FSB

Now that we have finished Liar's club, it is now our responsibility to embark on reading Fathers, Sons, and Brothers. Unlike Mary Karr's Liar's Club, Brett Lott's novel is an easy flowing book that involves several page breaks along with large text per page. So far the book is off to an interesting start, filling us in on the type of family that the main character has had throughout his lifetime. Surprisingly, the author starts the book out with talking about his appreciation for garages, but does eventually tie the resemblance of the garage in with his family. The garage is the place to spend time playing fort with your brothers and let your imagination go wild. "My dad would hose out the entire garage, giving the concrete floor a slick sheen, a temptation too great for us"(4). This is Lott describing one of the games the boys would play in the garage, where they would slide in and out of the garage until the wet concrete would dry up.

Being that this class is based on family, this is an important book to read revealing what it's like to grow up with three brothers all close in age and a family that moves frequently do to the Fathers career. Though my family doesn't personally relate to Brett Lott's, I do know of several of my friends that are mirror images of the Lott family. However, like the Lott family, my family does have quiet the collection of home videos and I can relate to watching videos of my early years just like Lott mentions in his description. "There is a home movie of two of us sitting on the edge of the swimming pool at our grandma and grandpa's old apartment building in Culver City."(25). After reading this description, I instantly think back to the summer of 1998 when my brother and i were racing in our hotel pool while my parents and grandparents took turns video taping the outcome of each race.

Memory list

Being put out into an unfamiliar environment has never really been to much of a challenge for myself, however this summer changed things for me as well as three of my best friends. We had just arrived in Amsterdam to start out our 52 day backpacking excursion when the culture shock really hit us. We literally were running into each other, oblivious to which direction to head in order to find our hostel that we would be staying in. With a bit of help from the airport information counter, we got set in the correct direction, boarded a train and headed to our hostel. Once we hit the actual city, it wasn't too hard to locate our hostel, however I will never forget this memory of myself thinking "we are screwed and there is no way we can manage for 52 days", but like Darwin would say "only the strong survive."

I'm not too sure why I'm sharing this, but it is one of my more stronger childhood memories. I have always been known to be a bit cocky, especially when it came to doing some kind of dangerous stunt. So with all of this said, it was a spring day back in probably fourth grade and my friends and I were all climbing my friend Celik's crabapple tree. Being a fairly athletic person, I decided that instead of using the rope ladder to climb out of the tree, I would instead jump for it like Tarzan. I didn't exactly take momentum into play, and when i grabbed the ladder in mid-air, my body went head over heals and I fell probably seven feet flat on my back in the lawn. I couldn't even stand and felt I would be paralyzed for life, but my friends and I still to this day have an on going joke about how the only thing I kept saying was "just don't tell my mom."

Since Dad's weekend just occurred, it has mad me think a lot about bonding experiences that I've had with my Father. My Dad has always been the handy-man around town, so sometimes he decides to bring me along for some of the jobs that he has. This summer he had me help him with yet another tree removal job. So like always, Dad had the job start of with me climbing the tree in order to tie a rope around it, while he greased up his chainsaw. After setting up and taking precautions we began our work, with me anchoring the rope to cause tension while he made a wedge cut in the tree. Unfortunately the tree began falling before we expected, so I was forced to run as fast as I could away from the tree in order to control the fall. I ended tripping and had the tree fall about five feet from me, but I'll never forget my Dad walking over to me, and saying " after 18 years of raising you, you still don't know how to run on your own two feet."

sorry for no pictures, they won't upload for some reason

Re-600 word

In the novel The Liars' Club, Mary Karr shows us that Mary feels more attachment toward her father than any other adult figure. With the family going through a divorce and other turmoil, Mary and Lecia find it a necessity to keep strong ties with their distant Father.

“What Lecia said to Daddy that night stays with me, for she was suddenly issuing orders again, first for the operator to put us through, then to Daddy absent so long I faltered conjuring his face. Here’s exactly what Lecia said: “Daddy, you need to get us two airplane tickets back down there from Denver.” She didn’t ask, there was no maybe threaded through her voice, no sliver of doubt. […] The receiver was warm on my ear. Daddy wanted to know one thing: “You ‘bout ready to come home, Pokey?”” (256, 257). 

In this image, Lecia "issuing orders again," "she didn't ask, there was no maybe," Lecia's stern actions and Karr's choice of words lets the reader know just what it would have been like to be on the other end of the phone as if you were Daddy. Also, Lecia's dictating and lack of politeness portrays a feeling of urgency for the girls to meet back up with Daddy. Daddy even lets Mary know that he too is feeling the separation, by asking "You 'bout ready to come home, Pokey?" This passage gives the reader the first true feeling of the Fathers absence.

Another image where Mary portrays her strong relationship with her father is in the scene where Mary has returned home from College and Daddy is cutting her steak. "Still, on my first visit home from college, he not only spooned my plate high, but actually used his pocketknife to saw my T-bone into a grid of tiny bites."(278).

