Buffy and Susan have both listed 100 things about themselves on their blogs. Since I don't think I've done anything interesting lately, I'll try it. If I stop short of a hundred, maybe it's because I don't know myself that well, or don't think I'm an interesting person, or something.
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1. I was born early on one frosty morning (3:00 a.m.) at home, in east Birmingham, AL. My daddy ran all the way from Hammond Camp to Irondale to get Dr. Bobo. The doctor wrote my name on the birth record as Sarah Joe Ann; when Mama saw this, she had it corrected to Sara Joanne.
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2. When I was born, I had two grandmothers, two grandfathers, a great-grandmother and a step-great-great-grandmother. Somewhere there's a picture of Maw Maw, Granny Ella, and Step-Granny Retter holding infant me, but I can't find the photo.
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3. My mother said that as an infant, I had a line of hair down my backbone, and a row of 3 tiny brown spots on my right shoulder. I've still got the spots, but the hair disappeared, like most of the other hair on me but earlier. My Indian name could have been Three Mole.
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4. My Uncle Douglas was 4 years old, nearly 5, when I was born. He got a red wagon for Christmas that year, and a few days later, he pulled it out onto the front porch and started down the steps. Asked where he was going, he said, "I'm going to show my new wagon to Gordy's baby." His 7-year-old sister, Bobbie Lee, said, "Why, Doug, don't you know that little thing hasn't got its eyes open yet?"
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5. The first word I learned to read was SALT.
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6. I started to school at Crestline elementary school in Mountain Brook. We lived in a roomy old house on Overbrook road. My teacher was Miss Lula Woods.
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7. My best friends in first grade were Jake B. and Lucinda B. I remember Jake at my house, when we dressed up in some of Mama's old clothes, put on a pair of Mama's shoes, and they almost fit. Mama had tiny feet then.
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8. We moved to Leeds in the middle of my first school year. My Leeds first-grade teacher was Clara D.
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9. We (they) put on a Tom Thumb Wedding play that spring, and I was picked to be a bridesmaid. The other bridesmaids I remember were Mary Lou and Joyce Earle. Beverly F. was the bride, and Jack C. was the groom. He promised to stay married to her, provided she kept his shirts ironed neatly, and some other funny stuff. She promised to be his lawful partner, provided he did not smoke or drink or insult her mother. I thought those were the real wedding vows.
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This is the only extant "pretty" picture of me. Mama lost or threw away all the others, but she managed to keep the ugly or crazy-looking ones.
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10. In 7th grade, I was invited to join the staff of the school newspaper, The Green Wave, as an editorial writer. In 10th grade, I became editorial editor.
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11. I was elected president of my junior (11th grade) class. My escort for the Junior-Senior Prom was Talmadge P., only because we were class presidents.
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12. My senior class earned money for a spring trip to Washington, D.C. Mama bought me a pink-and-gray linen dress, yellow pajamas and a shiny black-and-gold bathrobe. Daddy bought me a black peau-de-soie cocktail dress with blue crystals on the skirt. About the trip, I remember almost nothing except the National Cathedral, which was still under construction, and the class donated all the money we had left to help pay for the rose window.
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13. I had recently broken up with two different boyfriends, and didn't have a date for my senior prom, so I didn't go.
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14. The University of Alabama awarded me a "fee scholarship," which meant I would have to pay for my room and board, books and special fees, so I went to work instead at the first of many clerical jobs I would have throughout the years. After working for a year, I went to the University anyway. While there, I worked at the fledgling public television station for 40 bucks a month, which I paid on my room and board. Somehow I made it through two years, with a good scholastic record.
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15. My work at the TV station was one of the happy times of my life. Besides being typist and general gofer, they let me learn and do many of the TV production jobs. I could do about anything except operate the cameras; at that time, they were so big and unwieldy, I couldn't handle them. I was floor manager for rehearsals of our live production of "La Boheme." We were the first public TV station in the country to broadcast.
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16. I got married at age 22, the last girl in my high school class to marry. I had the three best children in the world, eventually got divorced, and that's all of my life story I feel like writing. Didn't mean for it to be a biography.
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17. My favorite food is crisp bacon.
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18. My favorite drink is Folger's coffee.
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19. The book I've read the most times is Gone With the Wind.
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20. The movie I've seen the most times is "Titanic." Or maybe "Misery."
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21. My favorite singer was Elvis Presley. Still is.
