This week’s Sunday Stealing is part of the 200 questions that Bev used the past three weeks. Here are 15 more from the same source, so I dubbed it 200.04. These were particularly intriguing, especially the question about solitary.
1. What do you want to be remembered for?
Let’s lean into the things I’m already known for: being my daughter’s father, being on Jeopardy, working at FantaCo comic book store, being a librarian for the New York Small Business Development Center, being smart, being kind (well, usually)
2. If you were put in solitary confinement for a year, what would you do to stay sane?
I would think of all the British Beatles albums, singles, and a selected EP and try to figure out which tracks showed up on which Beatles US albums. Remembering the books of the Bible, which I used to know; I’m now weak on the minor prophets. Figuring out square roots. Trying to remember the musical artists I have in my collection and to think of as many songs by each of them as possible, starting with ABBA (Waterloo) would be the first off; Paula Abdul – what do I know of hers besides Straight Up? Remembering all the presidents of the United States and trying to remember their vice presidents and members of their cabinets.
If I had paper and pencil, I’d write my thoughts. A deck of cards could be entertaining. If I had books, I’d read them.
Where’s the video?
3. If you could have a video of any one event in your life, what event would you choose?
It was a performance of the Green Family Singers; my father Les, my sister Leslie, and I sang at an American Legion Hall near Binghamton in 1970. It was a particularly rowdy audience for us, but we went with it. Somebody asked me recently if I had a recording of my father singing, and I don’t, so that would be really cool.
4. What are the top 3 things you want to accomplish before you die? Have you accomplished them?
One is to get our daughter through college; we’re in the process of that. One is to get further in genealogy. As I’ve mentioned before, there are two nuts to crack: my father’s mother’s father’s parents and the parents of my mother’s father’s mother, Margaret Collins. It would be satisfactory to get to that level in all branches. I’m talking to somebody from the Smithsonian this week about Samuel Walker, so I’m hopeful on that line. The third thing is something I’m working on, but I’m not willing to announce at this point. So, I have not accomplished any of them yet.
5. If you were forced to live one 10-minute block of your life again and again, what 10 minutes of your life would you choose.
I can think of a lot of things that I won’t share here. If pressed, I’d say the Double Jeopardy and Final Jeopardy rounds of the first show I was on.
6. Have you ever saved someone’s life?
Possibly. Twice, I’ve yanked kids out of traffic. Once I performed the Heimlich.
Is this a surprise?
7. What are you addicted to?
Music. I have a very difficult time doing most things without music. When I’m cleaning, or when I used to work at FantaCo or the NYS SBDC, I usually had music on, even if it’s with headphones. If I write, the music is on. Right now, it’s Traveling Wilburys Volume 3, which ends with a great song, The Wilbury Twist; it always makes me laugh.
8. What keeps you up at night?
This is a pretty regular occurrence: conversations I should have had, conversations I should not have had, things that could have said better, and things that I haven’t accomplished. A coterie of things.
9. What do you regret not doing?
Often, I play through scenarios whereby what would it have meant if I had done X versus Y? But the truth is that because I did Y, other things resulted. So I can’t dwell on it too much. I mean, I DO, but I shouldn’t because it’s not particularly useful.
10. What gives your life meaning?
The usual: friends, family, music, being useful
11. What are you most insecure about?
Body image
Busted?
12. What’s the most illegal thing you’ve done?
Back in the 1980s, a friend’s uncle was going through chemo, and he wanted to get some marijuana so that the uncle could stop feeling so nauseous. Somebody I used to work with almost certainly could get me some pot. So I bought it and sold it to my friend at cost. Now, marijuana is legal in many places, at least for medical purposes, but at the time, I could have been busted.
13. What’s the most surprising self-realization you’ve had?
I’m a bit sad that I haven’t traveled to many places: 32 U.S. states and four countries other than the United States. I was doing this project with my daughter, and I realized that it made me insist that she get her passport, which had expired at least seven years before, and I’m hoping that she travels abroad a lot more than I did
14. If you could make one rule that everyone had to follow, what would it be?
Try to make places safe for yourself and others. Two examples. When we were driving to church last Sunday, this woman, probably in her 20s, was on her phone, and she walked right in front of a car, surprised that it was there. She stopped before getting hit. Look around, people, and get out of your darn phone. Also, I was on a bus coming home from the drugstore. A person came in with two heavy bags. When I wanted to get off the bus, I noticed they had placed the two heavy bags at the exit of the bus instead of on a seat – the bus wasn’t very crowded – so they created an obstruction for someone like me to get off the bus. I had to squeeze past the bags, which didn’t make me feel safe and secure.
15. In what situation or place would you feel most out of place?
A room full of strangers with whom I am expected to interact.
About half of the Adult Contemporary #1 hits for 1984 were very familiar to me. Incidentally, starting with the October 20 charts, Billboard changed the name to Hot Adult Contemporary.
About a week after my wife and I returned from Chautauqua in early August, we, plus our daughter, took the trains down to Washington, DC, to visit museums and do the tourist thing.
This past spring semester, the daughter’s final project for her sculpture, mold-making, and casting class involved ten candles. Although the project had to include making molds and casting, it was otherwise open-ended, so one could use whatever material they wanted. It didn’t have to have a theme, but it should be a cohesive project, not random.
Here’s my dad’s cousin Ruth (R) with two of her children. My sister Leslie and I saw her in October 2022 at the church we all grew up in, Trinity AME Zion in Binghamton, NY. She pointed out a room that used to be a Sunday school classroom where my paternal grandmother Agatha Green used to teach Sunday school to me and a bunch of other kids. It is now a room of noted members of the Trinity family, and she asked us for large photos of our parents for the wall, which we still need to get for her.
In July 2024, sister Leslie was in Binghamton for her high school reunion. She went to see Cousin Ruth. Ruth gave her a whole bunch of information about the genealogy of the Walker clan. Ruth’s father was Earl; Earl was my paternal grandmother’s brother, so Ruth was my father’s first cousin. She was over a dozen years younger than him, so she didn’t know all the early stories about my father, but she knew him like a big brother.