No, I have never been beyond the United States, Canada, and Mexico. The Channel Islands have intrigued me since I put together the directory categories for the Channel Islands in the Aviva Directory. I would also like to visit Sweden, as well.
Yes of course I forgot, I have been there once and liked it,quite cold though, are you drawn to colder climate places to live because of your roots do you think?
Probably, yeah. I grew up in snowy weather and rather missed it during the thirty-five years or so that I lived in Southern California and South Texas. Oddly though, others of my relatives have moved to Florida or Texas after retiring, while I moved back to the cold weather.
My parents taught me to say "thank you" and "you're welcome" in Swedish, in order to amuse the grandparents. There was the idea that they were in the United States where people spoke English, and I don't think it was well known that children could readily learn more than one language at the same time. Rarely did anyone speak Swedish around me. If the grandparents were over, they would sometimes be speaking Swedish but as soon as I walked into the room, everyone switched to English. I referred to Swedish as "gibberish." Consequently, I know a whole lot more Spanish than I do Swedish. Given that the entire community consisted of Swedish immigrants, they could easily have retained the language but chose not to. It wasn't just my family. I don't know a single one of my cousins who learned to speak Swedish.
I think that I can appreciate most any movie that is well written and well acted. Usually, I look toward the more general genre of drama because I'm more likely to find something good there. Although I very much enjoy horror movies that are well-written and well-acted, the vast majority of them are not. That used to be the case with Westerns but, although they don't produce very many Westerns anymore, those that are made are generally of much better quality. I don't usually look toward Science Fiction or Fantasy for the same reasons, because so many of them are poorly done, or intended for very young people. Nevertheless, even in those that are intended for the very young, I very much appreciate the ones that are well done, such as The Neverending Story, The Witch and the Wardrobe, and Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, to name a few. Until recently, I had never seen any of the Star Wars movies. My wife talked me into ordering a few of them on DVD from Netflix and, while they were fairly okay, I can't say that I was overly impressed. I watched the first Harry Potter movie, and realized that I had quit paying attention to it about halfway through. Since I cut the cord years ago, and have subscriptions to several paid channels through Roku, and because I work on my computer from home, I watch movies all day, every day, so I have watched a lot of movies that I wouldn't have chosen to watch otherwise, but I don't know that I have a favorite genre.
What were you like in High School, Ken? Where you the science geek, the nerd, the sports star, the smart kid or Where you one that went unnoticed? You married late, did you date in High School or later?
1. My closest friends weren't from the high school that I attended, which was in Stephenson, but from Menominee, about that same distance in the other direction from my hometown. I was not stupid but neither was I highly motivated. Consequently, while my grades were mostly A's and B's, I wasn't scholarship material. I hung out with people who were in trouble a lot, but I think I had some concern about not being a lowlife so I prided myself on achieving reasonably good grades. I should also point out that getting in trouble a lot meant something entirely different in Stephenson, Michigan in the 1960s than it would mean in most places today. Some of these people who got in trouble a lot went on to become teachers in the same school, although I did have one friend who went on to murder someone in a robbery, but long after I had last seen him. Being a minor in possession of beer was the most likely crime. A high point in my high school career was when one of the snobbier girls in the class commented on a joke that I had made, asking if I couldn't take something seriously once in a while, and I was able to point out that I was doing better than she was in that class. I did date in high school. When I adopted a son while I was in my early twenties, most of my attention was spent on earning a living and raising my son, so dating sort of fell by the wayside. After he grew up and went his way, I concentrated on work, as I had moved to Texas and became a paramedic shortly afterwards.