2018: The Book of Me and You: January

The Book of Me and You – January

The “Book of Me” is a project created by Julie Goucher. It is the journey of yourself through your reflections… your memories… and your writings. Julie began this writing project in 2014… this is the third in the series.

I plan on joining in with Series 3: 2018 (Getting to Know You Series) challenge of prompts; I have re-read through the other years and may choose some of those prompts at times if I feel they are more suited. While I also wrote my own challenge of … “A to Z All About Me” last year, there are always other prompts which trigger memories, so I look forward to more writings. I plan to add another twist to this one by writing it together with my husband… memories will be together in one post.

Series 3 – 1 January 2018 – 31 December 2018

Getting to Know You Series 

Jeanne:

Who Am I? List 20 things that describe you… Well if I don’t describe my outer looks, then I guess I’ll have to come up with other descriptions, so here goes. Happy and Thankful, for the most part, happy for my health, my husband, my children and my beautiful five granddaughters; genealogist; writer, at least I think so… I do have a published article that I wrote years ago. After offering it to Women’s World and Family Circle, I sent it to Georgia Backroads magazine and they published and paid me; it’s titled Heirloom Recipes. Inquisitive… mama always told me I should have been a lawyer as I tend to ask a thousand questions. I did seriously look into going to school to become a paralegal, but as I didn’t like driving in high traffic areas at that time, I scared myself into not attempting it. I should have pursued it…. maybe it would have helped me to become more self-assured; nosey, well at times; bored easily with things; lazy at times; obsessive… especially when I have a writing project in mind, like my upcoming A to Z in April on Nancy Drew… it has become all I want to work on at the moment; shy, but outgoing… how can that be? I feel I’m a somewhat shy person… just last year I was asked to do an interview on my photographing of war memorials. It sent me into a tailspin! I’m more the begin-the-scenes type, not someone who likes the center of attention! Crafty... I inherited those genes from my grandmother and mother; I have enough craft supplies stocked to open my own store… that’s why I can never find anything when I need it, and you know what that means… you go buy it again! What crafts have I ventured to learn and accomplish… well let’s see – knit, crochet, paint (wood items and paint by number), embroidery, wood burning, writing (is that a craft?), needlepoint, and rug hooking… and I’m sure I’ve forgotten a few.

What do you look like?… Brown hair (long as a teenager and still below my shoulders today); I’ve never been one to fuss and fix my hair. I remember that whenever I tried to use rollers as a teenager… becoming very frustrated… often having a hissy fit throwing them at the back of my bedroom door. Even now when using the curling iron, there would be a slight curl at the end… but once I brushed it lightly… no curl left! So I basically will have straight hair.  I was always considered tall, 5ft. 6″ abt… but by today’s standards, I’m average. As a child, I remember my grandmother Bryan telling me I had big bones… I hated that! Unfortunately, she never had anything nice to say about anyone, very negative! I always thought I was slightly heavy as a child and even teenager, but when I look back at those photos now, I like my look and didn’t look fat! Funny how you perceive yourself at different times in your life. Even when my children were young, I thought I was heavy, but the pictures and home movies show me slim with long hair down past my backside! Sure, now I’m overweight and since retiring, it’s really going to be a struggle to keep the weight off… I’m not walking like I did at work. I used to look daily at my steps at work… they would be between 4 and 5 thousand steps a day; that sometimes meant almost 2 or more miles just walking around at work and climbing the stairs. I think I became slightly sidetracked here… maybe I accumulated some walking steps! So do you know what I look like? LOL

What do you enjoy?… Besides spending time with hubby watching Netflix, which has become our daily winter activity, I’d say my love is writing. Often the laptop can easily spend all day in my lap! As cold as it’s been lately, who wants to go outside! My loves are researching the family history, writing stories for my blog, joining blog writing challenges, knitting for my granddaughters, and spending time with them when possible.

Who inspires you?… My husband foremost inspires me as he’s so organized, never says “no” to anything asked of him, and is always there for me! He spoils me every day and I’d be so lost without him! I can’t name any other specific person, but there are many that inspire me to learn new things and visit different place

What do you want to be doing that you are currently not?… I’d like to be losing weight, but I don’t see that drastically happening, so I’ll settle for a few pounds off! I hope to travel more in the upcoming year and visit Maine this year, and I think Florida will be on my new places to visit soon also.

