Awarded the gift of gab?

A belated thank you to Donna Volkenannt for the SISTERS OF THE QUILL blog award. Another thank you to Sioux for the STYLISH BLOGGER AWARD. Also thank you to Dianna Graveman for passing on the VERSATILE BLOGGER AWARD.
I am instructed to share seven things with you. This list is, shall we say, comprehensive.

Seven things about me:
1. I saw Dr. Zhivago on the big screen at age sixteen, was so impressed, I came home and wrote the entire script in a notebook. American Bandstand and Elvis rocked my world. Dean Martin crooned to ME, not those Gold Diggers. The Beatles didn’t do a thing for me. Chad Everett was MY Dr. Dreamy.

2. I worked at a photo developing company in high school. I was quite dexterous, operated a huge IBM billing machine using both hands. I could bill faster than anyone in any of the plants across the US. They filmed my technique and used it as part of a training film. Then, I was promoted to the office where I did the daily bank deposits for fifteen branch stores. Imagine, seventeen, working part time and handling big money. I also operated an old fashioned plug in cord switchboard, and I loved it.

3. Nineteen, married a year and my ex was drafted and shipped to Alaska instead of Viet Nam. We lived in Delta Junction; population 500, in 1969-1970, where a herd of free roaming buffalo traversed our gravel road and shook the ground as they rumbled by each night. One night I came face to face with a massive female and her calf. I gasped and backed into my door. She snorted and moved into the woods across the road. Temperature was fifty below zero.

4. I developed a love of writing at eight years old when I learned to write essays in third grade. Word play has always been a delight, diagramming sentences a breeze, and book reports were fun. In high school my junior year, my English teacher would leave the room and put me in charge of her class. In college, the instructor wrote on my journal, “If I graded these on a competitive basis you would have the only A in this class and the next highest grade would be a C-.

5. A junior editor from Parents Magazine called to tell me he was unable to convince the editor-in-chief to publish my article. He said, “Don’t let this stop you from writing; you have a unique writing style.” Several male and a couple of female editors from magazines and newspapers have called to tell me my essays made them cry.

6. My dream as a young girl was to have four children, three girls and one boy. After having a daughter and a son, I quit. I remarried a man with two grown daughters. We now have three daughters and a son. I have always received what I’ve wished for in life, but seldom when I wanted it.

7. When I was married for the first time, and we had only one car, I coveted a little ranch house in the suburbs that I used to drive by when I took my ex to work. When my second husband and I were looking for a house, our realtor told us she had one more to show us, out of our price range, but … To say I was shocked when she pulled into the driveway of that house is an understatement. The elderly woman accepted our low bid, and I now live in the home I always wanted. I believe in God, positive energy, spirituality more than organized religions, and faith.

Now I pass these awards to Susan and Odie, the first to comment on my blog.