As discussed numerous times throughout our class, classifying events in one lifetime as ‘normal’ or

Life has its way of turning an individual’s attention to better understanding the overall course of life. One may experience different transitions, and turning points as well as particular life events and family experiences that may influence the developmental trajectories of life. The Moore Family- Ed, Jessica, Derrick, Terrance, Debbie and Barbara- all have stories that have unfolded over a period of time. One of the useful ways I will attempt to explain the Moore’s family stories, and the relationship between time and human behavior, is the life course perspective. The life course perspective maintains that chronological age, relationships, common life transitions, and social change shape people’s lives from birth to death (Hutchinson, 2013). Timing is very important.

Joan Smetana is an eighty-four year old, four foot ten, Catholic-German woman. She is sister to Mary-Ann Koenig wife to the late-Robert Smetana, and mother to Therese and Mary. She has five grandchildren, one of them in me. I love my grandmother, or as I call her: “Nana.” She is one of those woman that everyone loves, whether you know her or not; however, those who are closest to her, her family, tend to love her more from a distance, but love her none the less. She is literally the center of her family, as her house is in between the homes of her two daughters, otherwise known as my backyard and two streets over from my Aunt Mary. Eighteen years of growing up, knowing she was watching out her window for any sign of trouble and having

In the twentieth century, there was much debate on women’s public sexual relationship versus her private sexual relationship. The American society only believed in pure sex, and premarital sex was viewed as a sin. From a feminist’s point of view, there should be no pressure on the woman to reproduce according to the husband’s wishes. The feminists at the time “... were assured that they were sexual beings, but their sexuality was defined by male standards” (341-342). Also, certain situations did not provide the atmosphere necessary to raise a baby.

Premarital pregnancy rates were particularly high in rural and frontier areas, continuing throughout the nineteenth century. Courtship became much more popular in the nineteenth century as men and women began to leave their domestic spheres and interact with other members of their community. Southern people courted after church and western people courted after community events, such as holiday or harvest celebrations, and urban working class youth courted on the job as well. The act of courtship facilitated romantic love becoming a norm, as flirting became a norm wherever there was sexual integration. The idea of marrying for romance impacted sexuality, and having recreational sex. Many couples from the nineteenth century wrote in their diaries the intense urge they felt to have sex with their significant other, although not all of them acted on the urge. The idea that sex and reproduction didn’t have to go hand-in-hand was what caused people to actively control their sexuality with various methods of birth control. As these ideas spread throughout the country, different regions, races, and classes had different ways of controlling their sexuality. Fertility rates dropped throughout the country in rural and urban areas, but remained high in frontier communities. However, many southern states didn’t care for controlling sexuality, since there were many farmers making their living off the land. The larger the family was, the more land they could work on at a time,

She argues that there used to be a significantly higher amount of unwanted teenage pregnancies compared to now. In particular, in the United States in 1957, there were “more than 97 out of every 1,000 women aged fifteen to nineteen gave birth. Today, only half as many teenagers bear children” (p. 268). Raising children is a very time consuming and expensive part of our lives.

They didn’t have all the technology we had now. Times were simpler and they didn’t seem to take as much for granted. Life wasn’t always easy, but yet they were still happy. The same as Gloria realized how things were so different from when and where Great Mam came from. “We drove around the streets of Cherokee and saw that the town was the same, as single-minded in its offering as a corn patch or an orchard, so that it made no difference where we stopped.” (“Homeland” 2052) Just like most grandparents Great Mam was very wise. My grandparents always gave me advice just like her. Grandma B is Polish and so is my grandfather she married. She has passed on traditions she had when she was a little girl. Every birthday, for any family member, we sing the Polish happy birthday song. We also eat pirogues and borsch along with other Polish foods when we get together. She tells stories about where our family lived in Poland and what great parents, aunts, uncles, are and cousins are like. Grandma B also has a strong faith like Mary’s mother in “Half and Half”. She is a devout Catholic. My Dad and siblings grew up in Catholic school, however we were not raised Catholic. Grandma B has advice on all of the religious way and how many Hail Mary’s to do to fix a “sin” or make something better. Grandma B would tell me ways to fix things with God just like Mary’s mother made offerings to God to get Bing back. “My mother poured out tea

With a long distance phone call, I interviewed my grandma. Maria de Jesus, a 76-years-old elderly woman, lives in a small ranch in Nayarit, Mexico. Living in Mexico might seem like a wonderful vacation, but not in her case. Maria lives in a ranch where poverty is high and food is limited. She struggles day-to-day to survive in a hot humid environment. From everyone in my family, I decided to interview my grandma because her conditions are heart breaking.

