Life in Seven States, Or Seven State-Like Entities, Personal Narrative Assignment #3, Class #4

Where Are You From?

Connecticut

I am from the Ivy League. When I was born, my father was a student at Yale law school. College was an expected part of my life plan. When I got into Dartmouth, my father was pleased. While not adverse to a prestige name, I was more pleased that it was 500 miles away. One of my other options was Georgetown, which was having a housing shortage and would require freshmen to live at home. Nope. I’m going waaaay over there. The path to Hanover began when I was a baby in New Haven.

New York

I am from dog shit on the sidewalks. When I was a kid, the sidewalks of New York City were a scatological minefield. This was before the Pooper-scooper laws. Dog poop was everywhere. You had to keep glancing down at your feet as you walked. It was a fact of life. It was the reason they passed the Pooper-Scooper laws. To this day, I find money on the street because I am constantly flicking my eyes downward.

Interlude – New Jersey, Upstate New York, Maine, Florida

What does it mean to be from a place? I was only a visitor to the places my grandparents lived. Yet, I inhabit their houses in my memory. The Dalai Lama XIV shares a Tibetan saying, “Wherever you receive love, that’s your home.”

Maryland

I am from the vast, windy expanses of the suburbs. From Manhattan to Bethesda MD, a bedroom community for Washington DC. From the city to the suburbs. From high school back to junior high, thanks to a different school system. From one single parent to the other single parent, with a completely different set of rules. I participated in suburban rituals. Waiting for the school bus. Looking up exactly when I would be eligible for my learner’s permit. Freaking out at the lack of noise. On the upside, there was space. I started riding. I became a barn rat. Been one ever since.

District of Columbia

I am from a commuter culture. Eventually my father said pffft to his commute and moved us back into DC. He handed me the keys to a Jeep and told me to get myself to school for senior year. Twist. My. Arm.

Interlude – New Hampshire, Vermont, California, France

What does it mean to be from a place? I lived in New Hampshire off and on during college. I received mail there. I had a local bank account. And yet from the moment I crossed the Connecticut River on the Ledyard Bridge, I was a transient. What about the places where I had mailing addresses during off-campus terms?

Maryland, Reprise

I am from a cliche. A starter apartment with a college roommate. A busywork job until the young lady gets married. This wasn’t my plan. This wasn’t even what I thought I was doing at the time. And yet, in hindsight, I was living the trope.

Pennsylvania

I am from the composing room, back when newspapers were still laid out on light tables. If Hershey PA hadn’t been a small town, I never would have had the nerve to apply for a job at the local paper. If the Hershey Chronicle hadn’t been a small, weekly paper, I never would have been handed the back half of the paper and told to fill it. I also waitressed at an Italian restaurant, worked in a shoe factory, and interviewed to be a chocolate taster at Hershey. Alas, we moved before I could pursue that last one.

North Carolina

I am from a farm, or at least a gentleperson’s farmette. After a few years in Durham, we leased a house that had a barn in the backyard. Horses at home! I wasn’t worried. I had been riding for years. I was a US Pony Club graduate. I knew horses. Correction. I did not know horses. Which feed. When to order hay. Should we call the vet. The areas of ignorance were vast. We learned. We moved. The horses moved with us.

Alabama

I am from … No. I can’t say it. Seriously. I won’t even let other people say it. At the end of magazine articles, there is often a short author bio. Person X is from place Y. As in, that’s where they live now. In author bios at the end of my articles, I insist on the wording that I LIVE near Birmingham, rather than that I am FROM there. The American South is not my heritage.

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Afterword

Assignment #3. Where are you from? Inspiration, George Ella Lyon: Where I’m From. Posted as submitted.

Thoughts before class. Plus. I like how it turned out. Minus. Still expository rather than narrative. Not a single sensory detail to be found. Plus/minus. One option would have been write it with a scene for each location. It would have been a different thing and it really wanted to come out this way. And I spared you a mise en scène involving dog poop. You are welcome.

After I hit send, I decided the title didn’t land quite right. Since DC is not a state, I can’t say Seven States. Other title choices are Life in Seven States or State-Like Entities. (remove 2nd “Seven”) OR Life in Six States and One State-Like Entity. Have a preference?

Feedback

As before, my responses rather than the direct comments.

Constrained by the word count. Touched on some topics only briefly due to lack of space.

Could be divided into three eras. Living with parents/my mother, living with my father, & trailing around after my husband. Aside from college off-campus terms & the second Maryland, none of the places were my choice.

I could do a parallel one with barns. “If you asked me where I grew up after the age of 14, I’d probably say the barn.” [Home Again]

Would benefit from adding how long in each place, what age, what year. For example, New York City in the 1970s was a cultural moment, History.com: Ford to City: Drop Dead.

Previous Class Posts

[What Is Personal Narrative, Thoughts Before A Class]
[Why I Write, Personal Narrative Class #1]
[What Is The Story Of Your Name? Personal Narrative Assignment #1, Class #2]
[Turning Yourself into a Character, Personal Narrative Assignment #2, Class #3]

Previous Place Posts

New York Cliché, Guest Post: Born and Raised a New York Native….But Now? [In Which I Reblog Myself]
[Horses of NYC 2017, Home Again Home Again Jiggety Jog]
[Off Topic: Strangers on a Train] NY/DC
[Horsekeeping Counterfactual, intro] NH
[Giving Birmingham Its Due]
[Life in Alabama, Being a Bad Blue Dot In A Really Red State]

Rabbit Hole

I was this post years old when I learned that Curb Your Dog was a voluntary program that preceded the Pooper-scooper laws. “In the 1970s, a curb your dog sign campaign was launched in response to a problem that was becoming intolerable … The legacy of “curb your dog” signage remains in generational memory to such an extent that subsequent statutory laws have been confused/conflated with the educational signage campaign that ended in the late 1970’s.” Wiki: Curb your dog. It me.

Goodreads: Dalai Lama XIV > Quotes > Quotable Quote

Onwards!
Katherine