Sunday Stealing

Sunday Stealing

(Some of these questions are the kind used as security questions, so those I will answer rather vaguely. There were also duplicate questions and I deleted those.)


1. Where did your name come from?

A. My mother gave it to me. I have no idea where she got it from, as she never said, and it is not a family name. My first name is apparently a form of Anna, which is a form of Hannah. The name appears briefly in the New Testament belonging to a prophetess who recognized Jesus as the Messiah. It was a popular name in the Byzantine Empire from an early date, and in the Middle Ages it became common among Western Christians due to veneration of Saint Anna (usually known as Saint Anne in English), the name traditionally assigned to the mother of the Virgin Mary. My middle name is French and comes for Joan of Arc. (The nerdy information comes from behindthename.com)

2. Where were you born?

A. In a hospital.

3. What as your house like, growing up?

A. We lived in a small suburb until I was 6. It had a nice back yard and tree in the front yard, and there was red carpet in the living room. There was also a ghost in the house. We moved to a farm when I was 6, and lived in a trailer. It was very small and cramped. Then we lived in an old farm house that my father added a room onto. I slept in the attic; it was very hot there in the summer as there was no air conditioning except window units. My father built his house where he now lives in 1976. By that time I was 13 years old. It was a big ranch. My bedroom had yellow and purple in it. A huge fireplace separates the family room from the formal living room and dining area.

4. What was your childhood bedroom like?

A. It was an attic for a while, and then after the age of 13 I had my own room. I hung love beads over the door and had a poster that said, "I am Me and I am Okay" on it, along with a Charlie's Angels poster. I had a white bedroom suite, and the bed was a double bed. I had a bean bag, my electric guitar, and an amplifier in there. I had two windows, and lots of books. I had a little hope chest in my closet. It contained some glasses and few other little odds and ends, nothing of consequence.

5. Did you travel as a child? Where?

A. When I was quite young we went to Florida to visit my great-grandfather. I remember little about the trip. When I was 12, my parents drove across the United States and back. When I was 14 or 15, my parents took me to New York with them. When I was 16 I flew to Spain and France on a school trip.

6. Write about your grandparents.

A. My maternal grandmother was a kindly yet stern woman who told us constantly to stay away from the river, because it was polluted (of course we went there anyway). She kept me when I was ill, since she lived only a block away from my mother's office. She had a set of encyclopedias that I read. My maternal grandfather died when I was 11. He was very stern and he fixed TVs on the weekends at his workbench in the basement. We were never supposed to touch Granddaddy's workbench (of course we did). He worked for Kroger. My paternal grandparents lived in California and I did not know them very well. My paternal grandfather was a Democrat and so was my grandmother until she decided she could not vote for President Obama because he was black, and then she became a Republican. She talked very loud and I never thought she liked me very much. She lived to be 93 and died about two years ago. My grandfather and I exchanged letters after I became an adult until he died in 1992. He played guitar and liked to write poetry.

7. Who taught you how to drive?

A. I took driver's education in high school. Coach Co, as he was called, was known to feel up the girls so it was a given that we never went out on a driving lesson with him alone.

8. When did you first leave home?

A. I left home when I was 20, when I married.

9. What did your parents do for work?

A. My father was a policeman and then he became a salesman. He started his own company around 1977 and it has been successful. My mother worked as a secretary (but not for my father).

10. Who inspired you as you matured?

A. Book heroes, mostly, or someone like Kate Jackson, who played Sabrina on Charlie's Angels.

11. What was the best part of your 20s?

A. I married and I started going to college.

12. What as the best part of your 30s?

A. I finished college and began a writing career.

13. Where is the most fascinating place you’ve visited?

A. Paris.

14. What is your favorite family story?

A. Apparently I had a great-great grandfather who was a preacher who owned a whore house.

15. What was your most memorable birthday?

A. My husband gave me a surprise party when I turned 50.

16. What was your favorite food as a child?

A. I liked cucumbers and mayonnaise, lettuce, and cheese sandwiches.


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