concept of how much other stuff cost. so i didn't realize how well-off my family was (relative to most of the world), until i had some friends who were economically fucked. and then i got pissed off because it wasn't fair.
religious identity...uh...i was vaguely aware that some other kids went somewhere besides the catholic church, but it seemed we all went somewhere. and i could never keep straight whether all catholics were christian or if all christians were catholics, i just remembered that i was both. but that was before i was old enough to realize it was something you could pick, and then i became an atheist...oh, and then there was the time the mom of the Token Jewish Kid in my kindergarten brought in potato pancakes and told us about Hanukkah, and i wanted to be Jewish, because you got presents for eight days instead of one. i do remember hating the pancakes though. i have since been enlightened.
3. What kinds of things do you remember easily? What's hard for you to remember?
anecdotes and basic storylines are easy. details are harder. i don't think i have a very good memory in general, but being an only child means no one can tell me i'm wrong.
4. What do you think of as the first historical or political event you were aware of?
i think i remember watching the challenger disaster on tv at school. my mom took me to a dukakis rally in '88, and i have some vague memories of watching my dad watch oliver north on the news but not really understanding what was going on.
5. How connected do you feel like your childhood memories are to those of others of your generation? Does that still influence you today? If so, how?
the 80s was kinda based on TV, which i've never been an enormous fan of. i spent most of my childhood reading and then watching star trek. i can still identify enough Robot Chicken characters to be amused, though.
i mostly hang out with boys these days, and i wasn't allowed to/wasn't interested in most 80s boy's toys. (i wanted to see Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles but was taken to Little Mermaid instead because it was too violent. when Reed heard that he bought me the DVD, which i ... should get around to watching.)
also, dan continually accuses me of not participating in my culture, which has always been true, i suppose, depending on what you consider "mine".