the friday freesia funky five

1. What is your lineage? Where are your ancestors from?
My father’s family is Mostly Polish, with some Czech and a sprinkle of German. In a word - Bohunk. You remember that scene in 16 Candles where she’s talking to her dad, and she’s crying, and he’s comforting her, and we think he finally Gets It, and then he says “We’re upset that your sister is marrying a Bohunk too.” That would be us. My mother’s family is all 100% Danish. The result? A naturally zaftig, square-jawed girl with a taste for polka/big band music who loves beer-brats, fried potato dumplings, and pebberner (peppernuts).

2. Of those countries, which would you most like to visit?
Off the top of my head, I’d say Denmark. I did a Danish Language Independent Study in high school (with Dr. Nokkentved! Three cheers for Doc Nok!), and found the language to be complicated and beautiful. He grew up in Copenhagen (which, for the record, is roughly pronounced KEUH-bn-haown) and helped me translate a newspaper article from the early 1900s which was written about my Great-Grandfather. It was one of the few moments in my life where I actually felt like I had a culture of some kind. Of course, that didn’t last long.

3. Which would you least like to visit? Why?
Germany. This is the sole responsibility of the most unpleasant roommate I’ve ever had in my life. She’s not a bad person, and she was fun to hang out with until I moved in with her. I won’t, however, even begin to go into details about how bad living with her was for me, and how many nights I cried myself to sleep because of how shitty she made me feel about myself. In any case, she grew up in many places, including Germany. She was constantly talking about how great things were in Germany, and how stupid America was, and how much she wanted to be back there. I got sick of hearing about how dumb Americans were, and how lame my country was, and this quickly turned me off to the idea of ever going to Germany.

4. Do you do anything during the year to celebrate or recognize your heritage?
Only at family reunions. Some of you may know this story, so you can skip to the next question. My grandfather headed up a dance band in the 40s - early 60s. Lawrence Welk type stuff - my father played at both of his own proms. They toured through North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Minnesota, Wisconsin. The band was entirely made up of members of my family - when my father came along, they needed a clarinetist, so he learned how to play it. Now he teaches clarinet at EIU. There was an opening, he filled it. My Uncle Doug came along, they needed a trumpet player, etc etc. Everyone was involved - and as such, all of my aunts and uncles are musical. Most of my cousins ended up majoring in music as well. I was the only one that started majoring in it and then quit, though - which is something I was always really embarassed about. Everyone has good pitch, etc etc. Maybe it’s genetic. In any case, every time we have a family reunion, we dance. Everyone busts out the instruments, everyone sings, we just take over the garage of whoever’s house we’re reuning at and play and sing and dance. I’ve done the polka, the tango, the bossa nova … if you want to learn, there’s an uncle somewhere who will teach you, if he’s not busy playing the tuba or the piano or the trumpet or the clarinet or the saxophone or whatever. And then we eat fried potato dumplings and grill beerbrats and talk about the good old days. Now that I don’t have any grandparents left, I don’t know how this will change. These reunions always centered around my grandmother - my last remaining grandparent - and she passed away a year ago this spring. The next reunion will definitely be different. I just don’t know how yet.

5. Who were the first ancestors to move to your present country (parents, grandparents, etc)?
Now that I’m thinking about it, I’m really not sure. I want to say that it was my great-grandparents on both sides. It’s been awhile.