Thursday, January 29, 2009
Research Questions
I'm starting to uncover family stories, but I'm also digging into the facts (dates, certificates, publications, etc.) that complicate the stories. For instance, I hear that Relative X was doing ABC with Relative Y; however, according to the obituary of Relative X, this is impossible. Do I then write about the facts? Do I ignore the facts and write down the story? Do I write them both down side-by-side and let my readers (including family) decide what they want to? What are the consequences of all three methods of "delivering" my family history?
And what if this sort of thing happens as I begin my service learning project? The people with whom I'll be working won't be my family, they won't know me, so how do I handle these inconsistencies?
I guess this all comes down to issues of truth. But I don't want my family history project to be centered around fact-as-truth. I want my deliverable to be a rich narrative, not a dry report. How well can I integrate narrative and report styles with my visuals? What do I say about the gaps and overlaps when it all comes together?
What are your thoughts?
Monday, January 19, 2009
My Subcultures
(Brand-Spanking-New) English Instructor
Ritual: I read the Norton Field Guide, create detailed lesson plans that are accompanied by writing assignments and in-class activities, spend a lot of time editing those lesson plans, and then spend my office hours comparing the lesson plans and assignments with other English instructors. I arrive at class about 5 minutes early, write pertinent notes on the chalkboard, squeeze into the kidney-bean-shaped circle my students have created, look at my materials for the day, and then look up to ask if anyone has any questions. I call roll, cover the material mapped out in my lesson plan, do an in-class activity, collect writing assignments, pass out new assignments, ask if my students have any questions, and then dismiss class. I leave class with a folder full of material to be graded.
Insider phrases: "What are you doing for the literacy narrative?" "How do you handle this?" "What's your attendance policy?"
Behaviors: I spend too many hours reading and way too many hours editing lesson plans at home at my computer desk. I spend also go to the library and Writing Center on a weekly basis. Overall, I spend daylight hours walking from building to building, from classroom to office and back, in clothes that I don't enjoy wearing in order to look somewhat professional. I never skip class because I am now an "example" for undergraduates to follow, so I can be found at the same places at the same times. The stress of teaching has also acted as a catalyst for my nail-biting habit, so I frequently enjoy a cuticle sandwich.
MMO (Mom's Morning Out) Member
Ritual: 9 a.m. Arrive at Community of Hope in Columbia City, Indiana, on the second Thursday of every month of the school year. Check in at the welcoming table and collect my B.A.B.E. coupon. Smile and wave. Walk downstairs to the gathering room and sit at one of six tables with six chairs. Smile and wave. Walk to the food and beverage tables to check out the breakfast dishes that are arriving. Smile and wave. Set down the juice and snack I just purchased at Kroger. Smile and wave. Return to my seat. Introduce myself to the moms arriving at my table.
9:30 a.m. Opening prayer, pregnancy and birth announcements, and a reading.
10:30 a.m. Brief activity during which I smile and say Hello to a few moms.
11:10 a.m. Everyone packs up and begins filtering out. Everyone smiles and waves.
Insider phrases: "When are you due?" "How long was your labor?" "How many kids do you have?"
Behaviors: Waving with a perma-smile plastered on our faces, eating not-good-for-you food when our guest speaker is a dietitian, whispering to each other during the long opening prayer-announcement-reading, touching each other's bellies, and looking at ultrasound photos.
Substitute Teacher
Ritual: Arrive early, check in with the office, get the sub folder and room key, go to the classroom, search for lesson plans, create lesson plans when none are found, locate the nearest bathroom and faculty lounge, and then return to the classroom and write name on the board. When class begins, I introduce myself, explain goals for the day along with the "quiet signal," and then begin following the lesson plan. When the last student has been dismissed for the day, I write the sub report, organize the teacher's desk and classroom, make contact with the absent teacher, and then check out with the office by returning the keys and sub folder.
Insider phrases: "Do you have something you want to share with the class?" "If you guys want to pass love notes, you can do that after school." "Everybody raise your hand. Touch your head. Touch your nose. Now leave it there!" "How do you define respect?" "What does your teacher do?" "Where does your teacher keep it?" "I'm sorry, but I'm not your teacher."
Behaviors: Calling the office, going to neighboring teachers for help, writing referrals, writing copious notes for the teacher, passing out stickers, "pulling cards," and showing a video when all else fails.
Freyer School
Yet to be posted is a late-1930s class picture including Nettie and Edward's oldest child, my great aunt Ginny.
Today the Freyer School still stands on the corner of Freyer and Eastwood now converted and expanded into Emmanuel Baptist Temple, 820 Eastwood Road.
Freyer Homestead
As the children reached adulthood, each was entitled to one acre upon which to build a home of their own. My great grandmother, Nettie Clara Freyer, married Edward Charles Jasch on June 1, 1925 and soon acquired an acre of her own on what is now Schnicke Road. A few decades later, this neighborhood became affectionately known as "Freyer-ville."
