Currier & Ives. American Homestead Winter. , ca. 1868. [New York: Published by Currier & Ives, 152 Nassau St] Photograph |
Who I am has a lot to do with where I'm from. As you grow and experience different things, these things become a part of you and make you who you are as a person. You might not even notice.
I've lived all over the place, Vermont, Colorado, Nebraska, Texas, Mississippi, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Japan, Korea, and Germany. Different places, different cultures, different experiences. All of those places and what I did there, experienced there, had their effect on me.
Where I'm from, originally, is Vermont. But the Vermont of my youth seems long gone, as alien to the current place as Japan is to Germany. The Vermont I remember best of all is when I was a kid, in the early '60s.
Both sets of grandparents were still alive, all of my cousins, aunts, and uncles were as well. We all lived within a twenty-mile radius (centered on my house, of course, that's the way kids think) and we gathered on the two major holidays of Thanksgiving and Christmas. Picnics in the summer, family dinners throughout the year, we knew each other.
So part of me hails from Vermont of the early '60s, I have strong memories of those days.
But I'm also "from" the Air Force, spent twenty-four years there. Who I am these days was shaped heavily by my time in the service. Truth be told though, I was a terrible airman. Hated authority, drank too much, and generally played the fool. A couple of good sergeants helped straighten my ass out. At least enough to recognize the person with whom I wanted to spend the rest of my life with when I met her. She completed my transition to being a responsible adult. (And she has the gray hairs to prove it!)
I spent a lot of time in Asia, specifically Okinawa and Korea. Never "went native," whatever that means, but I was comfortable there. Spoke enough Korean to get by (once caught a train from Taegu to Taejon then a cab to Kunsan all by myself) never picked up much Japanese, living on the base you don't interact much with the locals, something I regret.
My best assignment? Germany just edges out Korea, primarily because I speak a lot of German. Got pretty good at it when I was there, spoke (much of it has atrophied) decent conversational German. According to one of my acquaintances I had no accent, which The Missus Herself laughed at until my friend explained that when I spoke German, I sounded German. Which I thought a good thing, until I went to Belgium.
We were at a military remembrance ceremony in the Ardennes and I was in an establishment where I ordered a red wine, in French. The guy sitting next to me started laughing. Wanting to improve my abysmal French I asked the chap if I had said something incorrectly.
"Non monsieur, but you speak French with a German accent."
Kinda cool, but not in a place where the folks have long memories.
Returning to the civilian world back in 1999 was strange to say the least. It took some getting used to but fortunately I had (and still have) an interesting job working with really good people. Yes, we have our share of knuckleheads, so did the military, but once you identify them you can work around them or avoid them.
So who am I? Well, I'm a dad, a granddad, a son, and a brother. All those things shaped me.
Which me is the most fun? The granddad, that's for sure.
Am I from Rhode Island? Nope, I live there. No doubt I have picked up a few Rhode Islander traits as this is the longest I've lived anywhere. Lived twenty-two years in Vermont, twenty-three (and counting) in Little Rhody, but where you spend your formative years, those are the most telling. So at heart I'm a Vermonter, always will be, but a Vermonter of the 1960s. So I'm out of place and out of time in many ways.
My kids? Well, one born in Korea, one in Colorado, one in Wyoming, ask them where they're from and you'll get different answers. My son considers himself a New Englander as he went to college there. He's a big Red Sox fan. The daughters? Hard to say, The Nuke is very fond of Colorado and considers it her "home state," but she spent a number of formative years in Germany, though her friends were mostly American and Canadian. LUSH, well she spent the same amount of time in Germany as the rest of us did, she has kind of adopted Michigan as her home state because her husband Big Time is from there. But I think deep down inside, she's a New Englander like her brother and Yours Truly.
So yeah, who I am varies with who I'm with. Where I'm from? Let's just say that I have a peculiar fondness for maple syrup and snowy landscapes. And speaking French with a German accent.
I'm an American from the west coast (Hawaii from 7 to 13). I did have a 13 year vacation in the upper mid-west before I moved back to the west coast in 2003. My kids were born in California, Washington, Hawaii & Illinois (USCG for 21 years) and I am really not sure what they consider themselves.
ReplyDeleteNow I'm a Floridian (my drivers license says so!) and have as much claim to that as the other 98% of the people here who are from somewhere else :-)
And in case anyone is interested I saw my first decorated Christmas tree of the season last night in a window!
On your last, same here. The Christmas decorations are starting to come out. I don't mind, I like them.
