PART ONE:  FAMILY INTERVIEWS

I decided to interview my grandfather on my mom’s side for this part.
This is the question and answer format for now.

What is your full name?

Malcolm Lee Perkins.  Nicknamed Mickey.

When and where were you born?

June 6th, 1949 in Presque Isle, Maine

Where did you grow up?

-Grew up in Presque Isle also.

-Other side of town, “bad side”. [South West side along river]

How was it the “bad side” of town?

-It was were the poorer families lived, so if was every a fight or a robbery it happened there.

-Was luck that he lived on the edge of the poor area.

-He thinks it’s gotten much worse.  Back then people would get into an argument and throw punches, but now if someone doesn’t like the way you look, they’ll pull out a knife or gun.

What was your living situation like?

-Had four sisters

-Dad died at a young age, doesn’t remember him.

-Mother always at work so he was always getting into trouble.

[My grandfather was drafted into Army during the Vietnam War]  What was your reaction? Were you scared?  Did you know anyone there? 

[turned into about his trip in general]

-He was scared, but less for himself at the beginning.  My mom had just been born a few months earlier.

-One of the main things he remembers is getting off the bus at the training camp and immediately being yelled at “by a big, angry, black sergeant”.  Kept in touch with this man, calls him every few months.

-Felt sorry for others at training camp, he was one of the more fit guys, but even he threw up a few times during the training sessions.

-Worked on helicopters.  Knew how to fly them, but almost never did.

-Did have to kill one man when ambushed by small group.

-Ended up in Vietnam from late 1970 to late 1972.

-Worked his way up to Sergeant about to become a Staff Sergeant,  was urged to stay and they’d make him a Staff Sergeant First Class. Decided to go home.

Do you wish you would have stayed a little longer?

-No.  Was told he was really good at being a likable leader, but it wasn’t what he liked doing.  Plus he wanted to see his daughter.

Did your and Debbie’s divorce stem from the army?

-Somewhat.  While he was away she didn’t see anyone else.  He didn’t return the same however.  He had a slight case of PTSD and dealt with it through alcohol.  Wasn’t fun to be around.  Took care of this problem soon after they got divorced.

How did you meet Nancy? [2nd and current wife]

-When he got back from Vietnam, got a job at the Converse factory in town where Nancy happened to work.  Became great friends, he was funny, she was cute and kind.

Why did you decide to live in Presque Isle and not move away? [his parents have lived everywhere between New Brunswick and Florida]

-Nancy’s parents lived in town and she didn’t want to leave them.  Debbie also lived in town so it allowed my mom to see her mother.

-Presque Isle was still growing.  The road they currently lived on was fairly new, they bought some land on it and paid to have a house built.  Less than $100,000 for a finished basement, 4 bedrooms, big kitchen and big living room.

-Built the two barns with the help of friends.

 

PART TWO:  FAMILY ARTIFACTS

Artifact One- My brother’s cast

When my brother, Ethan, and I were younger (I’m four years older than him), we were at my grandparents house chasing each other around.  We ran into the guest bedroom and bounced in circles on the bed.  Somehow Ethan fell down and I fell down on top of his arm.  After a week, he finally told our mom that his arm was hurting.  Sure enough, X-rays revealed his left arm was broken, did I mention he’s left handed?  For the weeks that followed, he used his broken arm against me, making me feel guilty about it whenever he needed something.  My mom kind of blamed me too, so she didn’t try to stop his guilt tripping me.  Revenge came two days after he got his cast off.  Thinking his arm would be immediately perfect again, he tried to climb across the monkey bars in our backyard.  He slipped off, tried to catch himself with his hands, and broke the same arm in a different spot.  I wasn’t blamed this time and got to watch Ethan take care of himself this time around.

Artifact Two- Titanic Drawings

When the movie  Titanic came out, my mother went to see it and loved it so much she decided to take the whole family.  The next time I was in school, I told my friends about it and it instantly became our new source of inspiration.  My mom now has several pictures saved from my phase where I would draw the titanic with my friends.  As you can see, we didn’t think the Titanic was horrific enough so we drew in more violence.  Aliens abducting people, sharks, planes dropping bombs, giant squids, fires, etc.