Nettie and Edward's second child, Charles "Peanut" Harry Jasch, later had an affair in December 1953 with an unknown but married woman. Two days after the birth of their son (my father, Brian Charles Jasch), the woman put the baby up for adoption. Later that night Peanut arrived at the house on Schnicke Road with my father, who was then raised by both Peanut and Nettie. (Edward had passed away on May 27, 1934, and Nettie had divorced both William Schnicke and Harry Ludington before my father's birth on September 13, 1954.)
Rumor has it (according to my great aunt Ginnie) that my paternal grandmother's family is Woodruff from Michigan City. However, my father's birth certificate is allegedly signed once as "Virginia Jasch" and another time as "Virginia Hopkins of South Bend, Indiana" (according to my mother Joyce). Without locating a copy of my father's birth certificate, I cannot confirm this; however, I can consider this a starting point.
Just in case anyone is curious about Robert and Dora's phenomenal amount of children, of the 21 born, there was only one set of twins. Including the twins, four other children died at birth and went unnamed. The 15 children are as follows: Lillian (1896), Martha (1897), Herbert (1899), Clarence (1901), Edgar (1904), Nettie (1906), Lena (1907), Minnie (1908), Ruth (1909), Eva (1912), Florence (1913), Dorothy (1916), Lester (1919), Willis (1921), and Marietta (1923). Between the ages of 17 and 44, a time span of 27 years, Dora had given birth 20 times!
Going Into the Field
The thermometer reads 12-degrees Fahrenheit, but more accurately, with windchill factored in, it's more like -12-degrees. It's snowing sideways and the van reeks of Aaron's large coffee. I am staring down at my water wishing it was a Full Throttle Fury.
I wish I was the driver: Aaron rarely follows speed limits, and he so kindly ripped off the driver-side mirror that had been dangling all week, thus negating any chance I will get behind the wheel. On the bright side, the passenger seat's heated. He's in rare form this morning. Everything is cause for an argument. I'm just irritated that we got a later start than I had planned. Okay, and I wanted the iPod charger, the atlas, and the Full Throttle. And, oh, to be the driver. As for him, I think my mere existence is annoying him. Or maybe it's my "Oh my GAWD!" as he occasionally swerves into the shoulder as he fiddles with my keychain/wallet. This new level of irritation conveniently began yesterday morning. Just in time to make this trip a joy.
Maybe Aaron doesn't quite understand how important punctuality is to me. Or how it came to be that way. In my family "Five minutes early is on time" just doesn't cut it. As a child, on road trips such as these, my father would wake me and my sister, Whitney, no later than 6:00 a.m. Urgency, impatience, anxiety, and I don't know what else were in my father's voice as he'd constantly remind us that we had to leave, that we were going to be late, that he was going to leave without us all. He must have really loathed those trips. Any trips, really. My mother would dart around, flustered and obviously irritated, yet wanting to please my father every time.
Did I mention that a one-mile drive to school counts as a trip? Wanting to avoid the rush, by the time I was in high school, I began riding my bike or walking to school. Alas, the punctuality bug had set in and became a part of who I was (and still am). I'd get to school as early as 6:30 a.m. and wait out the remaining hour and twenty minutes until classes began. There I was getting to places even earlier than my parents had...
Where is US-35 North? Apparently, it doesn't exist. How many times have I driven to Michigan City? And I still don't know how to get there. Haha.
We passed Wanatah (the birthplace of my great-great grandfather Robert Freyer), so I guess we'll take 421 instead. 421 is covered in over an inch of snow.
Friday, January 16, 2009
The Family "Tree"
Why do we say we're going to explore our family's "roots," yet when we display our findings on a family "tree," they're always in the form of "branches"?
Thursday, January 15, 2009
In-Progress Pedigree Chart
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I've made it this far thanks in part to my mother Joyce, my great-aunt Ginny, and www.dunelady.com!
Introduction
For the next eight or more weeks, I will also post the stories, photos, and/or interesting documents I come across during my interviews with my great aunt, Virginia "Ginny" (Jasch) Keen, and my father and mother, Brian Jasch and Joyce (King) Jasch. Ideally, I want to discover who my paternal grandmother was/is, but many of these stories seem to have died along with my great grandmother, Nettie (Freyer) Ludington, in 1998 and my paternal grandfather, Charles Jasch, in 2005. Therefore, I will most likely center my research on family stories that were passed down to my great-aunt Ginny and those which took place during her lifetime.
I'm excited to see what I find. Last weekend's trip to Aunt Ginny's (Michigan City, Ind.) and my parents' (Fennville, Mich.) was canceled due to bad weather, so my fingers are crossed for clear roads this upcoming weekend!