She is the last of her kind, my grandmother. She had been practically raised in a Catholic school to learn the old Catholic ways. She is a part of the last Tohono O’odham Indians to be assimilated to such an institution and to live life according to those beliefs instilled within her. She has deviated from the stereotype that Native Americans are unenlightened drunkards. She is strong and steadfast in her faith. She is disciplined and hard-working. She has encountered much and there is nothing she cannot survive. My grandmother, she is the last of her kind.

On the 23rd of January in the year 2003, at around 1:00 in the afternoon at Kaiser Permanente San Francisco, I was born into the world. My parents, Frederick Torres Nangca and Rowena Aldana Nangca, and I first settled in my grandparent’s studio as a child. The space was small but open for the most part. From what I remember, the wall that was on the same side as the door had a drawer beneath the television where they kept most of their belongings. Just across from that was a blue couch that they had pushed up against the ten windowed wall. Next to the couch was a smaller beige dresser that held my grandfather’s extra clothes along with a few of my grandmother’s accessories. My grandmother and grandfather often held novenas and parties in honor of God.

I was delighted and honored to carry out an interview with my 89 year old grandmother Marie Charles. It did not take much of an effort to establish a rapport with my interviewee; she was more than willing to open up to whomever that was willing to lend an open ear. Marie felt comfortable to share her life experiences with me, during the interview. Her demeanor exemplified one who is full of grace and compassionate towards others. Marie emigrated from Haiti and has been living in the United States for 45 years. She enjoyed her life experiences both within the states and in her native country of Haiti.

My grandmother’s parents immigrated to Johnstown, Pennsylvania from a small town in Poland close to Warsaw. As a young child she spoke two languages Polish at home and English when she went to school or with friends. Life started out very difficult and never really got any easier.. Her life continued to get worse when she lost her husband in a mining accident and her eldest son to a car accident. My grandma used to tell me the stories of their deaths, and how it taught her how strong she really is. She turned the hardships in her life into something beautiful, something joyous, and something sentimental. These moments shaped her into who she is, but they do not define her. These moments that she shares allow me to move on and find something joyful about every situation even if they are not be ideal. When my grandfather passed away my grandmother gave me the strength to look on the brighter side of the situation instead of the sad side.

Getting to interview my Mammam has given me a different look on how she lived as kid. For social studies this year I got to interview my Mammam and learning about her town and how she grew up was so interesting. My grandma, Maureen, grew up in Mount Carmel, Pennsylvania in a middleclass family. She had eight kids in her family including herself, and this affected how she grew up because the older kids had to help the younger kids. Everyone had to chip in. It’s the same today because I’m the youngest in my family and my older siblings help me all the time. Mount Carmel was a small town with a population of 5,000 people, so everyone knew everyone in her town. She lived close to family too. It affected her life because she was always surrounded by family. She had aunts and uncles that lived just down the street from her.

paragraphs I seek to analyze how our society’s immense expectations create these feelings. Along with this I intend to look at the differences in perception of the infertility

My baba was born in a time when the only way you could have food on your plate for dinner was if you hunted it yourself. She would explain to me that “living in a communist country was one of the worst things I have ever seen or been through. Not only was my country communist, we were going through a famine. There was no way to get food because the government starved us. If I wanted to eat that day I would have to kill a bird or whatever else was around that day.” My grandma is a very strong woman. She grew up with 3 brothers and 1 sister, who were all older. She always wanted to be like her siblings. Because her siblings were all older, my grandmother was a very fast learner. They taught her what they were during in school so by the time she got to that grade level she already knew the information. My grandma

A religious family in the story Why I am a Pagan by Zitkala-sa, talks about how this little girl was taught certain things that her family has always gone by. What she was taught, she now holds close to her life dearly, while also relying on it every moment of the day. Her life shows us a different view on cultural identity, how she was taught something important not only to her, but in everyone else’s as well. By showing her what the kind of men in her life mean the most to her. She says something about her religion, how it reflects her past, present, and future, along with what she stands for. She says, “I was taught long years ago by kind missionaries to read the holy book, these godly men taught me also the folly of our old beliefs.” (Zitkala-sa 2) In her culture, and