What a way to get us writing!
It is an honor – no, privilege – well just plain awesome to be nominated for the Liebster Award! What is the Liebster Award? Glad you asked! I have no idea. But it is still an honor to be nominated for pretty much anything, and it sounds like fun, so here goes!
DA RULZ:
- Make a post thanking and linking the person who nominated me and include the Liebster Award sticker in the post.
- Nominate 5-10 other bloggers and notify them of this in one of their posts.
- All nominated bloggers are to have less than 200 followers.
- Answer the 11 questions posed by your nominator and create 11 different questions for your nominees to answer. Or, you can repeat the same questions.
- Copy these rules into your post.
Thank you lynneggleton for nominating me for this prestigious award. She is a talented writer, great runner and someone I have found a connection with.
Here are the 11 questions she posed to me that I will do my best to answer:
1. What is the best book you have ever read?
The Diary of Anne Frank.
As a child I was an avid reader. I read all the Little House on the Prairie books, Nancy Drew Mysteries, Hardy Boys, Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn, the usual classics and other obscure books such as “Quaint Old Stories”, which was a tiny book with lots of cool British tales. For the longest time, it had been my favorite until my parents convinced me to donate it to the school library, which I did, thinking I could read it there any time I wanted. Never did I take into consideration that I wouldn’t be there forever.
All that aside, it was the Diary of Anne Frank which impacted me the most. I was probably about ten the first time I read it and probably by the age of 12, had re-read it as many times. At the time I had no idea of what the Holocaust was, but my father perhaps thought it was time I did and thought I would enjoy it. I lost myself in her writing imagining how it had been. But it wasn’t until I shared with my uncle, who was in the Navy, what I was reading that I got the full picture of what it was like. He brought me a book with graphic pictures of the concentration camps, the barracks, yards, the infirmary, the gas chambers and pits of emaciated dead bodies piled high with soldiers looking down at them.
Years later, I would visit these camps thereby solidifying the visual where she was and what she went through. It wasn’t just the story of what they experienced, but the matter of fact way with which she wrote about it. I related to the intimate details of how she wrote about her pubescent changes, her sexual awareness. I didn’t have parents that would talk to me about such things, so it helped me to not feel so sinful knowing we shared those same feelings. For years I imagined myself being as brave yet as frightened as she was and I resisted her death, thinking any day now she would be found to be alive somewhere. Because their bodies had never been discovered and her time of death only speculated, deep down inside I had expectations she had to have survived and in that light I kept waiting for someone to tell me she’d been found. It never happened. I so wanted to talk to her.
2. What is the one toy you wished you had as a child that you never got?
We didn’t get toys as children. I don’t recall ever wanting any particular toy although I always wanted a bike, which I don’t consider a toy. I remember having a top though and we kids collectively got a croquet set once. When I was about eight or so maybe older, I did get a little doll with cottony blond hair, but I wasn’t a doll kind of girl. I still liked her though. I think mostly because she was the only doll I ever got and girls were supposed to have dolls.
As for the bike, At 32, I was so proud to get my first bicycle which I paid for with my divorce settlement and rode to work. (I worked at a school then and I could get a locker and shower, so it was great!)
3. What is the one thing you wish you could do that you can’t do or never learned to do?
Play the piano and tap dance. When my grandma died, I had been gifted her piano but it was in Alabama and I was in California. My cousin Juanita ended up getting it. She learned to play beautifully and on my visits there I would accompany her playing with my voice.
I also always wanted to dance like Fred Astaire or Shirley Temple. Dancing made people happy. I can sort of fake it, but I really never learned. I remember hanging out at the community rec center in town and they offered classes, so asked my parents to go. We didn’t have a lot of money so they couldn’t pay for all of us, so they opted for my sister Di to go instead of me. Sadly, I don’t think she even cared one way or another either. Maybe I had begged too much.
What I did get to do is hang out watching and waiting for her classes to end. It was there I’d mimic what they were doing and it was there I was noticed by some older teens taking a modern dance class. They must have taken pity on me because they’d spend time to teach me a routine they were doing called the bullfighter dance. When they got their beautiful satin capes they would take turns letting me use theirs. With their capes and fake swords we would practice for their show to the music of La Virgen de la Macarena. I can still remember the routine. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=595Dx74KNoY&index=2&list=PL7D593C4D89F61C32
(I know, that’s two things) I can count, but they held equal importance.
