I've Been Tagged....

Blogauthor (http://swingfromthechandelier.blogspot.com) was the one who did it. The best part about the tagging is she included me in a group of artists. I hope my quilting will someday be a way for me to express myself; right now I'm just a learner. But I'm honored that she put me in that category.

So five little known facts about me. Here goes.

1. A year after I graduated from college I went to Europe and got a job with the Overseas Weekly. It was a radical anti U.S. military newspaper based in Frankfurt, Germany and owned by two lesbians. I didn't know what that meant at the time. It was the Vietnam era with a whole lot of unrest among troops in Europe and elsewhere. We also had a Saigon edition and an office there. I was thrown off a lot of U.S. bases in Europe by base commanders who didn't like the questions I was asking. I also was the only female reporter on the staff which, for the most part, was former GIs who didn't want to go home after their Germany duty was completed. I learned more about life in the three years I worked there than I learned in college. The guys taught me to swear; they couldn't believe I had never done that. I also learned a few other things....
2. I married and divorced my son's father twice; just call me a slow learner.
3. My first job after college and before Europe was with Miller Publishing. I wrote for Hogfarm Management, Feedlot and Feedstuffs. Not very glamorous. It was the most sexist place I've ever worked.
4. I competed in the Miss Robbinsdale (my hometown in Minnesota) pageant and didn't win, but it was fun to ride in the parade on the Fourth of July. My boyfriend Roger drove my convertible. I later learned he was gay but boy could he ever dance. My best friend at the time got to be a princess but not Miss Robbinsdale.
5. I have had asthma since I was five; spent the next five years in and out of the hospital for at least two weeks at a time twice a year with pneumonia. Missed a lot of school but learned that reading was a great way to fill time when you are in an oxygen tent. I'm still an avid reader.

Reading back over them, I sound pretty boring.