Homework for Proffesor Andy's English 1010 class

Well, before I get started blogging about the two short stories that Mr. Andy asked the class to read and write a response to. I would like to say that I thought both memoirs were great. The two memoirs were "Us and Them" and "Mick Jagger Wants Me."

I will start with "Us and Them," because I can relate to that topic better than "Mick Jagger Wants Me." Ok, first of all, in the story "Us and Them," the story begins with Sedaris taking us back to the third grade, and what it was like moving to North Carolina. I believe his mother may have been scared to tell him to not make friends due to time restraints, and the posibility of moving again. He briefly describes his previous place of residence, New York. The story then jumps to, what I assume is, the main focus of the story: the Tomkeys. It starts out innocently enough. The Tomkeys don't believe in television, which is to say they don't own one. Now, I myself, have to say I dont watch a bunch of television, because I simply do not have time. Plus, I believe most of what television shows to the public eye, conflicts with whatever intelligence people have left. So, young Sedaris, thought it was ok to spy on the Tomkeys. First, he notices that they actually sit down and talk during dinner and later the children don't react like the rest, of the other kids do, when the teacher acts out a character in a popular show. The logic behind that, is because how would they know, anything about that show, because they dont have a T.V. So now it is Hallowen, and like typical children do on halloween, they go trick or treating. So, while all the children in the area are trick or treating, the Tomkeys, children aren't. So, they show up Nov. 1st, the day after Halloween trick or treating. There Halloween costumes were odd, I guess the girl as a ballerina and the boy as a rodent. What is up with that? So, why couldn't the Tomkeys just take there children, the night of Halloween which would have been better off. Instead, they decide to show up, at the Sedaris house hold and take the candy that the Sedaris children, went out and earned themselvs. With much heartbreak on the boy's part, his mother insisted that the children give their hard earned candy to the Tomkeys. So all the children were to go and gather there candy up and bring it back. With it taking sometime for them to come back to there mother, the mother had to find a topic of interest for them, so she started talking about boats. But, Sedaris new, that at any minute his mother could burst in his dore so he started devoiring his candy so that the Tomkey children would not recieve the kind that he wanted. So, while he's devoring his candy, his mother walks in and takes his candy away from him. Candy that he spent all night earning, why should children that didnt go deserve his candy. So she gives them the candy, and apologizes for her absence. So all the children were in trouble, for not bringing there candy or not being quickly about it.

The other story which is called "Mick Jagger Wants Me." “Mick Jagger Wants Me” is a story about two teenage girls and their adventures through the time of their life when they were teenagers. Susan and Michelle spend long hours waiting outside a studio called Electric Lady trying to meet the famous Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. This story was very interesting, because it gave me an idea of what it would be like to grow up in the 60's and maybe early 70's. The hippy days my mother, called it, where basically, where sex, drugs, and rock and roll, were the activities that most teenagers were involved in. This story became even more funny to read, especially how Susan’s favorite activity was making out and drinking alcohol.