April 14

The return of the (Nebraska) native

1965

School's out for 10 days - AND NOBODY'S GOING TO CRY! Oh, what am I going to do with all this TIME? Finish the dress I'm making, work on "Silas Marner", find a copy of Othello, get a book for a report, oh boy or boy.
YIPPEE
I love vacations!
To ____ with Vincent - he's a snob!!

Comment 2006

Does anyone have to read Silas Marner in high school anymore?

1973

And boy, was that ride a bumpy one! It was strange at first - they are conservative, but Carol and Joel are as sweet as ever and the kids are a little bratty, but sharp and fun nonetheless.

Back in Nebraska! What a feeling…this is something I longed for so much when I was a little girl. It’s really like going home. It is going home. I have to take some pictures of the bluffs, from the airport, or wherever I can.

I am in NEBRASKA!

Gee whiz.

Comment 2023

Aunt Carol and Uncle Joel were my very favorite relatives, probably in part because I saw them most often. Mom referred to Carol as “her first baby”, because she was ten when Carol was born, and became her main caretaker when littlest sister Rosemary came along. When I was five, my mom and I went to Carol’s college graduation (by train!) and I got to stay with her in the dorm. She visited us a couple of times in North Platte with the guy she dated before she met the handsome Air Force dude who became Uncle Joel. When we lived in New Jersey, they lived in Pennsylvania, so there were more visits. We rejoiced when they had kids; they brought them to Connecticut the summer before I started college, driving overnight with the two oldest sleeping in the back of their station wagon. (The olden, pre seat-belt days.)

I’ll save more about them for tomorrow. Photos!

1982

We are right in the middle of Fall pre-registration. This is always a crazy week; just a parade of students with questions. I could never be a doctor or barber - - anyone who sees dozens of clients a day. It’s been a late night every night this week for far. We are both exhausted. Tonight we start out childbirth orientation classes at Holy Cross. Baby day just keeps getting closer. After May 15, please.

1986

It’s been a busy, busy week and a half. I am 7 weeks pregnant, by the doctor’s estimate.

1994

It has been a truly great semester this spring. With three weeks to go, I can look back with satisfaction on the whole year. Developing the new courses has been fun - even the diversity course, which didn’t go as well as I wanted, but was still stimulating.

The dept chair wants me to be the graduate director beginning next spring. It would mean a one-course reduction. I think that would be OK. Perhaps I could still teach Growing Up American (the undergrad and grad versions) and insist on a Tu Th schedule as a condition of taking on the grad position. That would give me a 3-day research/writing week, which would make a huge difference. 

The book must be finished! Arggh!

Comment 2024

The 1993-1994 school year was my real transition year from my old, defunct department of Textiles and Consumer Economics to my new “home” in American Studies. Despite my discomfort with the new-to-me jargon (and their discomfort with a new colleague with three degrees in Home Economics), it went well. I developed three new courses: an undergrad and graduate version of the cultural history of childhood and an undergrad course titled “Diversity in American Culture” that looked at “diversity” through the lens of language, foodways and music. The campus recently added a requirement to the gen ed courses: one course in “human cultural diversity” (oh, the horror!). All the accepted options so far were about “others”: women’s studies courses, African America courses, Asian art courses, etc. I submitted my new course to the committee and it was rejected. Not enough emphasis on minority groups. Too much about European Americans. They also suggested I change the title so it wouldn’t confuse students looking for a diversity course for gen ed. Suggested they change the name of the requirement instead, since my course was about diversity as a concept, as a force in cultural change, and their requirement was about something else. They voted again and approved the course. 

The book was never finished.

1997

I’m on the end-of the-year roller coaster, with too many things to do and no time to breathe. Nothing to do but hang on  at this point! Part of the craziness is the increased frequency of meetings at the end of the semester/end of the school year double whammy. Just when I think things should be opening up in my schedule, I find myself all blocked in. This week is a Girl Scout leader meeting jam: both service unit and council meetings. Last weekend  was a blur of meetings. This coming weekend is Science Center overnight with the Cub scouts, but that will be fun. 

It is a beautiful day, despite the tree pollen attacking me. But the temperature is comfortable, and the air is dry. Birds woke me up thy morning, sounding very, very happy.

Comment 2024

Overnights at museums: best idea ever. 

2023

It’s Earth Month here at Riderwood and I was asked to introduce a documentary about fast fashion and lead a discussion afterwards. It was another exercise in deja vu; I seem to be saying the same thing over and over again to difference audience, and nothing changes. I’m that guy saving one starfish at a time while a fleet of steamrollers crushes millions of them. My latest insight: if there will ever be a compelling case to be made for a universal basic income, it will be based on environmental justice. The burden of climate change and the effects of whatever we do to mitigate climate change will fall heaviest on the poorest, most marginalized people on the planet. There are millions of people who eke out a living producing fast fashion; if we changed our buying habits tomorrow, they would starve.