Walking Amongst the Pre-Raphaelites

Demographic Questions

Date of Birth: Octomber 13th

Place of Birth: Southern California

Place of Rearing: Jerz

Gender/race: Female/Caucasian… I am a 13th generation American – a true “mutt” – Irish, English, Scottish, French, French-Canadian, German, and probably some others I forgot. I think we even have the teenyist part Native American on my father’s side, but nothing documented. If I wanted to bother with the application process, I could be a card carrying member of the Daughters of the American Revolution (from my mother’s side).

Type of household (childhood): This question needs more details – is she discussing physical space, famial unit under one roof, or both? I grew up in California in a condo with my parents and 2 brothers (I’m the middle child) until I was 5 or 6; then we moved to Jersey to a 4 bedroom house in suburbia.

Type of household (current): Now I inhabit a studio apt. in Syracuse. I am marrying this summer, so Shawn and I hope to get a condo where we will live with our three cats (and the rabbits I am planning to adopt!).

Great-grandparents’ schooling and occupations, if known: I only ever met my paternal great-grandparents (whose names I can’t remember…Bill and ???).

Grandparents’ schooling and occupations, if known: I always bragged that I had three sets of grandparents rather than two. I didn’t understand what divorce was until much later in life… My mother’s parents, Keith and Mary, separated. They remarried Jan (pronounced “Yawn”) and Evelyn. My paternal grandmother is Betty. Mary did a year of Junior College @ Pasedena College; she did factory work during WWII and held a few other temp. jobs, but mostly she was a housewife. Jan had a college-level agronomy degree from the Czech Republic (not sure which school). When he immigrated here, he worked in Central Park as a groundsman/gardener/landscaper, until he went west and worked @ the San Diego state (Scripts Institute campus) as the same. Keith graduated from high school, but not college (he went overseas in the war – so who knows if he might not have done college?). He returned and started his own construction company in Orange County, CA. Evelyn is not someone I got to know very well; I do know she did secretarial work. Betty did HS, not college. She owned/ran her own restaurant (she cooked and administrated); she went to beauty school and then owned her own salon for awhile.

Parents’/guardians’ schooling and occupations, if known: Suzanne (Mom) finished high school and did some college. She married Richard (Dad) and dropped out after about a year to support him (got a great job with the phone company) while he completed his Masters @ California State – Riverside. Mom was a housewife for most of my life, but as we all got older, she got a degree from Cittone as a medical technician and now works part-time in a doctor’s office. Dad finished his MBA and has never looked back – he has been a businessman all my life and then some. Currently he works as the VP of Purchasing for Gerber (Yep, the babyfood peeps).

Names and locations of all schools attended: Ummm….

James Madison Elementary School, John Adams Middle School, and J.P. Stevens High School in central Jersey

Moore College of Art and Design – Bachelor of Fine Arts, Illustration (plus a semester while there with the American College in London’s art program, for that not-too English experience – the “American” college in London – what a ridiculous name).

Kean University – 60 credits worth of English classes; I never had literature (or even much writing) at a specialized school like Moore, and 60 cr. were needed to attempt the Alternate Route to teaching in Jerz (which is a way for those who weren’t education majors to transition from other jobs into teaching – but it isn’t really accepted, and it’s a very difficult way to get a teaching job. Educational heirarchy/snobbery here…)

Drew University – I translated from the Masters program into the PhD program

Degrees, dates of graduation, size of graduating class: Graduated from J.P. Stevens in ‘95; The degree from Moore was – I think – for ‘99. Both class sizes were comparable – about 400/500 – largish for a high school, teeny-eeny for a college.

Past/current/future occupations: Graphic Designer; Long-term substitute at the K-12 level; Writing Instructor @ Drew