This is a very colorful image that recaptures Mary and her fathers relationship. After all these years, Mary is now all grown up and her father still loves and even babies her. Though this may seem a bit strange being that karr is all grown up, it gives me a perfect picture of the fathers smiling face as he slops food onto her plate, and cuts up her T-bone steak. Karr also realizes that this kind gesture is ridiculous, but she lets Daddy go on with it because she knows it feeds Daddy satisfaction.

8 descriptions

"Daddy later said the tower swayed back and forth in the gale. He and Ben Bederman swore they had to hold on to the countertops while the rolling chairs slid around. Through the observation window, they watched a grey wall of water twenty feet high move up the canal toward town."(97) This description makes the reader feel as if they are also there. I imagine myself completely scared sliding around in a wheeled chair, just watching water rush toward me.

"I sat in the back of Uncle Frank's white convertible going home with Lecia blubbering nonstop in the front bucket seat and him putting his hammy hand on her shoulder every now and then, telling her it was okay, to just cry it out."(99) This description shows the role of each character. Lecia being older gets to ride up front, while Mary rides in the back, and Uncle Frank takes on the father figure role for the time being by trying to calm the kids emotions.

"Later that evening, Daddy was frying up a chicken, and she chased me down over something mean I'd said about Grandma. She was fast even then (in junior high, she would run anchor on the four-forty relay), so I didn't make it a half turn around the yard before she caught me by the back of my collar and yanked me down from behind."(100) This lets you know more about Lecia, like how she was fast and did appreciate Grandma.

"It was hanging in a giant tear right over my face, swinging side to side like a pendulum, when Daddy came slamming out the screen to haul her off me."(101) This is just a great simile describing the spit wad that Lecia had hanging from her mouth.

"The sheriff would unzip the bag's top a little bit, and the daddy would peer in, then shake his head no. Then he'd step back while the sheriff rezipped before going on to the next bag."(103-104) This quote reminds me of watching the news. All the time you see on the news a pile of body bags with people peering into the bags, trying to identify the dead.

"There was a wide blood-colored scar up one shin where one of Lee Gleason's quarter horses had thrown Daddy, then dragged him around the corral till six inches of white shinbone was visible on that leg. "(110) This is a vivid description that explains just some of the hard times the father has been through. It is also interesting, because this lets the readers know of an event that has literally scarred the father for life.

"Once the men figure the water's verging on deep enough, they fan out from each other, unrolling the net while they do it, passing it hand to hand, till it's pretty straight. All told, it might be thirty or forty yards long. Then everybody just walks back to the beach real slow, each fellow hanging on to his hunk of net, which strains out whatever swims in its path."(111) The reader gets a good idea as to how the men go about fishing with this net.

"I'd never seen a shark up close before, and what stuck me was how chinless it was, its mouth drawn low down where its neck should have been. This gave it a deep, snaggle-toothed frown and kept it from looking smart"(111) Instead of just simply saying she saw a hammer-head shark, Mary Karr gets very descriptive to let the reader know her personal feelings toward this animal.

Hurricane Carla

A. Please write specifically about Mary's feelings about her grandmother. What are some of her grandmother's habits? What does she suffer from? What does she think about Mary and Lecia? What does she reveal to Mary about Mary's mother?

If you cannot remember the answers to these questions, don't despair. Write as much as you can about the relationship.

B. Briefly, What causes Mary and her family to run from Leechfield? What happens on the bridge?

For the most part, Mary is just treating the situation like most kids would. "Dear Grandma, I hope you are getting better. There was a man in a car wreck who died three feet tall. Here is the man. Then there is a horizontal stick figure with X's for eyes next to a bubble-shaped car with what looks like a Band-Aid on it. I guess that was my studied approximation of death at the time."(49) She understands that the problem is serious, but being a kid and all, she will use her imagination to try and block out reality. Mary is really grossed out by the whole situation, she does not know how to handle the smells her grandma produces, nor the sight of her leg. "I wanted to leave right away, just looking at that leg."(52) She even refers to her Grandmas breath as a "snake smell" and "death stink".(79)

The Grandma has taken on bad habits to try and ease the pain, she drinks at least a six pack a day, is forgetful of names, and even abuses the use of children's pain killers.

The Grandmother suffers from Cancer which started in her leg and has now made it's way to her brain. Because of the illness, the Grandmother has an amputated leg and a terrible stench that comes from her throat.

The grandmother feels that Mary and Lecia are spoiled and could use a good beating. The grandmother even goes as far as to create a tasseled horse quirt, expecting the mother to beat the two. "These children are being ruined! you think you have trouble now, you just wait." (73)

The Grandmother reveals to Mary her two step-siblings, Tex and Belinda. It appears that Marry's mom had a completely different family that Mary was never aware of. "Sometime during that whipping, I began to rid of Tex and Belindas existence."(78) Mary never should have never found that out and was enraged when she did.

