Friday, December 8, 2006
Notes From Tanya:
I just wanted to post a note here telling you what we are doing. This blog is a record of the life of my friend RKat14 who is 67 years old, he is a resident of the State of Maine and has been all his life. He worked as a fisherman or in the fishing industry for at least 45 years. I am working with him on his reading, writing and math through the Literacy Volunteers of Greater Portland program. We meet at the local library once a week to study and we will be working on a Autobiography of his life using the book "The Book of Myself" by Carl and David Marshall. This book gives us 201 Questions to work from. We will be writing on one question a week, perhaps more than one, depending on our time. RKat14 has been trying to learn to read for years, he feels good about his progress right now.
If I had any trouble with Mom growing up, it was in this area:
Being a little small kid, well, I couldn't understand why we couldn't have the same things other kids had and why I had problems with learning, I did. She used to send me to the store after cigarettes or something and I would come back with something else, I would forget what she wanted, she never got mad at me. I used to hate to take it back and change it because it embarrassed me, she used to give me a note to remember what I needed to get, to give to the store man. He was a Greek guy, he couldn't read the note either half the time, he was from Greece.
Once I wanted five dollars, I was maybe 14 and I gave her a hard time because she couldn't give it to me, it was to go out with my friends to get gas for their car to go sneak into the drive in.
Once I stole some candy out of a store, my Mom knew it somehow, not from the store man, I was eating it, I guess I had it all over me, and I don't know why I did that, because we always had candy at home, and I had a little argument with her because she wanted me to go back to the store and tell the man what I did and tell him I would pay him the two pennies someday when I earned it, or if he had something for me to do to earn it. A penny was quite a lot when I was kid. You could get two or three little pieces of candy for a penny, whatever the storekeeper wanted to give you.
And I couldn't understand, I used to argue with her, because my father never took me to ball games or to movies like the other fathers took their kids, or helped them with their homework, cause he was never home much. My father was brought up a fisherman from five years old, from Vinalhaven, his father was from Friendship, then they moved to Vinalhaven for some reason. Bought a house there. Then his last year of high school they moved up to Portland, he finished his last year of high school in Portland but he never picked his diploma up, the day he was supposed to pick it up he took off on a fishing boat to Grand Banks.
Since he was never around much she was all I had, she was all I had to talk to, I didn't understand, due to my learning disability. I had aunts and uncles but they were all doing their own thing, most of them all worked with fish, both sides. They were raising their own families, there was a lot of drinking in the family. My mom never drank much, but she smoked a lot.
Another reason I had problems with my mom was because she was sickly and I didn't understand, I would hurt her feelings a lot, I made her cry a couple times. As the years went by, as I got older, when I worked I would give her most of my money, but she wouldn't take it, she would only take a few dollars of it. When I cut clams, shucked clams for my uncle, I made about $35 a week, it was piece work, you only worked when they had the clams, my uncle owned a clam shop, his father owned it first, my grandfather. It was pretty good back then, you had to shuck a lot of clams to make that kind of money. And I bought my Mom a parlor set one time, a couch, a chair, end tables, and a couple lamps. She was so proud of that for a long time. I made the down payment and a few payments and then the place went out of business so I never got another bill or nothing.
I had lots of trouble with my Mom because I was closest to her, I had aunts and uncles I was close to, they tried to help me with reading, but they all had different ways so it was confusing. I don't know if many of them went to high school, they knew a lot of math, they knew reading, but they never talked much about themselves. Drinking played a big role in their life growing up because they didn't know as much about it then as they do now.
Once I wanted five dollars, I was maybe 14 and I gave her a hard time because she couldn't give it to me, it was to go out with my friends to get gas for their car to go sneak into the drive in.
Once I stole some candy out of a store, my Mom knew it somehow, not from the store man, I was eating it, I guess I had it all over me, and I don't know why I did that, because we always had candy at home, and I had a little argument with her because she wanted me to go back to the store and tell the man what I did and tell him I would pay him the two pennies someday when I earned it, or if he had something for me to do to earn it. A penny was quite a lot when I was kid. You could get two or three little pieces of candy for a penny, whatever the storekeeper wanted to give you.
And I couldn't understand, I used to argue with her, because my father never took me to ball games or to movies like the other fathers took their kids, or helped them with their homework, cause he was never home much. My father was brought up a fisherman from five years old, from Vinalhaven, his father was from Friendship, then they moved to Vinalhaven for some reason. Bought a house there. Then his last year of high school they moved up to Portland, he finished his last year of high school in Portland but he never picked his diploma up, the day he was supposed to pick it up he took off on a fishing boat to Grand Banks.
Since he was never around much she was all I had, she was all I had to talk to, I didn't understand, due to my learning disability. I had aunts and uncles but they were all doing their own thing, most of them all worked with fish, both sides. They were raising their own families, there was a lot of drinking in the family. My mom never drank much, but she smoked a lot.
Another reason I had problems with my mom was because she was sickly and I didn't understand, I would hurt her feelings a lot, I made her cry a couple times. As the years went by, as I got older, when I worked I would give her most of my money, but she wouldn't take it, she would only take a few dollars of it. When I cut clams, shucked clams for my uncle, I made about $35 a week, it was piece work, you only worked when they had the clams, my uncle owned a clam shop, his father owned it first, my grandfather. It was pretty good back then, you had to shuck a lot of clams to make that kind of money. And I bought my Mom a parlor set one time, a couch, a chair, end tables, and a couple lamps. She was so proud of that for a long time. I made the down payment and a few payments and then the place went out of business so I never got another bill or nothing.
I had lots of trouble with my Mom because I was closest to her, I had aunts and uncles I was close to, they tried to help me with reading, but they all had different ways so it was confusing. I don't know if many of them went to high school, they knew a lot of math, they knew reading, but they never talked much about themselves. Drinking played a big role in their life growing up because they didn't know as much about it then as they do now.
Friday, December 1, 2006
One of Mom's traits I admired was:
Well, she didn't go to school alot. She was a good storyteller mostly about family history. When my father didn't make much money she made sure that we always had heat. It was rough fishing in the winter 'specially if they didn't get much fish. Fisherman get paid by shares. The Captain and the boat get the first share and the crew gets what's afterwards. Depends on how much they get.
She used to tell us bedtime stories. She'd make us say our little prayer at night me and my sister Bea. She used to make sure we were warm at night when the old wood stove would only heat one room. Sometimes in zero below weather we had to go sit around the old wood stove, it was cold too. She used to bundle us up in coats and blankets. She used to walk the floor nights worried over my father being at sea. He was lost in a couple hurricanes.
She used to make sure we kept clean and dressed nice, we always had new Easter clothes somehow. She wore an Easter bonnet, you don't see that much these days. And she told us what religion we were between Episcopalian and Baptist but she said we could choose when we were older. She had us baptised in both churches I guess. She knew that when we got married we might change religious beliefs.
She knew that we had learning problems, me and my sister Bea.
She used to tell us bedtime stories. She'd make us say our little prayer at night me and my sister Bea. She used to make sure we were warm at night when the old wood stove would only heat one room. Sometimes in zero below weather we had to go sit around the old wood stove, it was cold too. She used to bundle us up in coats and blankets. She used to walk the floor nights worried over my father being at sea. He was lost in a couple hurricanes.
She used to make sure we kept clean and dressed nice, we always had new Easter clothes somehow. She wore an Easter bonnet, you don't see that much these days. And she told us what religion we were between Episcopalian and Baptist but she said we could choose when we were older. She had us baptised in both churches I guess. She knew that when we got married we might change religious beliefs.
She knew that we had learning problems, me and my sister Bea.
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