PART THREE:  MY STORY

1.  When I was in the 3rd grade, I went on a field trip to the animal shelter with my class.  It was, of course, cooler to ride in the back of the bus, but the high schoolers always sat there. On field trips they were free game.  That’s where my friends and I were sitting when we went over a massive pot hole just outside of the shelter.  I launched probably 2-3 feet up and came back down hard.  I suddenly found myself not being able to breathe, gasping for air.  My friends got freaked out and called the teacher’s aide.  All she could do was try to calm me down so what little air I was getting could be enough.

When we got back to the school, they laid me down in the nurses office and I began to feel the pain as my adrenaline wore off.  I could barely move as it felt like every inch of my back was affected.  For the next few days, I needed help getting around.

We visited hospitals for a few years racking up a huge bill just to see if doctors could figure out what happened.  We were referred  to specialist after specialist, but no one seemed to have any idea.  In the end, all they could tell me was the end points of my top three vertebrae were triangular in shape rather than the normal rectangular appearance.

To this day, I don’t know what happened.  I’ve maybe a panic attack, but that doesn’t explain the pain.  And what of the triangular vertebrae.

 

2.   In high school, my friends and I loved to make movies together.  The majority of my friends were in theater and I loved filming and editing so it was a great pastime.  We made movies for every project we could:  We made a zombie film for a project about diseases, we made a modern day action/ Predator style film for a project about human ancestors, and we turned “And Then There Were None” into an action film from Philip Lombard’s perspective.  Notice the huge amount of action, my friends were also nerdy in the sense that they liked to stick fight and so planned as many fights in the scripts as possible.

It always makes me happy to watch them, but then I get bummed out knowing I probably won’t get to make anymore with them now that we’re growing up.  Every year we say that we’re going to meet up during the summer to shoot one, and then it just never happens.  It’s one of the things I miss most about my childhood.

 

3.   In high school, 35% of my time was spent at home, 15% of my time was spent at work, 20% of time was spend at school, and 30% of my time was spent at Zach Fowler’s house.  My friends and I came from two ends of the Presque Isle wealth spectrum.  Josh, Seth, Luke and I came from the barely getting by families, while Sam, Matt, and Zach came from the wealth doctor families.  Since Zach’s house was only a mile from the high school, this is where we could end up almost everyday after school.  From my point of view the house was gigantic.  Two stair cases stood on opposite sides it was so big.  It even had three living rooms/dens!

His mom would greet us each as we would arrive, no knocking required.  You always knew to head straight to the basement, designed for the average teen.  There was a dart board, 2 couches and a recliner, exercise equipment, a ping-pong table and a giant flat screen hooked up to a custom super powered computer built by Zach’s brother, Matt.  It had a weird musty smell to it and I had to flip the couch cushions often due to once edible bits of stuff crusting over, but it was a second home.  We had no place to be in Zach’s basement, someone would just suggest something to do and would go from there until one by one we had to head home.

PART FOUR: MY EDUCATION

My main goals for education as a NMD major are to learn as much as I about as many media creating tools as I can.  Though I prefer working in film and some types of programming, I’m not sure where my degree will lead me so I should prepare for anything.  Some areas that I’d like to learn more about are After Effects, C++, and installation design.  I’m hoping to learn most of these skills in my remaining classes at UMaine, but I do know some online sources for things such as After Effects and C++ that will come in handing for the really nitty gritty things.  Outside learning is very difficult as I’m either working, sleeping, or trying not to stress.  I find the easiest way to get myself to work on outside learning is by doing little projects with or for people I know.  Photo shoots with friends, special effects in home movies, and homemade birthday cards  all allow for me to practice design and using programs and learn a little something new each time.

PART FIVE: A DAY IN MY FUTURE

In the future, I want two kids.  I know that my generation is known for either having kids in high school, or not having them at all, but my goal is to wait just until I have a steady source of income and a place to live.  I don’t care if they’re mine or if I have to adopt, but I want to be able to show a couple of young souls the beauty and fun in life.  A huge part of this will be continuing my family’s tradition of going to Old Orchard Beach every summer.  Nothing is better than walking along the beach as the sun is setting, eating an American size load of french fries with lots of ketchup.

Other than that my goals as a parent are simple, I want to make them open minded as can be and teach them as many skills as possible.  I want them to be able to see the two sides of any situation and ask questions instead of just accepting something as true.  I want them to know about nature and basic skills, but they’ll also learn modern basics like coding and how to use technology.  And of course, they’re definitely going to be subjected to hundreds of books, movies, and video games, to expand their views and story telling abilities.