4. How fast can you run?
I don’t run anymore, but I once did a 10 minute mile or better? Every morning and evening I’d run four laps sometimes more and I kept getting faster and faster. For awhile I ran with a more advanced runner who would challenge me to do better, but I never timed it. In my fifties I won a cross country race for my age group. Later I would win a 5K in my age group as well.
5. Who is the most interesting non-famous person you have ever met?
Despite my father having been abusive on so many levels, he was the most interesting person I ever met. There wasn’t anything he hadn’t taught himself and learned.
At 84, he subscribed to Italian TV and radio and began absorbing the language. By 87 he had visited Italy twice and on one of those trips rented a flat for a couple of weeks to totally immerse himself in the language.
Dad never met a stranger. He once met a young man on the plane who, he said was very pretty, a playboy and rich. I later discover that his father or great grand father was the Gucci. They became Facebook friends. To this day, even after dad’s death, I get a periodic email from his friend. Very down to earth and still speaks of daddy fondly.
At age 86, he had difficulty walking, so I left him on a bench at the mall for a short while. When I came back I was astounded to see him surrounded by young people NOT small children, but teens, laughing and listening to him tell stories. My favorite stories came from his youth, what it was like during the depression, the war and his travels hitch hiking cross country from Alabama to California. His first impression of and acceptance of Hispanics and other cultures was refreshing.
6. What is the funniest thing you ever did as a child?
I was funny all the time. I was the class clown.
7. Where would you go if there was an apocalypse?
I would want to be somewhere remote, like the farm in Alabama.
8. What is your least favorite animal?
Is a spider an animal? Well, it could be considered a critter. I saw a Twilight Zone episode about a spider that, when it got flushed down the toilet and sink, it kept coming back larger and larger until it ate the people. Creepy.
Actually, I can’t think of a repulsive animal, just insects like roaches and other creepy crawlies. Everything has a purpose, so how can you dislike any of them completely? Oh, I know!! A hyena, I don’t like hyena’s. They actually look devious, untrustworthy and vicious.
9. What is the weirdest place you have ever been?
Did you mean, “where”?
In my head. There’s always been a million things jumbled around up there. Amazing stuff. Stuff, you wouldn’t believe, wouldn’t want to believe and wonderful things as well.
10. Have you ever had a paranormal experience? If so, tell us all about it!
No, I’ve never had a paranormal experience but, I’ve imagined one. I’m writing about it in a story, but it’s not copy-written yet, so can’t share. (sorry)
11. What is the one thing you feel most connected to?
God, but I don’t see him as a “thing”, so perhaps my faith in Him would be a better word choice. Second to that, my family.
I now bequeath my 11 questions to the following:
badfish out of water
tandemtrekking
empress2inspire
jamesradcliffe
Sue Slaght
My 11 Questions:
1. Where is the most interesting place you’ve ever visited and why?
2. Who is the most interesting person you’ve ever met?
3. What is the most fun thing you’ve ever done?
4. What is the most exotic food you’ve ever consumed?
5. What is your greatest achievement?
6. Where would you like to see yourself in ten years?
7. Who was the most influential person you ever met?
8. Have you ever screwed up so badly you thought it nonredeemable, if so were you able to salvage it and how?
9. Do you remember your first friend?
10. If you could change anything, what would it be?
11. What is your favorite piece of clothing and why?
joliesattic 
That’s wonderful! Thank you for playing along. Funny how these random questions dig up stories from the past. I loved reading this!
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THIS is very funny…I ran across this post while visiting your site, but it never showed up in my mailbox, so I was unaware! Congratulations on your what-the-hell award!! And I have to admit, your answers were very intriguing, loved the stuff about your dad. And so…thanks for nominating me for the award! I will answer and respond…but I can’t promise when. I am submerged in STUFF to do. YAY!! You are now officially a blogger…with an award!
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I understand what you mean about being inundated in stuff. It was fun and it really did a shift in mythinking because someone else is asking the questions.
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