I'm from....

Swiped this from

Junebugg

, who just happens to be one of my favorite people. She swiped it from her sister,

Donna

, who's obviously as talented as her sister.

I'm gonna try my own, though I'm sure it won't be as eloquent as either of theirs.

I am from...

I'm from blue jeans and Ivory Soap. From the smell of canning tomatoes and freshly-laundered sheets hung in the sun to dry.

I am from the cinder-block house with it's cool-to-the-touch concrete floors and it's shady, sprawling yard. At night, I'm lulled to sleep by a chorus of crickets and by the rich, heavy scent of the neighbor's newly cut hay that wafts in through my open windows.

I am from the Illinois River with it's muddy, mucky banks and it's earthy, primal smell...from sand roads and hot, lazy summer days spent exploring the river's edge and the woods that surround it. I am from Morel mushrooms, wild asparagus, daffodils and Catalpa blooms in the spring; homegrown tomatoes, fresh green beans and pots of red petunias in the summer; turnips and mounds of brown, crackly leaves in the fall.

I'm from a tradition of having no tradition other than oyster stew on Christmas Eve. I'm from Donovan and Adah, neither of whom knew how to love the other; from Charles and Otelia...stubborn, aloof Swedish immigrants; Mabel and Dan...simple, uneducated people who made the river their life.

I am from growing up alone. I am from stubborness and loneliness. From screaming arguments and slamming cupboards and cold silences. From attempted and successful suicides.

From the sad/funny stories of the Depression and Prohibition and duck-hunting gangsters. I'm from parents who were nearly old enough to be my grandparents and stories about their parents. I'm from stories about relatives whom I never knew.

I am from a religion having no religion. I'm from strict Lutherans and Latter Day Saints and from sinners. I'm from a man who believed only in the church of the self and a woman who believed in God, though only because she thought it was expected of her.

I'm from the prairies of the Midwest, the banks of the Illinois River and from the gently rolling lowlands of Sweden. I'm from lutefisk and pickled herring...from fried 'taters and onions and crispy, golden fried fish.

From my mother's lifelong mental illness...her anger and her jealousy. From her near-obsession with cleanliness and orderliness. From her desire to please everyone except herself and blame only others for her unhappiness. From my father's explosive anger, his escapism and his 'pie in the sky' imagination, his thirst for knowledge, his scathing sense of humor and his artistic talent.

I am from family photos where I am always between my parents...always in the middle...always protected but forever the middle-man, separating the two. I am from grade school photos...a chubby blonde girl, rarely smiling because she's not happy. I'm from high school photos...a chubby, blonde hippie with long hair, flashing a peace sign, still rarely smiling, but not because she's not happy...because it's not 'cool'.

I'm from learning how to look at myself as objectively as I can. From intelligence and common sense and pragmatism. From trying to figure out how to take the best of both parents and just leave the rest...the worst. From learning from the mistakes of others who loved me the most, yet rarely knew how to express that love.

******************************

Well. That little exercise was somewhat...depressing...wasn't it? Maybe I should go back to politics. heh

Ooops...
I should have added Junebugg's template for this:

I am from _______ (specific ordinary item), from _______ (product name) and _______.

I am from the _______ (home description... adjective, adjective, sensory detail).

I am from the _______ (plant, flower, natural item), the _______ (plant, flower, natural detail)

I am from _______ (family tradition) and _______ (family trait), from _______ (name of family member) and _______ (another family name) and _______ (family name).

I am from the _______ (description of family tendency) and _______ (another one).

From _______ (something you were told as a child) and _______ (another).

I am from (representation of religion, or lack of it). Further description.

I'm from _______ (place of birth and family ancestry), _______ (two food items representing your family).

From the _______ (specific family story about a specific person and detail), the _______ (another detail, and the _______ (another detail about another family member).

I am from _______ (location of family pictures, mementos, archives and several more lines indicating their worth).