"I was bitten must have been the devil"

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Day 4: Your parents

The more I think about my past; love, parents, and siblings (tomorrow) the more I am convinced I could have a better book than Running With Scissors by Augusten Burroughs (read it). So, here I go back to memories of the 80's.....

My parents are Lonny and Marc, they dated in highschool and married in 1976. They were AKC judges and bred Akitas. We spent a lot of summer traveling to dogshows, so yes, I grew up on a "dog farm" so to speak in Meriden (see how I must write a book). They are kinda retired from that now, but still have Akitas.

My mother, how to describe my mother....well, she doesn't take crap from anyone I can tell you that. Did you ever see that show Roseann? Kinda like that, ya know how when someone did wrong to one of the Connors and you couldn't wait to see Rosie get them? Well, I do have a good short story. I was in 6th grade and was given detention for not doing my homework (typical). My troll teacher Mrs.Schwartz made me stay after that same day, without 24hr notice. I usually walked home, but for some reason that day my Mom was picking me up. When I got outside I could already tell something bad was about to happen. She asked me where the hell I was and I told her Schwatrz made me stay after. Well, I waited in the car while she marched into the school, I figured not being a witness would be the better way to go, I didn't want to have to testify in court. I don't know what happened in that classroom, but the school then had a 24hr detention policy and Mrs.Schwartz was scared of me the rest of the year.
My mother was also an avid reader and so were we, we spent a lot of time at the library on hot days. I get my sarcastic, ball busting sense of humor from her and it has served me well. A quick wit can come in handy sometimes.

My dad also has a sense of humor, but its more a goofy kind, which I also use quite a bit. He loves sports and Presidents, he knows some very good President trivia and is good at History. The one thing I remember most about my Dad growing up was that he was never there during the week. My father worked and never took a day off (except weekends), and during spring and summer his weekends were spent driving long distance to dog shows around New England, he must've been pretty tired. I got up for school at around 7 and he was already gone for the day and wasn't home till around 6. When he did get to watch sports he usually did so thru his eyelids which must be tough lol. He never complained tho, and if he did I sure don't remember. Those are things you don't notice as a kid, you only realize what your parents are really like as an adult. Makes me wonder what my kids perception of me will be when I'm old.
So, in a nutshell, that's my parents. I have thousands of stories but you'll have to wait for the book...

5 comments:

  1. Mrs. Schwartz was fortunate that your mother didn't assign her to attend detention at your home. :)

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  2. Whit- She was lucky in more ways than one.

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  3. I've read several by Augusten Burroughs, including Running With Scissors. Gonna be tough to top. I look forward to reading yours. ; )

    Another good one is by a guy named Pat Jordan, called A Nice Tuesday. Jordan burned out as a pitching phenom in the early 60s and became a free-lance writer. A Nice Tuesday is about an improbable comeback in his mid-fifties, and about his six akitas. And his wife, Meg Ryan's mom. What makes the book stand out is the quality of the writing. I recommend it.

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  4. that was very nice, Bryan. I do know one thing, we sure watched a lot of good games together all those years -- NY Rangers, NY Giants and NY Yankees. I may have missed an inning or two once in a while though.

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  5. I'm game to write a book! Mua ha ha!

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