Why?

I have been thinking that I need a blog for a while. I have a lot of things to say that, at the time, seem very important. I realize that not everyone agrees with that sentiment, so I needed to find a place I could record them, revisit them, revise them or delete them. I spend a lot of time on social media typing things in capital letters with exclamation points and question marks and then deleting them for fear of offending someone. I needed a place where I don’t necessarily have to worry about being offensive (I truly try not to be) and that only the people who choose to will have to read what I say.

I suppose I should tell you a little about me, so you can make an informed decision about whether you are interested in what I have to say. I was told once I don’t have a problem talking about myself (not that I am bitter about that), but this feels a bit uncomfortable. Here goes…

I was raised in a very small town in Southeastern Indiana and have wondrous, happy, carefree memories of being a child. My father had a great work ethic and was in the business of automobiles; fixing them, selling them, gassing them up. Mom worked if she needed to, but was home most of the time. I have four brothers, two sisters and am very proud to claim all of them. My dad and one of my brothers have left this world and I do what I can to help people remember they were here. I am married, have worked pretty steady since I was 17, and have two children. One lives near me and one left this world 18 years ago.

In the vernacular of present day, I am white non-Hispanic, cis female, heterosexual, married, Catholic Christian, pro-life, conservative, non-college educated, (well, a little college educated), overweight and prefer the pronouns “she”, “her” and “hers”. In my preferred vernacular I am Cathy, Mrs. Schroeder, Mom (Mama works, too), Meemaws, Kevin’s wife and Bob and Rita Simmonds’ daughter.

I realize that all the labels are necessary to put me in the correct box when reading all these future important thoughts. I wish it wasn’t so. I wish the words were most important, but we all know that sentiment is a memory. Maybe we can bring it back to life. I am lots of other things; the product of my upbringing, my life experiences and my thoughts. I hope to share those things with you in future posts, or at least the part of them that applies to the subject at hand.

I promised I would explain “It’s Just Cathy”. In the sixth grade of my tiny public elementary school, the principal and sixth grade teacher was a wonderful, regal man by the name of John Thrine. He was as close to a public school headmaster as I can imagine. On the first day, as he was learning our names, I became a consternation to him. He asked my name. “Cathy”, I said. “No”, he said, “your proper name”. “It’s just Cathy”, I said. “No, you must be named Catherine or Cathleen. Cathy is a nickname”, he said. “It’s just Cathy”….. He decided he would call me Miss Simmonds because Cathy seemed too familiar. He moved on….to my good friend “Trudy”, or as she became to him a few minutes later, “Miss Maudlin”. He was a wonderful man.

Welcome to my blog. I hope you find it to be worth your time. I can’t guarantee that you will like or agree with everything that falls out of my brain, but I promise to be just Cathy and to try to write in a way that entertains, informs and inspires.