Mary and her family leave Leechfield to avoid getting hit badly by a hurricane. While on the bridge, the weather cause the Mother to swerve and hit a guard rail.

Liars Club continued

Hello once again bloggers,

"Dear Grandma, I hope you are getting better. There was a man in a car wreck who died three feet tall. Here is the man. Then there is a horizontal stick figure with X's for eyes next to a bubble-shaped car with what looks like a Band-Aid on it. I guess that was my studied approximation of death at the time."(49) It's strange how a young child can't fully comprehend death, but uses there own unique message to try an let everyone they to know what's going on.

The author, Karr, goes into such vivid detail describing what it was like to see her Grandma battling through Cancer. "It was then that I found out that the snake smell wasn't just from her bedpan or some old food getting nasty somewhere in the room. It came from her. In fact, it came from her open mouth, from deep inside her where the cancer was doubtless eating out whatever was human."(78)

As one reads on from page 23-97, they can't help but think of a traumatic time period of their own life. The first memory that came to mind after reading this passage, was when I was in 5th grade and my dog was dying from old age. My parents raised my dog Shiba and I as if we were twins from the same egg, so this was especially harder on me knowing that I was soon to be out living my "sister." Like the author Mary Karr just sitting and watching her Grandma counting down the days, I too was counting down the moments I had left together with my dog Shiba. I, along with my family was stuck in a awful situation, it was either continue to watch Shiba struggle, or pull the plug. Though hard to do, I was given my final morning with Shiba, only to realize when I came home from school I would never see her again.

Though this is not a family event, this experience just recently happened to me and I feel it's worth telling. Over break, around Christmas time, my good friend Molly, invited me over for a holiday five dollar gift exchange party. Unfortunately I didn't read the invite until ten minutes before the party, so I had to scavenge around my house for a gift worth giving. The best thing I could find was a homemade jar of jam (flavor unkown), so my friend agreed to get me a candle in case I wanted to have a "better" gift. I turned down his offer saying that I wanted to give away a unique gift that stood out. Once the party got under way and everyone was settled into the living room, it was time for the "White Elephant" gift exchange. The gift I ended up receiving was a cheap rotating picture frame, so I didn't feel to bad about my jam present. Finally, when it came time, a fairly plump woman drew my package and was thrilled thinking she got a candle, however I had to explain to her that it was only homemade jam and it was at that time that the entire party became silent and laughed at me for bringing such a cheap present. I didn't really get to offended, however I will always be known as the person who brought that cheap jar of jam to a holiday gift exchange.

Liars Club/Memoir

What up Blog readers,

After successfully reading the first chapter of the Liars Club, I can now tell you that it is an interesting story about a struggling family that lives out in Lubbock Texas. The story starts out with an interesting "thriller movie" twist, where as you first hear of an incident that took place, but you must read on to figure out what happened. I particularly enjoyed this, because it makes me want to further read on and find out just what happened.

At first the novel was a bit confusing, but it then leads into smaller stories so you can get a better perspective toward each character. It's still hard to get an exact read on what type of a person the main character "Pokey"(not sure if it's her real name, but what dad calls her) is, however I'm sure as we read on it will be discovered.

The author does a great job of portraying the transformation between the parents. At first the dad appears to be some alcohol abusing parent that lacks any interest in anything, but as the novel goes on you learn that the dad was a caring person who included his daughter in his "Liar's Club" (daily getaway location so he can play domino's with his pals). The father was even said to have spoiled the main character by buying her things she wanted, such as coke.

As for the mother, not to much is known other than the fact that she has had several husbands, because she believes in marriage, not dating due to the interests of her mother's Methodist beliefs.

Along with the assignment to read Liar's Club, we were also assigned to read the first ten pages of The Memoir and the Memoirist.

After reading the first ten pages of The Memoirist, I feel the purpose of this reading is to condition our brains toward the thought process of writing a memoir as we proceed toward our final assignment. Thomas Larson, the author, talks of how he has a class of several students from all over, who seek him to teach his expertise on writing a memoir. This is analogous of our class, because we too are strangers meeting in a common place getting ready to write a memoir.

Once again signing out, I'll be back soon

English Experiances

Hello Blog readers,
My birth name is Alexander Johnson, however I am known by most as A.J. The main purpose of this blog is to inform you of my past English experiences.

If I were to guess, I'd say my first true experiences with English came in early childhood with the discovery of Sesame Street. Although my parents were the primary source of my learnings, those Sesame Street songs and activities really stuck in my mind and had a way with me.

Elementary school through College has truly been the most note worthy instructers to me. I'll never forget my eight grade English Teacher, I will not share her name for obvious reasons, however she was as strict as a drill sargent. This woman was about 65 years old, five foot four, had the skin color of an orange and would make you shake at the bone. Though at the time I hated watching School House Rock as a 13 year old, I now appreciate the hard work and discipline, because it really helped mold me into the type of writer that I am today.

I'm now signing out Blog world, but I will be back with more posts!