The News get to know you thread

[Herdfan]

Most of us know a little something about many of us on here, but I thought starting a thread where we all kind of reintroduce ourselves might give others some insight into where we come from and how we think.

But no one should feel like they need to disclose something they don't want to.

So I'll start.

I was born and raised in a small town in southern WV. I have since moved closer to the "big" city of Charleston and am about 20 minutes outside. I have been married for almost 30 years and have a 22 year old daughter who recently started her career in advertising in Los Angeles.

My parents were concerned about educational opportunities in my hometown sent me to boarding school for HS and from there went on to college. I played baseball and had a dream of playing it for a living, but got bit by the injury bug. Baseball players need 2 fully working shoulders.

After 10 years in the family's oil & gas business, I then spent 20 years as a contractor. So if anyone has any home improvement questions, please feel free to ask. Except foundations. Don't ask me about foundations. LOL.

As I approach my late 50's we are making a huge life change and moving to Sedona, AZ. Visited there in 2017 after a wedding on the way to the Grand Canyon and loved it. Been going back a couple of times a year since and decided to make it our home. Hope to have the move completed by May.

So that's me in a nutshell. I tend to be more Libertarian than Conservative. I think everyone should be able to do what they want, and live how they want, but don't look to me for approval or acceptance. It's your life, do what you want regardless of what I or anyone else thinks.

Also, our favorite pastime is going out in nature and riding our SXS.

 

[lizkat]

Y'all know me already but I'll recap. I'm in my 80s, and a noise-making member of the so-called Silent Generation. I have lived in NY, FL, GA, MD, NJ, CA, VT, IL with forays to CO and WY for childhood vacations and to Mexico and Canada occasionally later on. Currently living about 40 miles from where I was born in the boondocks of upstate NY... after spending 35 years in NYC, which I still miss sometimes. Well I miss how it was, or how I choose to remember it. The food. The upper upper West Side was my hangout.

I was the eldest child of what became a big blended family with a lot of tall boys, and I was definitely the boss even though I had to stand on a chair to enforce that idea. I spent most of my free time in childhood and early adult life buried in classical music (and a little jazz) and learning how to play piano, violin and cello. Discovered rock, folk and other more or less contemporary music in my early 30s, so I'd say my collection of things musical is not eclectic but downright bizarre and sometimes briefly indiscriminate as I keep exploring whatever I missed while communing with Bach (or Bartok).

In school I majored in economic theory, minored in music theory and a bunch of second languages, of which only French and Spanish have really stuck although I have tried to resurrect enough Italian and learn enough Portuguese to get through a few books that haven't been translated to English yet. I like to quilt and garden and read; sometimes make room to try to catch up with movies and TV but find that basically hopeless. I'm in long term recovery from alcoholism (set the glass down in 1978) and thanks to a 3-day blizzard finally managed to ditch cigarettes on Martin Luther King Day weekend of the year 2000. "Free at last" indeed from those active addictions and I do celebrate the anniversaries each year, but am mindful that how I got to both of them is just one day at a time. I am a survivor of two alcohol-related suicides in my family, so I personally subscribe to the idea that as long as I treat my sobriety as if it were fragile, it will be strong enough to let me keep living the life I've been enjoying.

I became active in politics when I was a kid and pronounced myself a Democrat in 1952 during the Eisenhower-Stevenson campaign. That did not endear me to my father or to grandparents on either side of the family but I think my mom was a little more sympathetic. Anyway she let me hand out flyers for Stevenson but cautioned me not to tell my dad. Of course I told him and he just laughed. "Egghead," he said, and "no way can he win."

Well he was right about that but I didn't care, and my flyer-handing-out made me a believer in political activism. I felt great being involved! Worked with the Wm. Ryan Dems in the 60s in NYC during efforts to reform the surrogate courts system, met a lot of great people from all over the west side and stayed active in local politics until I came back upstate. Hereabouts is a still largely agricultural township and county, so the politics leans libertarian or conservative but there are increasing numbers of (often more liberal) writers or artists from the city who make this area first a seasonal and eventually their permanent residence, so over time the district has become a purple one, and the Congressional seat flips every few years ever since the mid-1980s.

 

[rdrr]

Y'all know me already but I'll recap. I'm in my 80s, and a noise-making member of the so-called Silent Generation. I have lived in NY, FL, GA, MD, NJ, CA, VT, IL with forays to CO and WY for childhood vacations and to Mexico and Canada occasionally later on. Currently living about 40 miles from where I was born in the boondocks of upstate NY... after spending 35 years in NYC, which I still miss sometimes. Well I miss how it was, or how I choose to remember it. The food. The upper upper West Side was my hangout.