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22. My favorite fantasy is that when Elvis's infant twin brother died, I got his spirit or personality or something vital. Elvis got the looks and talent, and I got the brains.
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23. I was 12 days older than Elvis.
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24. I liked the Beatles, with reservations.
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25. My favorite artists/painters are Titian, Rembrandt and Albrecht Durer.
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26. My favorite classical composer is Mozart.
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27. My favorite poets are Robert Browning, Gerard M. Hopkins and Robert Frost.
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28. My favorite novelists are Charles Dickens, Emily Bronte, Herman Melville, and Sena Jeter Naslund.
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29. My favorite biographers are Peter Ackroyd, Edmund Morris and David McCullough.
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30. I have two sisters, who are younger, prettier and more talented than I am.
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31. I'm a Christian. I was baptized by a Baptist preacher when I was 13 years old. After I married, my husband and I joined the Episcopal church. I'm not a regular churchgoer, because (1) I don't totally agree with the practices of any church that I know about, and (2) I'm too lazy and maybe self-conscious to enjoy being in crowds of people.
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32. I love Jesus, and I believe He's coming back soon.
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33. I believe in angels. They have saved my life at least twice.
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34. My ambition was to be a singer and a movie star.
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35. I have always been a writer and a poet.
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36. I have written three and a half novels.
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37. I have written approximately 400 poems.
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38. For seven years I was a secretary, then an assistant contracts administrator, in the Space Division of the General Electric Company.
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39. For ten years I was a claims representative in the Social Security administration.
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40. For 12 years I was first a secretary, then a computer technologist, at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, School of Medicine.
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41. I retired from UAB in 1999.
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42. I moved back to Leeds (from Birmingham) in 2000.
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43. The only movie star I've ever seen in person was Lash LaRue.
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44. I've been to all the states east of the Mississippi River except Arkansas, Missouri, Minnesota, Iowa, West Virginia and Delaware. The only trans-Mississippi state I've visited is Louisiana.
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45. I once went to Canada (Windsor, Ontario) with my Aunt and Uncle Collins.
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46. The farthest away from the U.S. I've been was Canterbury in England.
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47. The place I'd most like to visit is the Grand Canyon.
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48. My great-grandmother Eliza Jane was a Mescalero Apache Indian, said (but not documented) to be a daughter of Geronimo.
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49. My favorite movie actor currently is Brad Pitt.
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50. My favorite all-time movie actor was Gregory Peck.
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51. I think the best TV series show ever made was "Cheers." I generally don't like comedies, but "Cheers," up until Shelley Long left it, was a work of genius. After that, it was still good, and I don't think I ever missed an episode.
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52. I can't figure how Shelley Long managed to look like a beautiful angel on "Cheers," and so sharp and unattractive after that.
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53. The tallest I ever was (barefoot) was 5 feet, 2-1/2 inches. Since getting osteoporosis, I've shrunk to an even 5 feet.
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54. I drag my left foot, unless I'm careful.
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55. At age 74, I still have hot flashes.
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56. My first friend in Leeds was Bonnie (still living, and now living in Moody, which is next to Leeds).
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57. I have received 5 marriage proposals so far in my life. (Six. I forgot Marlow.) (Seven. I forgot Ralph.)
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58. I proposed to a boy in ninth grade science class, but he said to ask him again a few years later.
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59. My cat Maurice ("Mo") is the best cat in the world. Also the smartest and the sweetest.
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60. My cat Bob (Robert Rufus Redford, 1982-1991) was the greatest cat in the world before Mo.
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61. Bob disappeared in 1991, and I hunted for him for years.
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62. Once I dreamed I found Bob on a beach, only he wasn't a cat but a little boy with very short legs.
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63. The longest distance I ever drove was from Birmingham, Alabama to West Palm Beach, Florida, where I spent a month on a work detail for Social Security.
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64. The handsomest man I've ever seen in person was head of the Social Security Administration during my last years there.
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65. The most beautiful woman/girl I've ever seen in person was Jane H., whose grandparents lived next door to the Cages in East Lake. A few times, she babysat my daughter. Jane studied ballet, became a model at age 14, became a movie starlet and was in a movie with Burt Reynolds. She was one of the first models hired by the Wilhelmina agency, and modeled for them for many years.
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This is the only picture I could find online of Jane. It doesn't look like her. Hollywood makeup artists messed up her looks, as they did Lili Gentry and Tallulah Bankhead, to make them look like their contemporaries.