DeleteSarge, I spent the first 18 years of my life in the same house in a relatively small town and like you, had a great deal of family nearby. Over the years I have moved - first to college, then to The Big City to pursue a career (but in the same state), and then finally out to New Home in 2009. We have been here 13 years now - yet if you asked me, I would still say that I am largely from that small town I grew up in. The ties that bind me there are strong, almost too strong for something else to pull me away. While I have picked up bits and pieces from the other places I have lived - learned how to build a fire of coal and peat when I went to school in Ireland, for example - I am still back there in Old Home, where for over 170 years some manner of the TB's have lived.
ReplyDeleteFor Na Clann? In all cases their time was split to a greater or lesser extent when we moved between Old Home and New Home, yet none of them would say that they are from New Home - if anything, they are looking to find a place to make home, and this is not it.
Never having moved as a kid, same town from birth to enlisting in the USAF, I didn't get that. Talking with my kids I now get it, they've lived in five different places growing up (my son six).
DeleteJoin the AF, see the world! What an amazing life of adventure you've had. Very cool!
ReplyDeleteI've thought about this, too, at times. I've been in Texas my whole life. Born on the south plains, moved to central Texas for school for a year. Came back to central Texas the next year, then off to east Texas to finish college. Down to Houston for work, then back to central Texas since '99. I've been to Mexico a few times, and walked across the Montana border into Canada to say I'd been there. I've driven all over Texas and all over New Mexico servicing radio sites. So, instead of globe trotting, I scoped out my state and the next one over.
It is amazing how our experiences have shaped us. How moldable we are when we "cooperate" with the environment we are in. But there is still a root, an essence that gives identity. Whether it's a region, a family, or some mixture of God-knows-what. I still have gin dust and cotton lint in my blood. I've brought the 'plainsman' everywhere I go. We are all ambassadors of sorts, I guess.
Merry Thanksgiving!
Knowing how diverse Texas is when it comes to terrain and climate, moving all over that state is almost like traveling the world!
DeleteI'm not a native Texan but, as I like to say, I got here quick as I could.
DeleteAin't your fault you were born somewhere else.
DeleteThanks once more, Sarge. Good exposition.
ReplyDeleteLike you, the place I'm "from" no longer exists. I now know it was a paradise -with flaws for others, not for me as a child - that has now become a travesty.
I, too am a son, brother, father and grandfather. I hope to do the last best of all.
Happy Thanksgiving to you and your whole "crew". On a micro scale, I have much to be thankful for; we'll focus on that for the next couple of days and eschew the macro considerations as much as we can.
Boat Guy
"Eschew the Macro" - Now that's a fine motto for the holidays!
DeleteHappy Thanksgiving to all y'all! Regardless of where you reside, your origins or rambling travels on Uncle's dime or your own.
ReplyDeleteAt a combined (interrupted) 30 years in the mountain west, that's "home" for us, but "from" is still back in Pennsylvania, with all sorts of places in between. Including enough time in the South to pick up some of their lingo.
We have much to be thankful for, including Sarge and our friends never met.
John Blackshoe
Amen!
DeleteBradford, Pennsylvania is just south of the New York border. And definitely in the "Lake Effect Snow" area. Snow is great when you go snow skiing, but I am glad to not have to shovel snow down here in east central Florida!
ReplyDeleteSnow can be lots of fun, except when it has to be moved ...
DeleteTrace my roots in California to the 1870s. Prior to that everyone's pretty much from Ireland.
ReplyDeleteI am a third generation San Franciscan, who hasn't lived there since 1951, though I was in the neighborhood until 1973.
Uncle Sam's Navy showed me some of the world from 1961 to 1964, though most of that time was in California, too, as my ship's home port was San Deigo.
Relocated North from the SF Peninsula in '73 to the far northern end of the Great Central Valley for 44 years, and actually lived in the same house for the last 32 years of that period.
Then, I made a new best friend in 2016, married her in February 2017, and moved to the Sacramento area.
note: She and her husband were friends of my wife and me for ten years prior.
If I was younger, I might consider relocating to another state, but then I'd be further separated from my kids and my siblings, so that's not really a good option.
It's tough to put down roots in a place and have it change drastically enough to even make you think of moving. Look on the bright side, it can get better, maybe?
DeleteWell said... Reminds me of a line from a favorite hymn, "this world's not my home, I'm just passing through..."
ReplyDeleteAlso true!
DeleteCrusty Old TV Tech here. Happy Thanksgiving to all. Long post coming, apologies in advance.