I was the eldest child of what became a big blended family with a lot of tall boys, and I was definitely the boss even though I had to stand on a chair to enforce that idea. I spent most of my free time in childhood and early adult life buried in classical music (and a little jazz) and learning how to play piano, violin and cello. Discovered rock, folk and other more or less contemporary music in my early 30s, so I'd say my collection of things musical is not eclectic but downright bizarre and sometimes briefly indiscriminate as I keep exploring whatever I missed while communing with Bach (or Bartok).

In school I majored in economic theory, minored in music theory and a bunch of second languages, of which only French and Spanish have really stuck although I have tried to resurrect enough Italian and learn enough Portuguese to get through a few books that haven't been translated to English yet. I like to quilt and garden and read; sometimes make room to try to catch up with movies and TV but find that basically hopeless. I'm in long term recovery from alcoholism (set the glass down in 1978) and thanks to a 3-day blizzard finally managed to ditch cigarettes on Martin Luther King Day weekend of the year 2000. "Free at last" indeed from those active addictions and I do celebrate the anniversaries each year, but am mindful that how I got to both of them is just one day at a time. I am a survivor of two alcohol-related suicides in my family, so I personally subscribe to the idea that as long as I treat my sobriety as if it were fragile, it will be strong enough to let me keep living the life I've been enjoying.

I became active in politics when I was a kid and pronounced myself a Democrat in 1952 during the Eisenhower-Stevenson campaign. That did not endear me to my father or to grandparents on either side of the family but I think my mom was a little more sympathetic. Anyway she let me hand out flyers for Stevenson but cautioned me not to tell my dad. Of course I told him and he just laughed. "Egghead," he said, and "no way can he win."

Well he was right about that but I didn't care, and my flyer-handing-out made me a believer in political activism. I felt great being involved! Worked with the Wm. Ryan Dems in the 60s in NYC during efforts to reform the surrogate courts system, met a lot of great people from all over the west side and stayed active in local politics until I came back upstate. Hereabouts is a still largely agricultural township and county, so the politics leans libertarian or conservative but there are increasing numbers of (often more liberal) writers or artists from the city who make this area first a seasonal and eventually their permanent residence, so over time the district has become a purple one, and the Congressional seat flips every few years ever since the mid-1980s.

How far upstate in NY? Last year I happened to take a summer vacation starting in Glen Falls and followed the Erie Canal all the way to Lockport and ending up at Niagara Falls. We stayed in many towns along way, loved some and was sadden by the poverty of others. Glen Falls was surprising with Coopers Cave, the inspiration of the Last of the Mohicans, and made a stop at a Fort Edwards where there was a French-Indian war memorial for Roger's Rangers. Apparently the U.S. Rangers were founded by him and some fo the tenants on the plaque are taught at Ranger School today. "Don't Forget Nothing!" is one of those...

Anyway the trip was absolutely fantastic and the hidden gems in Americana really do get overlooked. Upstate NY and for the most part Western NY were a fantastic vacation if you love history and off the beaten path fun.

 

[lizkat]

How far upstate in NY? Last year I happened to take a summer vacation starting in Glen Falls and followed the Erie Canal all the way to Lockport and ending up at Niagara Falls. We stayed in many towns along way, loved some and was sadden by the poverty of others. Glen Falls was surprising with Coopers Cave, the inspiration of the Last of the Mohicans, and made a stop at a Fort Edwards where there was a French-Indian war memorial for Roger's Rangers. Apparently the U.S. Rangers were founded by him and some fo the tenants on the plaque are taught at Ranger School today. "Don't Forget Nothing!" is one of those...

Anyway the trip was absolutely fantastic and the hidden gems in Americana really do get overlooked. Upstate NY and for the most part Western NY were a fantastic vacation if you love history and off the beaten path fun.

In Delaware County (NY), the western foothills of the Catskill Mountains. I have family in semi-rural areas near Ithaca, Elmira, Rochester, Syracuse and NYC, so we seem to feel the pull of urban cultural opportunities but like some elbow room. I love NY state, it has such a range of scenery, geology, microclimates etc. And... history! I'm still learning about history of the so many native American tribes that once lived in this state. As a kid in my generation what I learned about "Indians" was generalized and just short of what would become the themes of Western movies. Always had trouble reconciling that stuff to the exquisite Seneca arrowheads my mom would collect when she was a kid on hikes in the Chemung Valley area

So true about the contrast of apparently idyllic rural villages and the stark poverty of too many residents. There's more outreach done today but there's also a culture of "don't ask for what should be offered" and resistance to the idea that in today's world we don't always know our own neighbors and so "what should be given" becomes "Fill out this form and we can help you." But I digress... that belongs in its own thread.