INAUGURAL POSTING

I grew up in Western Pennsylvania, the eldest of 14 children....yes.....14 kids and yes, we did have a television!I am just not sure it was on very much! We were pretty poor, my dad was a steel mill worker, a self educated man. Mom had graduated from High School, but with 14 kids, she DEFINITELY was a stay at home mom. Her only vacations from us, were when she went to the hospital to have another baby...just about once a year!My parents insisted we all at least graduate from High School and with much gnashing of teeth, they managed to get that accomplished. I was the first one to go to college in my family, extremely under/unprepared.....I actually thought they gave you books to use...similar to public school!My father gave me about 10.00 to start my first semester in college, I had about 35.00 dollars saved from summer employment...and no I went to college in the latter part of the 20th century!So this represented savings from my less than 1.00 an hour job... at the YMCA as a lifeguard. I had never had my own car...my parents only ever had one working vehicle at a time... er ...usually???...and many of those, Dad had purchased for 5o.00, run the crap out of them, then sold them to the junkyard for 25.00 which he put toward the next car! I personally loved the electra Cadillac we had for a couple of months...but it could barely make it up the west State street hill......by the time we reached the top, I could have walked faster than that car was going! Ah, the good old days.... But I digress. These postings are coming from the fabulous town of Queenstown, South Africa...where I am currently a resident of the most temporary kind. I am here, accompanying my dear spouse, who is working for the National Treasury of South Africa. Because we only have dial up available...the adsl here is not the most reliable...kind of like many of the things I have come to wonder about in South Africa...so very slow. I will only post small bits...hope to keep it up to date...but not being very techno savvy..this may prove most challenging. I'm sure that this will become easier....or at least less painful to figure out what to say.