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Benedict Arnold

What is your background?

If it doesn't betray anything you would rather keep private what kind of family were you born into, where and when?
Feel free to give as full or brief and answer as you wish.

I was born in London in 1956 while my Australian parents happened to be there.
I grew up at Whale Beach on a peninsular of wild bushland slowly being consumed by affluent suburbs about 32 miles north of Sydney in Australia.
In a way, it defines a lot of who I am, comfortable with nature, liking lots of space around me and the freedom of living in place when it is not necessary to lock a car or the front door.
My family's thinking, atheist and liberal, also influenced a lot of my thinking.
The family dynamics were things I had to learn to overcome.

Posted - January 7, 2017
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Responses


  • 22891
    not working right now but i used to work in resorts
      January 7, 2017 4:23 PM MST
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  • Did you enjoy the work?
      January 9, 2017 7:35 PM MST
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  • I was born in Sydney toward the end of the Great Depression. My parents had lost everything and I grew up without a lot of money. I left school at 15 to help with the family finances and spent my working life doing jobs a monkey could have done as well. 

    That's not a complaint; it's just the way things were. I lucked out with military service being too young for Korea and too old for Vietnam, married early to a woman who has filled my life with laughter, raised five kids who, in turn have produced eight of their own and five great grandkids. 

    Life has been pretty sweet and, if there was never a lot of money, it was rich in experience.
      January 7, 2017 4:57 PM MST
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  • So that would make you somewhere around 78 years old, probably one of our eldest Muggers! I love your stories and sense of humour. I suspect that you've kept a lot under your cap with this background, but thank you very much for sharing it. So called unskilled jobs are not to be despised. Our society could not survive without the people who do the most essential tasks. Glad you missed out on the wars by the timing of your birth. My Dad did too (born in 1902). Such a blessing not to have to live with the memories and traumas.
      January 9, 2017 6:21 PM MST
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  • Thanks, Hartfire. You're close with the age -- I'll be 80 in April. Back in 1988 I was retrenched from a job with a big Japanese company and one of the guys said, "Look on the bright side." I couldn't see a bright side but he went on, "Once you get another job you'll have a whole new audience for all those stories." I guess it's what I do and, on the Internet, I don't have to worry about people looking bored. If they don't like them they don't have to read. :) 
      January 9, 2017 6:33 PM MST
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  • I've never found any of your stories boring.
    It's great having you hear on aM.

      January 9, 2017 7:09 PM MST
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  • 6988
    I suffered a brain disease as a young child that was costly in hospital expenses. That resulted in my mother selling her midwestern house. We moved in with grandparents who had a farm. That was life changing for me and allowed me to expand my imagination and skills. There were a thousand different things to do and create. Besides, in the late 50's, there were only 3 TV stations to watch. (!)  I tried to sell produce out front of the house, but was not successful. Then I tried to sell worms for fishing  bait, and couldn't keep up with demand. I even went door to door selling Christmas cards. I got religion in a strange way ----- I discovered a nest of blackbirds in the hollowed-out section of a tree. I was 8. Anyway, I had been hearing about how these blackbirds were eating all the farmer's crops and decided to kill the little baby birds! I poured gasoline down into the nest and lit it on fire. I felt so bad after that happened, I asked God for forgiveness and began attending church. Even today, 50 years later, I maintain 40 birdhouses on my farm.  In the early 60's, I managed to land a newspaper route that provided plenty of money, and I saved most of the money I made to buy a new motorcycle. This post was edited by B.H.Wilson at January 9, 2017 8:30 PM MST
      January 7, 2017 5:37 PM MST
    3

  • Thank you for sharing this very touching story. 
      January 9, 2017 6:23 PM MST
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  • Tough times there, BH. Glad you made it through OK. 
      January 9, 2017 6:35 PM MST
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  • 5450
    I was born in 1993 and I was the baby of the family.  I had one brother and one half brother.  My brother committed suicide and my half brother's in prison.  I was really close to my brother but I don't ever want to see my half brother again.

    My parents divorced but my dad remarried and my mom didn't.  Mom's the one who left.  I also have a step brother who's younger than me.

    My dad is a farmer and my mom is a waitress.

    I got married when I was 21 and I live in the farmhouse I grew up in.  I bought it from my dad when he got remarried.

    My family's political and religious beliefs are all over the place.  My dad is only religious for about an hour every Sunday morning.  He's Lutheran.  My mom is religious all the time.  She goes to a contemporary community church.  I don't go to church at all.  Sunday morning is for riding my horses.

    My dad, like my husband and me, is neither liberal nor conservative.  He has some liberal opinions and some conservative opinions.

    My mom on the other hand is something else.  She's a social conservative (American definition).  Ted Cruz was her guy for president and the political things that are the most important to her are usually the unimportant things I don't care about.
      January 8, 2017 6:15 PM MST
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  • Thank you for your openness.
    We share living on a farm and an interest in horses.
    From 2002 to 2014 I bred and trained Arabians for endurance. I still have 5 of my horses. It's harder to ride now because nearby aging farmers have been selling off their land to city people who do not allow people to ride across their places. I'm building a dressage arena (by my own labour) in order to solve this problem of having nowhere left to ride.

      January 9, 2017 6:29 PM MST
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  • 5450
    I love my horses.  They originally belonged to my brother but when he died he left them to me.  It took them a while to warm up to me but horses know what's going on.  I had four but one of them died last year.  I was so sad.

    I think I'm safe from city people taking over because I live in the middle of nowhere.  The road I live on wasn't paved until last year.  The county I live in has no traffic signals.  The closest city with more than 10000 people is ~50 km away and the closest city with more than 100000 people is ~150 km away.
      January 10, 2017 4:07 AM MST
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  • 2960
    A white wall.
      January 9, 2017 7:03 PM MST
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  • Ouch!
      January 10, 2017 1:11 AM MST
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  • 34716
    I am the oldest of three. I was born mid 1970s. Raised by Dad and stepmom in small town. 
    Now live in a small town but have lots of tourists
    We have our own business. We make our own product. 
    Married 20+ yrs. 3 kids. 2 Step kids. 6 grandkids. 
    I and my husband are Christian and conservative. It took 20 yrs but we finally got my parents and his to vote Republican this year. They has always said they were independent but always seemed to vote Dem. 

      January 9, 2017 7:56 PM MST
    1

  • It sounds as though you have lived according to your beliefs. The higher the values, the harder it is to achieve, so congratulations! :)
    Thank you for such a full reply. Nice to know you better.
      January 10, 2017 1:14 AM MST
    1