Coming on the heels of my revelation of my secret hobby project: The newspaper from the small town where I grew up (Manson, Iowa) apparently is now offering back issues on CD-ROM. Someone a few years behind me in school bought it and e-mailed me an article from 1984 with this headline:
Here I am:
(Five miles on a gravel road, I cannot help but add. With a 1/8th mile stretch where I would chased by a dog whose memory compromises my sleep to this day).
16 Comments
sweet
Cute! BTW, Manson’s librarian Schlapkohl is the aunt of Jane Schlapkohl…the student whose thesis I advised this year (and who - in one year! - won an award from Women and Gender Studies for excellence in research on gender, the Zola Award from the Sociology Department for excellence in sociological research, and one of three Outstanding Student awards from the Program in Health, Science, Society, and Policy). Jane is very smart and applying to graduate schools this Fall…another Iowan who will be very good for the discipline!
Really? Did I know this? My hometown is less than 1900 people and far from academe, so any small-world connections are freaky.
One day when I was singing Jane’s praises to you, I mentioned that she’s from Iowa, and you told me that the librarian in Manson shares her surname. So, when I met her family at graduation, I asked…and sure ‘nough, she’s Jane’s aunt.
I like the idea of an emergent Iowa mafia in sociology (by which I mean something different than the already emerged Iowa School in Symbolic Interaction)…especially since y’all are such sweet smart people.
I like the part where they describe the mouse as a “computer accessory for graphic design.” And that headline seems like something straight from The Onion.
You started young, didn’t you?! There was never a doubt that you’d grow up to be Jeremy Botherin’ Freese.
I was hoping for a photo!
Any other claimants to being the Iowa Sociology Mafia?
A professor at Maryland’s father worked in the same meatpacking plant as my father, which was my previous sociology-is-a-small-world winner.
This is the cutest story ever. I can say that now, because it’s after 7 pm and I’m no longer Leechblocked. Augh!
the Iowa Sociology Mafia
The Corna Nostra.
This is the equivalent to those stories of current film directors making neighborhood home movies. Public library buys an Apple; local future superstar group academic blogger fights odds, gravel road and hostile dog to organize peers and produce self-referential newspaper.
Imagine if you had grown up where I did, and a similar-length bike ride had you on the Staten Island ferry to Manhattan, where Times Square was another couple miles away?
@11: LOL
@12: “Imagine if you had grown up where I did, and a similar-length bike ride had you on the Staten Island ferry to Manhattan, where Times Square was another couple miles away?”
Yeah, just what might JF be doing if he instead had been exposed to the Times Square of the 1980s as an adolescent…?
I have very fond memories from the Schlapkohl farm. I went to high school with Laura, (also brilliant), who is Jane’s older sister. I guess Jane was probably 8 when I first met her. A little Schlapkohl trivia: their other sibling is an actor who appeared as a guest star on Law + Order SVU.
Huh, just found this:
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2008/07/11/haulin-asteroid-in-iowa/
Wow. Hilarious. You never know who will find an old blog post or page.