The 8 Things Meme

Brewrunner tagged me with a meme. Here are the rules:

"People who are tagged need to write these rules in their own blogs & share eight things about themselves that others might not know. At the end of the their blog post, they need to tag six people and list their (blog) names. Leave a comment on the blogs of the people they’ve chosen telling them they’ve been tagged and encouraging them to come over and read the eight things you’ve written on your blog."

I don't have anything better to do, so here goes.

Thing the First. I have the distinction of being the only person ever cut from my high school football team. On a lark, I went out for football in spring training before my senior year to see what the fuss was about. I made up for my ineptitude with my lack of speed. The coach said I could be a manager but that I would probably get killed if allowed to play.

Thing the Second. I sang in the Official Stay and See America in Georgia First Bicentennial Singing Group. Yes. That was our designation. We were twelve clean cut Baptist teens who toured around in a bus and performed at Bicentennial events and in churches. It was sickening. It was a lot like Up With People but with a more religious twist. I got to sing the national anthem at a Braves game and to meet Hank Aaron.

Thing the Third. I published, with some others, an article based on my masters’ thesis on birth intervals in a migrating Mennonite community. I reckon that makes me a real physical anthropologist. My thesis went a lot further than the article in that I found that the correlation between birth intervals and infant mortality appeared to come into play even in the case of miscarriages and stillbirths. This lends weight to the proposition that metabolic costs to the mother are the underlying causative factor.

Thing the Fourth. I have double rooted bicuspids.

Thing the Fifth. I was once a rabid Mariners fan, and I listened to, watched or attended every game of the season for a number of years when we lived out west. I almost started to believe that I had magical abilities to influence the outcome of games and that, if I were home listening to the game, I had to kick a soccer ball around the yard whenever Norm Charlton was pitching. Mrs Vache Folle got into it, but not in a crazy way. She once suggested that we attend a particular game because the “Big Eunuch” was pitching. That’s what she thought Randy Johnson’s nickname was. She liked to go to the ballpark whenever Dave Fleming was pitching, because she knew there would be lots of offense.

Thing the Sixth. I am a leg man. I have always had a thing for a nice set of pins.

Thing the Seventh. When I was in my twenties I changed my name legally in order to distance myself from my deadbeat dad who had abandoned us when I was eleven. I really resented him and his new family, so I dropped his name for a made up name (the island of St George where Mrs VF and I had honeymooned). When I was in my forties, I reconciled with my father, and now I regret the name change.

Thing the Eighth. I was the recipient of the Rob Hess Memorial Award for Courtesy and Christian Character when I was a high school sophomore. I got my name on a plaque and was mercilessly derided as a dweeb. Rob Hess had been a nice kid who had been killed in a car crash, and his parents had set up the award. There may have been $50 involved as well.

I now tag Lemme Howdt, Iceberg, GGI, Steve Scott, bpsycho, and Steve.