C-c-c-c-lasssss M-m-m-eem-m-me (Sorry, But It's Frigging Cold!)

As in 0 degrees all finking day. The draft from the leaky old windows that flows directly under my desk at the office drove me out into the lounge area for an hour over lunch, just so I could feel my feet again. Now I'm home and it's still pissing cold around here - I can't imagine how bad it must be for my friends back in northwestern Minnesota. Uff da, indeed.

Anyway, LutherPunk posted an interesting meme - not the fun, "gee, isn't this funny" type of meme, but a thought-provoking one. Consider yourself tagged: here we go.

Later addition: From What Privileges Do You Have?, based on an exercise about class and privilege developed by Will Barratt, Meagan Cahill, Angie Carlen, Minnette Huck, Drew Lurker, Stacy Ploskonka at Illinois State University. If you participate in this blog game, they ask that you PLEASE acknowledge their copyright.

Bold the statements that are true.

Bold the statements that are true.

1. Father went to college
2. Father finished college
3. Mother went to college
4. Mother finished college
I'm not sure what program my dad took, but I think it was more of an agriculture certification program, not a degree program.

5. Have any relative who is an attorney, physician, or professor
6. Were the same or higher class than your high school teachers.
7. Had more than 50 books in your childhood home.
Mom & Dad both love to read, and they were in a B00k-of-the-Month club for a while. Lots of Time/Life collections, too.
8. Had more than 500 books in your childhood home. Don't like to read THAT much.
9. Were read children’s books by a parent. All the time.
10. Had lessons of any kind before you turned 18. Piano, guitar, trombone, singing - you name it, it happened, at least for a while.
11. Had more than two kinds of lessons before you turned 18
12. The people in the media who dress and talk like me are portrayed
Not sure what that one's supposed to mean, so we'll leave it alone.
13. Had a credit card with your name on it before you turned 18
14. Your parents (or a trust) paid for the majority of your college costs
15. Your parents (or a trust) paid for all of your college costs
16. Went to a private high school
17. Went to summer camp Five summers - but not East Coast, "gonna be there ALL summer camp, just one week in a sleeping bag in a tent/bunkhouse/covered wagon (yes, that last bit is true; ask any Carol Joy Holling camper from the mid-80s and they can remember the wagons.)
18. Had a private tutor before you turned 18.
19. Family vacations involved staying at hotels.
20. Your clothing was all bought new before you turned 18. HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!
21. Your parents bought you a car that was not a hand-me-down from them. BOUGHT me a car? HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!
22. There was original art in your house when you were a child.
23. You and your family lived in a single-family house
24. Your parent(s) owned their own house or apartment before you left home.
25. You had your own room as a child. Well, sort of - we were short one bedroom, so for a year or so I had my own, but Baby Brother and Middle Brother didn't always get along so well, so we switched back after a while.
27. Participated in a SAT/ACT prep course
28. Had your own TV in your room in high school. Carting up the portable black-and-white from the kitchen doesn't count as "your own TV."
29. Owned a mutual fund or IRA in high school or college. Shoot, I STILL don't have "my own" IRA - Beloved and I share one that she started after college.
30. Flew anywhere on a commercial airline before you turned 16. Once, back home to Nebraska from Seattle, and my grandparents flew standby on the way out and drove our car back a few days later. Had an aunt who worked for Northwest in Seattle. We had a layover in Vegas and I remember the slot machines in the airport, like we had entered some bizarre parallel dimension or something.
31. Went on a cruise with your family
32. Went on more than one cruise with your family
33. Your parents took you to museums and art galleries as you grew up. My dad LOVES museums. We went to the Harry Truman museum in Kansas. When I was 12. B.O.R.I.N.G.
34. You were unaware of how much heating bills were for your family. But I knew that heating the house cost money - because every winter I had to help dad stack straw bales around the foundation to keep the house warmer in the wintertime.

I dunno if I'm supposed to learn anything from this, but it does make you think a little more clearly about where you come from. Ainsley will answer this lots differently than I did, and for that I think that I, my parents and our whole family will be grateful.