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Steve:

Who Am I? List 20 things that describe you… He was easy when I asked… “I could put it down in 2 words, I’m Perfect!”  (Is this writing project going to be easy or difficult… it will be difficult if I have to pull the words out of him! My words that I would describe him are… Smart, helpful, ADD… as he likes everything in its place and put away. He will put his keys, billfold, glasses all in his hat on the table when he comes in… not like me, I’ll lay it wherever and then have to look for it while listening to him saying, “if you’d put it in your hat, you’d know where it is.” Well, the problem with that is… I don’t wear a hat… I guess I should just put mine in his! Prompt, would be another trait of his, along with organized, saying, “you have to be organized, as when you need something, and you can’t find it, then you really don’t have it.” “My father always said that in regards to having a tool; if you didn’t bring it with you to use, then you really didn’t have it. I’m mechanically inclined, I always liked to work with tools; every kid likes to take things apart! All kids start building with Lincoln logs and Tinker toys, although I only had Tinker toys. I remember building a Ferris wheel with them, then I progressed to the erector sets, especially as the A. C. Gilbert factory was located nearby in New Haven. All the kids around here had A. C. Gilbert toys and train sets… later I had a train set complete with an engine that smoked. Building and repairing things have followed me all my life. I was a mechanic on the B-52’s in the Air Force, built tires at Armstrong, was a welder for many years working on trucks and Trident submarines at Electric Boat Shipyard. I’ve worked on all our cars through the years, repaired every appliance in our house. I’m like my father, fix it until it can’t be fixed anymore. I’m the last generation that doesn’t like to throw things away and buy new! I follow in my father’s footsteps of repairing things… fix it right the first time, so you don’t have to do it again. It takes longer, but the job is done right. My father was that way at work also… he always wanted things done his way, but he knew what he was doing. He built his own house and it’ll be standing when everything else is gone… it’s solid as a rock. When you walk on those floors, nothing shakes like the houses of today. I’m also a clean, neat type person. I’m constantly going through drawers in my bureau to clean them out and re-organize. I like things in their own place. In the Air Force, you learn quickly that your mother is not there, and how to keep your things… rather how they want you to keep them! (Not that my mother ever cleaned up after me… it would have been the other way around… I had to clean up after her) When you are in the service, you are taught how they want you to keep your clothes, your tools, and your life… and you better comply. In working on B 52 planes, I had to make sure all my tools went back in my tool bag… nothing could be left lying around… someone’s life depended on you policing your area, and you couldn’t put tools in your pockets either, they had to go back exactly in their spot! Another description of me would be observant... I enjoy observing people. You learn many things that way… especially watching people work. It’s also funny to sit and observe people in general. I would have been a good cop… I pay attention to everything going on around me; your life could depend on it one day!

What do you look like?… There’s no one that looks like they did in their youth, you just have to accept it and move on. I have a lot less hair than I once did… I’m an older me. I  had dark brown hair, not so dark anymore, but I still have kept my mustache and somewhat beard all my life. My children have never seen me without my mustache and beard, and probably never will.

What do you enjoy?… I enjoy bringing “dead” things back to life; I guess that’s why I enjoy collecting cast iron cookware. It amazes me how you can bring a 100-year-old cast iron pan back to its original condition… looking like the very day it was sold. I don’t like contributing to the landfill in throwing things away.

Who inspires you?… I was never impressed by anybody, I might pick up traits from people, but no one specifically has inspired me. The first time I saw Steve McQueen in the Sand Pebbles movie eat a half-dozen eggs sunny side up… that impressed me, and I’ve eaten my eggs that way ever since. So I guess he inspired me to eat eggs that way.

What do you want to be doing that you are currently not?… I’d like to be able to run up and down the steps like I used to, but that’s not going to happen. When I worked at Armstrong Rubber, I’d run up 13 flights to get to my work floor, which was the second floor; they were tall floors. There wasn’t one long flight of stairs, instead, they twisted around in smaller increments. I ran up them every day… never using the handrail. We weren’t supposed to take the elevator; it was a freight elevator, but some of the older guys did. If you happened to get stuck in the elevator, you missed out on work… most jobs were piecework, not by the hour. I couldn’t afford to be stuck in there and not making money… I was a tire builder and time meant money!

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