It looked like fun, so I asked Saintseester to write five questions for me. Here they are:
1. Are you a real fan of something (team, band, etc). How did that come to be?
Alabama Crimson Tide football and Kiss.
The former was because I was born into an Alabama home. My maternal grandfather was a friend of Paul “Bear” Bryant’s and held him in the highest regard. The feeling was cemented listening to my parents talk about the 1979 Sugar Bowl, at which they witnessed the famous Goal Line Stand in person.
I had a brief flirtation with Auburn fanhood in 1982. I was 11, and my parents were divorcing, and I would have breathed sulfur dioxide instead of oxygen had it been an option, so desperate was I to move in a different direction from everyone else.
The latter started because I wanted to fit in with the cool kids in grammar school. It continued and flourished because I experienced an energy with Kiss music that I didn’t experience with anyone else. Doubtless they’ve laid a few eggs in their 34+ years, but they’ve also recorded some of the best rock songs of all time. And the live show is truly nothing like anything else I’ve ever encountered.
I have a single Kiss post I’m working on. I intend it to be my definitive and only statement on what it means to be a Kiss fan. It’ll probably show up sometime in the next few months.
2. Do you have a sentimental keepsake that you would never part with. If so, what is it and how did you come by it? If not, do you have a sentimental memory?
I have a few keepsakes, of course, but I don’t think I own anything that I would never part with. The memories are much more important to me. I’ve never been one to imbue “stuff” with a great deal of significance.
3. When did you first feel like an adult? What triggered the feeling?
I first felt like an adult sometime in the second part of 1997, when I first had to resolve a disagreement with Lea with the realization that we were both “home.” There would be no defensibly putting several miles between the two of us, so what are you going to do about it, husband-type?
As painful as our first six months or so were, Lea and I have a happiness today that I’m coming to realize is truly rare. I thank God for it every day.
4. What one instant in history would you most like to travel back to and witness?
I’ve thought a lot about this one, and believe it or not, it’s the Apollo 11 moon landing.
I was born not quite two years after it happened. My dad told me that he watched it on television lying in the floor at my Aunt Dottie’s house on Logan Martin Lake—a house that I spent some very happy childhood times in—and I’d love to have been lying there with him. I’ve never lost the fascination with space travel that most young folks have at one time or another, and to me, Apollo 11 is the single most fantastic moment in the history of space exploration.
Incidentally, I work in an old NASA building that was built in the 1940s. It’s certain that at one time or another, some real giants walked in the hallways I walk every day. I think of such probably twice weekly or so.
(My runner-up was the signing of the Declaration of Independence.)
5. If money (and time) were no object, what activity would you most want to indulge yourself in?
I would do two things. First, I would pursue all of the degrees I always wanted but didn’t pursue, for fear that I’d starve. I would love a Ph.D. in epistemology, for example. Second, I’d play a lot more chess. Relieved of the daily burden of making a living, I’d love to see if I could reach the rank of grandmaster.
If you want five questions for this thread on your blog, let me know. I’ll do my best.
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Cool! You were probably about 5 when I went to my first concert – it was KISS.
Love the history answer. I remember sitting and watching the TV during the moon landing. Will. Never. Forget. That was a moment that even a 6 year old could appreciate. My dad was the sort that would drag his tired little girl out of bed to witness historic moments on TV. Not just this one. He also made we watch Nixon’s resignation speech, among other things.
5 questions? – I really like these kinds of things – so yes please!
Bo, I’ve already done it so I don’t know if I’m qualified to play again, but I’d LOVE to see what questions you’d ask me…
I was a little less than 6 months old when the Apollo crew landed on the moon, so I don’t remember any of it. Even if I were old enough to have seen it, it doesn’t seem like the kind of thing my parents would have made a big deal about anyway…
Working on them for you two. This is harder than it looks!