People

[pecunium]

Strange moments in everyday life. Went out to supper with my dad, sisters, step-mother (they are divorced now, but family is strange), and some other people. One of the other people knocked my new OBEV (to me, rummage sale score; good condistion, $.25) off the counter.

She said, "I think I knocked something down," I said, "Oh, that was my book."

"Oh, you read," in tone much as one might comment that a dog spoke. It was bizarre.

Then she refused to believe I was my sister's brother. When I said I was her brother I got a dismissive hand-wave, and, "Oh yes, I KNOW all the family."

She insisted on thinking I was someone from UT, whom my sister was dating: Much attempt at inquisition. I think this is because my sister has a boyfriend, and she was trying to find out, from me, how I had supplanted him.

Oi.

Comments

[harimad.livejournal.com]

That is creepy. One of the many reasons I feel like a fish out of water when I visit NC family. Going to church with them makes it all the more apparent. Then there was the time I went to a Southern small-church wedding...

I shall remained creeped out. That is, when I'm not distracted by how you could have played along with the new boyfriend schtick.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

I suppose, though that would have required a bit more awareness of the details of UT.

What was interesting was the cues she had that I wasn't eligible for the role in which she was casting me. We'd already covered my speaking four languages one of which was explained to have been gained in college.

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I got a similar level of disdain (and disgust) from a neighbor in the mid-'70s: "oh, you're a college girl." Then again, I was an outcast simply because my husband and I did the dishes and laundry together. The kitchen was at the front of the mobile home, so the neighbors could see us doing the dishes together. "My husband did the dishes once," a neighbor explained. It was when she was in the hospital during the birth of their first child. When the second child was born, he simply let the dirty dishes stack up.

And so on. It's harder when it's family, even family where there's not a lot of in-person interaction.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

This wasn't, "college boy," it was something else. It was her first reaction, before she knew anything about me.