ReplyDeleteThe topic of this post has triggered a bit of navel-gazing. Who am I? Reminds me of that line in the Disney "Alice in Wonderland" movie spoken by the hookah-smoking caterpillar..."WHO are YOU?". Well, no matter the other influences, one thing keeps coming up. I am a Southerner, and a Texan. Raised and eduated in NWLa, served in Uncle's USAF in Central NY, TDY's all over Europe and the US, 30+ years in SE Texas...but the Southern upbringing from my parents and their families, NWLa, East Texas, comes through. I have coworkers, friends, acquantances from all over the South, from Tennessee to Texas, Oklahoma to Florida, and though there are some regional differences, we're pretty much all Southerners. I can bring up certain subjects, and the reactions are remarkably similar. Texan (East Texan specifically) and Southerner are overlapping regimes, so there is also a subcurrent of Texan in there. As has been noted, Texas is like a whole country, so being Texan is in some ways like being a Southerner. I have noted pan-state regional similiarities (at least in the 80's) in Central NY state down the Southern Tier to Central PA, in upbringing, culture, etc., in that someone from Rome, NY can relate rather well with someone from State College, PA. I suspect there are other regional "cultures", but I also suspect none are quite as cohesive as "Southern".
As noted by others, the burg I grew up in has been changed beyond recognition, and not in a good way. It's not just "the past is another country", it's that the burg of my youth hs turned into a crime-ridden dump in large part. I suspect I know the reasons, but do not like it one bit.
Lastly, there is another "culture" that many of partake in on this blogspot, "Mil Vet". Yes, it was only 7 years of my life, but those 7 years (and the 6 years of training in CAP/JROTC/AFROTC before) marked my character with indelible Military precision. Those who served, it is another "I'm from..." we add to our predominant cultural identity.
So, I'm a Texan, a Southerner, and an AF vet, not necessarily in that order :-)
Yup, lot of vets stop by here, family they are.
DeleteWho am I? Where do I come from? Those for me are difficult questions. I just counted and I moved 9 times before I graduated High School. The longest of those resettlements was in Oklahoma City for 7 years at one location. We stayed in Oklahoma City another couple of years at a house we built (I got in on some of the action of building it) before moving to Texas. I went to college out of state at the same college my father had attended when I was a toddler. After college, I went on active duty in the USAF for 12 years. That took me to Arizona (Williams AFB), Little Rock AFB in Arkansas, Rhein-Main AB in West Germany and finally Dyess AFB in Abilene, Texas. My first wife was from Northern Ireland; she considered herself British and not Irish. I met her while stationed in West Germany. After leaving active duty in 1986, I ended up staying in Texas in the Fort Worth-Dallas area or nearby for 30 odd years until retirement. Now my second wife and I live near Bandera, Texas.
ReplyDeleteSo who am I and where am I from? All of those places above are where I am from in some way or another. And who I am has been a accumulation of the influences of all the places I have lived or been related to. I call myself a TexArkOkie but really am now a dyed-in-the-wool Texan. Texas in all of its varieties is my home. I have the 10 gallon hat, cowboy boots and big belt buckle; I am not all hat and no cattle as I have owned and raised cattle, horses, sheep and goats (yes I am a goat roper, literally).
A happy Thanksgiving to all. Remember the Source of All this Thursday.
Well said, Bill, well said.
DeleteFor the Grace of G-D, I was born a Native Texan (a lap lander from the East Texas swamp) with my extended family within a few miles. I'm a documented Son of the Republic of Texas, and have roots back to the original fight for US Freedom. My boots have been fortunate to travel the world with me in 'em and spent time in the largest sand box I've ever seen, managed to eat pork and drink Coca-Cola while there, then on to the southern tip of the Malay peninsula for a couple of years. Came back to Texas with a German bride and some 34 years later we're settled in the Hill Country where the mosquitos are close to being nonexistent, humidity is relatively low, cattle raising is tough but goats can make a living with normal rainfall. Most goat raisers will tell a newbie that particular endeavor will take toll on a person's blood pressure and patience, but rather than believe 'em we gave it a shot. It was easier than raising cattle, however looking back I call that particularly activity a real character building exercise, while certain phrases I hadn't used much since basic training became part of my everday vocabulary. Been retired from animal husbandry for 10-12 years.
ReplyDeleteBeing a Texan, my first trip out of the US was to Argentina. Sitting in the Buenas Aires airport an elderly Argentine asked where I was from. Using my best border Spanish, told him Texas. He asked Estado Unidos? Of course my response was "si". Through out all my travels when asked where I was from, that's the last time anyone asked "United States"?
Cletus Valvecore
Great story Cletus.
Delete