I follow you @Frank Sanoica , and have since you joined. You think differently than I do, so I enjoy your point of view. I follow many of our members, it allows me to keep up with those I find interesting.
Well @Frank Sanoica first off, you’re a guy. I’m a gal. No seriously, you come froma different part of the country, so you were brought up with ideas pertaining to the area in which you spent your youth. I on the other hand, grew up with the Alamo, Sam Houston, the San Jacinto river, and all around the Gulf of Mexico. You had a normal up bringing and education, where I didb’t get more than 2&1/2 years in school before I started college at 35. It sounds like you had a some what typical childhood and youth, and I was raised in and out of foster homes when my parents couldn’t get along. You went into the service. I was married at 13. There are many ways that we differ, this gives us different perspectives on the world. I would be totally bored if I could only communicate with people that thought just as I do. “Viva la difference” , and all that stuff, ya know?
@Ina I. Wonder I was spared the service in Viet Nam, due to a murder-suicide which dropped two minors into my responsibility. You were?? I thought that was illegal. But, thinking back, given the powerful hormonal drive, minus my own chicken-sh!t personality, I might also have married prematurely. My first encounter with a girl of even the least involvement happened when I was 21, working under my car on the transmission, when two feet attached to gorgeous legs appeared beside the car. My friend Chris's newly-arrived from Germany cousin, 16, whom I had met a few days earlier, had ventured over (they were staying two doors away), why I don't know. Bashful me connected with worldly she, because I had had a year of German in High School, and she was at 16 already possessed of a German License to practice Cosmetology. She was advanced socially farther than I would be for 10 more years! We hit it off. Big time. She was unsure, reluctant, led by her mother's advice; seek some guy of status. I had none. But I yearned to learn, investigate, hold in my arms for the first time in my life a living breathing personification of heaven on earth. I was insistent; maybe that was wrong. We were married a year after we had succumbed to the "need"...........married because it seemed to be the reasonable thing to do. She was Catholic, I was nothing. We compromised marrying in a Lutheran Church. Much of what followed has been chronicled, and absorbed by members from THAT other forum, as well as this. The more I reiterate my life's failures and distractions, the more I share with strangers who of reasonable purpose, should have little interest, the more I realize how incredibly deeply my life's cleavings into my inner being, have affected how I live day to day, function while dreaming back of how it should have been. How many reading this nonsensical drivel have thought about, and considered, their own lifetime experiences in a similar light? Frank
Hmmmm ... Well that sounds quite romantic from a boy’s point of view. But not so much from a girl’s, at least not this girl. I was raised by my Native American mother and grandmother, and my German father. He was a Hard Shell Baptist Minister, and he made the decision that I was to marry at thirteen. Two years later, I was informed that slavery had been over since 1865. That marriage ended there. Then I was very fortunate to meet my husband, Michael, and we were blessed with almost 48 years together. So all in all, it was a very normal and everyday story that happened down here in Texas, way back in the 1960’s. I do understand my story is a bit shocking to some, but I have two choices in the matter. 1: I can be embrassed and lie about my reality. 2: I can except who I am, my reality, and use my experiences, just like everyone else does, to guide me through whatever is before me.
@Ina I. Wonder I did, although her sister's adult life since I have not been a part of it has led me to wonder. Their father swore only my wife's sister, Diane, was his child; my wife, Sue, and her brother, Rick, he insisted were not his. Because of this belief, coupled with his imagined infidelity on his wife's part, he designated the little girl as beneficiary on his life insurance policy. This act truly muddied the waters when he died, as that life benefit was "locked up" until Diane turned 18. So, we raised Diane & Rick as best we could, receiving about $55 per month Survivor's Benefits from S/S with which to feed, clothe, and raise them to age 18. At 18, still living with us in Vegas, Diane received her dad's life benefit, $4,000, and immediately left for Chicago, where her life's love, a young Viet Nam Vet who looked and acted like a drugged Hippie, waited for her. Within a few months, she returned, broke. She would not talk about it, but we surmised the cad had absconded with the dough. That same year, their brother, Rick, died from complications of Ulcerative Colitis, on his 25th. birthday. Distraught beyond imagining, my wife asked for a separation, and we began disposing of mutually-owned property, our house, cars, etc. We divorced the following year. Sue & Diane remained in Vegas, though living separately; I finished college, got my degree, and took a position in Colorado, 1976. During the next few years Sue met and married an aspiring young Law student, whom she subsequently divorced due to his philandering. Meanwhile, Diane entered into the dubious scheme of getting pregnant in order to prevent their family surname from ending with them (there were no other relatives that we knew of). The kid's father (she had a boy) was a tennis pro who meant nothing to her, and left the picture. Over the years, as the kid grew up (she named him Danny; her Veteran's name) he took distinct preference for his Aunt Sue over his mother Diane. She had, after all, money and sophistication, whereas Diane's life was always hand-to-mouth. Last time I contacted Sue was on her 70th. birthday, last May. I asked about Diane; I would like to talk to her. Sue claimed to have lost track of Diane, and was not even sure where she was living. Danny was out on his own, planning to get married. For the first time ever, I asked her if she felt Diane might have inherited from their father the tendency toward lunacy; she said definitely, yes. I have led a less than typical life. Frank
Hi @Shirley Martin , what I do is tap on my or anyone else’s avatar, then tap ‘profile page’, then look down the left side of that page, and you’ll see a section listing those people who wish follow you, and down below it you’ll see a place that show who you are following, which will be empty because you haven’t chosen anyone to follow yet. If you wish to follow someone, just tap on their avatar, and you’ll see the word follow. It’s the third choice to the right.
But most people have there profile set to private and I can't see them. I thought I might be able to see it on my profile.
But most people have there profile set to private and I can't see them. I thought I might be able to see it on my profile.