10 Questions - Annette Young

The 10 Questions interviews are just a way for us to get to know each other a little better. We don't get to talk to everyone in the meetings so I started doing these interviews a couple of years ago. If you have missed them you can read all of the past interviews here.

I've been looking forward to interviewing Annette because she has very special pets!

1. If you live in Hanover (or the area), how many generations of your family have lived here and how did they come to settle here? If you moved here, where are you from and what brought you here?

I was born in Stuttgart, Germany and was only 3 months old when my American GI father told my German mother that they were just coming to America to visit his family and introduce her to them. She only agreed to marry him because he agreed to stay in Germany. Unbeknownst to my mother, he bought one way tickets. I was raised in Gloucester, MA until I moved to Richmond in 1984 with my then boyfriend for his job. We’ve been married now for 25 years. We moved to the west end at first and then to Bumpass in Louisa county in 1986.

2. When you were young what did you plan to be when you grew up and what happened with those plans?

I went from the usual princess, ballerina, Olympic figure skater, as a youngster to a secretary when I was in middle school after I had started taking typing classes. 

During high school I wanted to go to college to be an interpreter for the deaf. I was introduced to a girl who lost her hearing at the age 15 due to brain tumors by a lady who had 2 children that I would babysit for when she had to work evenings as an interpreter. She also introduced me to 2 sisters not much older than I, who I tried to teach a dirty song to in sign language. Not knowing how to sign but the alphabet, it got me in. They didn’t understand and went to their mom for help with what I was trying to say. I don’t remember their names, but I do remember the song! It starts with “old MacDonald sitting on a fence, beating his………

3. What are your favorite things to do in the area?

Going fishing on land or in our little boat on the river or in the ocean, not Lake Anna. Last time we were at the lake, 1 snake wrapped itself around our ladder and tried to get onto the boat (luckily not a poisonous one), but not 10 minutes later a water moccasin swam past us and that did me in. I’d rather take my chances with jaws than a snake.

4. Tell us a little about your family.

I’m one of 5 kids. Our father was a Gloucester fisherman who drowned off of a boat when the oldest was 15 and the youngest was 6. My mother was a very strong willed woman who scared the crap out of most of our friends. Nobody ever wanted to come to our house for dinner because when they asked what we were having we responded with the German name for it because that’s what my mother called it. They were always afraid of what that might be, since my mother once grilled an eel on a hibachi grill out back that my brothers had caught in marsh behind our house, so they knew she ate some weird stuff. I have 2 brothers in Massachusetts still and 1 brother and my sister in Colorado Springs, Co. I’m the 2nd oldest of the 5. Everyone has children except my husband and I. Which was probably a good thing because they have never been able to seek revenge on us for the Christmas presents we used to send to their children. The nieces and nephews loved them, but their parents did not. Oh, we would make sure to send enough batteries to make them last for months.

5. What hobbies or activities do you do other than quilting? Where do you do them? How did you get involved with.

Apparently catching Ugly Toad fish is something I’m very good at because I seem to get them on a regular basis. I love to read. I like to crochet but haven’t done much of that since I learned to quilt about 5 years ago. We have 5 chickens, 3 roosters and a male and a female turkey who think that the gardening I like to do is completely for their benefit.

Annette's pets: Tom and Tiffany!

6. What’s your favorite vacation spot? Where do you want to go next?

Ocracoke Island is our favorite place to go every September. I’d like to go back to Germany again. I lived with my grandparents for the summer when I was 10 and then went back to live with them for a little over a year when I was 11 to attend 6th grade. I only came back because my parents made me. I would have stayed. I still stay in touch with a school friend and she and her husband have actual come here to visit us. That and I bootleg Harley motorcycle parts to him on a regular basis. It’s cheaper for me to buy them and ship them to him than it is for him to actually purchase them in Germany.

7. What saying best describes how you like to live your life?

It’s on my keychain – “If you don’t like my ATTITUDE quit talking to me!”

8. Show us a photo (or photos) of where you create.

9. Show us a photo of the quilt that’s on your bed right now.

I don’t have one on my bed. (What!!!!)

10. What is your all time favorite quilt and why?

This is hard to answer because I’ve made less than 20. I would have to say the  

very first that I made for my godchild’s first child. It’s a beginners quilt but I had always wanted to learn and her announcing she was pregnant made me seek out the quilting classes. I think it was called Chinese coins.