REFLECTION'S CULTURES
Brinton:...........................But It was….you know….I don’t know …..it was a lot of responsibility, and a lot of ….it just …it probably …I would say ……it contributed to my being serious …more serious. (laugh). And …..… but you know…but …I think you’re probably… (PAUSE FOR A WHILE)……..one of the thing about growing up……in a large family …..Where people are treated very much like part of a grouper (clines.)…..and probably through childhood to generally to the generation which I grew up in United state at least …. It is the way it is…..it never occurs to me. ...like I never …..it didn’t occur to me that complain about the facts that I had to take care of my siblings. Or worked on the weekend…because it didn’t ……that was sort of the way life was.
(28:21)Hieu: This is driving me to confused….because….you know ….I thought that Eastern and Western cultures were so different ….and the way I am because of the culture I’m in…….now talking to you……I don’t think you are American anymore……
(28:52) Brinton: Well…..that is (voice raising and emphasized) a very important point and interesting reflections…because …..You have to remember that I grew up in the 1950’s and I grew up in the South. And I grew up in a culture experiences it doesn’t exist much in United State anymore.
Hieu: Yeah….
Brinton: Um…..And I… really… do think that ….um…..(paused)……it……it was sub-culture experiences…. party Catholic…partly Southern ….partly …you know large family…and I grew up around a lot of kids were not from…….they didn’t have ….many like I had….but they had four five six siblings….so ……it was like ……you know when I went college …one of the thing….the first ……I don’t know it was one of the first date, but it was….when I was in freshmen in college….I was on a VZ…blind date…the one had in some…college. And this guy asked me…um…oh…I …guess I ..could have another little experience when …little childhood that I don’t think…pretty much about….but I had …..a…. very serious chicken pot…..and when I young……and I ….. not only left with a lot of scars….but I …had …a…..brown spot right middle my front tooth. And when I was in H.S, my front tooth was knocked out….so I had a cap on my tooth. So when I was with this guy. I don’t remember his name…but I remember teasing bout him……..and you know you talk to somebody and …like… they….ask you….you know…..”how many brothers and sisters do you have…? Or something anyway…..” I said…….at that time I did not have my last of my brother, I only had eight. So I said seven brothers and sisters….then he was…..he looked at me and he said……:”oh you must be Catholic……. And then he said…..AND….Y…O….U …….HAVE …..um…..a ….crown front tooth………….”….Oh…. I was so (voice tone down and her eyes opened wide -in funny way)… embarrassed and I thought to my self….how did he know that I was Catholic….(both laugh….:)) ……and what he ‘s talking about…..my tooth….you know …..It wasn’t like it’s gold but it ……you could tell that it wasn’t …….TURN OUT he was Catholic and he also had knock out a tooth when he was a kid….so he recognized it because it was very….it had sort of gold silver or something… on the top….top of it. But…om….I remember i..n …th..at ( saying and giggling……giggling…..) ….experience…..sort of .realizing that there was things about my ….the demographics….sort of….the description of my self that I didn’t recognize as labeling me in some ways. But in United State if you came from a large family, and that period of time…you….some how part of you is Catholic ….and the tooth just happened to be …(idiographic?)….(laughing again). But…. My father was not a catholic, and another pieces of growing up, which I had come to see as having been very important to me, but again it something I recognized as a child….But….I went to catholic schools and my mother had….my parents had both agree that we be raised Catholic. But my father never went to church. He was not a religious person and…..acted like …God to know that what meant to him. He had NO interesting…organizing religion, and part of that because of the way he’s been raised and his mother was kind of a. search……and he had been raised in a lot of different churches and he’d been Christine scientist for ….his chunk…..adolescent...Um……but I went to Catholic school where if you…your parents was married in the church , and if you didn’t have a Christine name ….and if you want….your God parents want Christine…….that some how…
Hieu: You mean...it's .very conservative.
Brinton: Yeah….You wouldn’t….there were something wrong with you, you weren’t really Catholic…like …your parents didn’t really quite married or……you know all kind of weird things that they ……teaching in the church those days. And I “knew” from a very young ages that was not right ….there was something….. my Dad…there was something wrong with my Dad. He’s perfectly a good man even though they said there‘re something’s wrong with him because he wasn’t a Catholic.
Hieu: yeah. Uh Huh!
Brinton: OR there was other things wrong with me because my Dad-father wasn’t a Catholic. Or my name wasn’t a Christine name or …..and so I grew up with this sense of …..not being quite….you know……being a little on that the margin, or being a little bit different …… that …..some how I was sure that was OK. I didn’t…….I was worried
sometimes. Was that sin…or …was that some how I was not going to be in heaven…..or whatever. But mostly I knew it was ok. So that was very useful…… think of not needing to be like everybody else in order to be OK.