Must have been interesting having so many artists in your family. My people are straight as straight, hence the panic when I took a year off before university and then another after undergrad.

jenny you need to do this quiz now. I want to see!

1. Father went to college
2. Father finished college
3. Mother went to college
4. Mother finished college
5. Have any relative who is an attorney,</b<
physician, or professor.
My father… definitely one of the sraights.

6. Were the same or higher class than your high school teachers.

7. Had more than 50 books in your childhood home.
8. Had more than 500 books in your childhood home.
Probably not, but got close to that when I was in high school. Most of ‘em mine.
9. Were read children’s books by a parent
Not often… but a read to a lot an assortment of aunts, great aunts and grandmother (lived with extended family)
10. Had lessons of any kind before you turned 18 I was taking classes at the Art Institute in Chicago in elementary school, and this just went on though high school, the Nelson-Atkins Gallery in Kansas City, the Kansas City Art Institute… with some clarinet lessons thrown in.
11. Had more than two kinds of lessons before you turned 18
If you include the clarinet lessons
Swimming, ballet, music (piano, violin, voice), a brief spurt with Judo.
12. The people in the media who dress and talk like me are portrayed positively
Only Tarantino would portray someone with a mouth like mine… as for dressing. Ha! … but I have great Obama T-shirt!
13. Had a credit card with your name on it before you turned 18
You’re f* out of your mind!
14. Your parents (or a trust) paid for the majority of your college costs.
Yep. Tuition at Wichita State University was $12.50 a semester hour in 1961.
15. Your parents (or a trust) paid for all of your college costs
16. Went to a private high school
17. Went to summer camp
I would have run away from home first!
18. Had a private tutor before you turned 18
My grandmother coached me with flash cards for the times tables in second grade…
19. Family vacations involved staying at hotels
Never. Family had a cabin on a lake in Michigan–hand pump for water, outhouse, potbellied stove.
20. Your clothing was all bought new before you turned 18. Yeah, and my mother was a seamstress… actually, did tayloring. Made a lot of my shirts in HS. My tastes were pretty flamboyant back then…
21. Your parents bought you a car that was not a hand-me-down from them
You gotta be kidding.
22. There was original art in your house when you were a child
Yep. By real artists, too. All in my family.
23. You and your family lived in a single-family house.
24. Your parent(s) owned their own house or apartment before you left home
25. You had your own room as a child
26. You had a phone in your room before you turned 18
27. Participated in a SAT/ACT prep course
I took it cold and got a small scholarship. Nobody had tutors for SAT’s in 1959.
28. Had your own TV in your room in high school
First TV in the house: 1948. A 10 inch Motorola.
Color TV in 1954. In its own room.
29. Owned a mutual fund or IRA in high school or college
May I quote Imani? “HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.”
30. Flew anywhere on a commercial airline before you turned 16
Actually I did… across Lake Michigan returning from Chicago after a funeral for the father of my best friend… a two engine prop job. 1956. Wasn’t on a plane again until 1964… another funeral. My mother’s sister. Stabbed to death by her husband.
31. Went on a cruise with your family
There seems to be something to those.)
32. Went on more than one cruise with your family
33. Your parents took you to museums and art galleries as you grew up My homes away from home
34. You were unaware of how much heating bills were for your family
Money was my father’s business, no one else’s.

The straight folks in my family (non-artists): strong middle of the middle, kind of kept the rest of us together–the ones who slid off into what Paul Fussell calls the x class. I came along about 3o years too soon for a lot of those questions.

My mother certainly valued culture and education but the first in a more abstract way compared to my active interest, so it seems to me. (The only other relative into it, and who actually wishes to pursue a career in the performing arts, is an adopted cousin and, basically, almost everyone is against it.) Family bought me books but they didn’t do that much reading themselves outside of the Bible & Daily Bread. My Mom would send me to classical music performances — with family friends or something. Art galleries? Pshaw. *I* watched operas and ballets on TV (on the phenomenal Classical Showcase — do you know about it?) until my aunt ran me off complaining about all that “ooOoOO” racket coming from the speakers 24/7.

Everyone liked plays though. My younger brother is closer to the mold.