Conversation with Kathy at the Veteran's Outreach Tiny House Raffle + Prime Rib Dinner

Dave and I arrive at the Prime Rib dinner and raffle.  This event is in support of a tiny house community that is being constructed for Veterans.  Our friend in Redwood City who is working on Tiny House projects there has made us aware of the event.

Dinner and Raffle at Greg's Catering, Mt. Pleasant (home of future Foxconn)

We buy our ticket and raffle tickets.  We admire the three handguns and AR-15 rifle which are door prizes.  There are 60 or so people seated at tables, talking.  We choose to sit at a far table with a single older woman.  Good choice.  We meet Kathy.

We learn over the course of our 90 minutes together eating and enjoying the distribution of the raffle prizes that Kathy is 63, has two children, is divorced, is Catholic and calls herself conservative.  Here are some highlights (from memory, no recording this time) from the conversation.

Work

Kathy has worked for 44 years at a dental appliance company making the appliances when orders come in from orthodontists and dentists around the country.  She plans to work until she is 65 then work less.  Now she is working four 10 hour days: M, T, Th, F.

The newer products are made using computers.  But she doesn’t like computers, so is assigned to the special orders that the computer can’t process.

Generous Spirit

Now that her work schedule has changed and she has Wednesday open, Kathy spends each Wednesday morning at the food pantry and each afternoon at the Veterans Tiny House Project.

Kathy tells me that at the food pantry people come through there who have professionally done nails and nice hair dos.  “I can tell.”  And some have “new, designer clothes like I wouldn’t buy.”  “Until recently I never bought new clothes.” She can’t stand this.  These people are taking food for their families when they are spending their money on fancy things that they can afford.  “The director of the food pantry put up a sign that reads: ‘Don’t be judgemental.’  But I have a hard time with that.”

“My [liberal] friends all wanted to give things away to people.  Not like me.”

Tiny House Project on Veterans Outreach Site - Racine

The other day she was at the Veterans Project and there was nothing to do.  So she asked the director if she should go home.  He showed her the conference room which was a mess, full of boxes and hadn’t been cleaned in a long time.  He asked her to clean it up for the Board meeting was going to be held there the next day.  “So I did.” she concluded.

During dinner she cornered the director of Veterans Outreach of Wisconsin and "makes arrangements" for Dave and me to drop by to see the project.

Conservative Values

Kathy announces with pride: “I’m Conservative.”  I will choose HOW I will give away my money.  I don’t want my money being given away to people who can work and won’t.

Hillary:

“Don’t get me started.  I hate that ‘It takes a Village.’  I can’t stand that.”

Family

Kathy is divorced.  Her husband killed someone while driving drunk.  So now Kathy orders one glass of wine and that is it.  She tells me this when I offer to get her a second glass of wine.

She has two kids.  While they were growing up she could work from home and watch them when they got home from school.  Public school teachers should just teach their subject, not interfere with parents raising their kids.  (This is why the “it takes a village” rubs Kathy the wrong way.)

Her daughter is living with her fiance.  The problem for Kathy is that this is her second fiance and she is still married to her husband.  This girl has been a problem since she was a girl.  She’d get calls from the school that her daughter was missing and she’d have to go out and find her.  Kathy trusts her son-in-law more than her daughter with the care of their daughter (Kathy's granddaughter).  So she is lobbying for the grand daughter to move in with him and out of the home with her daughter and her current fiance.

Her son knew he wanted to be a chef from age five.  When his father suggested he think about a career at Delphi (the GM parts subsidiary) the son said, “Dad, don’t you understand?  I going to be a chef?”  He went on to take a culinary class at Gateway Technical College.  Now he is a sous-chef at the Racine Country Club where he has worked since he was 15.  So when he complains he isn’t making enough money Kathy reminds him: “You are living your dream!”  She tells us with pride that he then told her he is the highest paid sous-chef in Racine.  It is her son’s children, 2 and 4, for whom Kathy wants to win the nerf gun set.

Guns:

Door Prizes...we didn't win.

I ask what she wants to win in the raffle.  “I want the nerf gun set for my 4 year old grand child.”  We share in the disappointment when she doesn’t.  I’ve put a raffle ticket for the Green Bay Packers photos and shovel which I imagine giving to Rodger (see “Retired Farmer” blog).  When the door prizes are drawn, Kathy definitely wants to win one of the hand guns.  “I have a sword by my bed now,” she says.  “But of course I’d rather have a small gun.”

 

Packer's shovel and photo - didn't win it either

Religion

“I’m Catholic,” Kathy tells us.  “We have an Indian (Sub Continent) priest.  But he’s hard to understand.  His accent is so strong.  He starts his homily with a joke.  But I can’t understand it.  He’s the first one to laugh.  That way we know it was a joke.”

We mention that we will be visiting Pastor Jerry’s Grace church later in our visit.  Kathy is aware of it.  “They copied the format of the church down in Chicago.  And they have 2000 congregants each Sunday!”

Politics

“Paul Ryan is going to be President.”  “He’s so down to earth.  He has pictures of his family dressed in Packers gear.” “I went to an event for Scott Walker. I told him it was a good place to celebrate my 60th birthday.  He said, ‘It’s your 60th birthday?  I’ll give you a hug instead of a handshake!’”  And he did.  Kathy remarks that Walker’s wife is charming.

She is not so sure about Walker today, however.  He seems to be changing his policies. She particularly hates his roundabouts.  (We notice in Racine a number of roundabout intersections...Dave and I were commenting this was downright socialist importing these European rotaries.)  But for Kathy they are a real problem.  She was in an accident in one of them because another driver did not yield for her.  And Walker is being held at least partially to account.

Dinner - Kathy's glass of wine, off talking to Director

“I wanted Rick Santorum in the Presidential primaries.” (Although she couldn’t quite remember his name, Dave filled it in.)  When the election came, Kathy was thinking, “Is that all you got?”  She was not enthusiastic.  She voted for Trump and thought that he would “join the Republican party and work with them.” “Instead he went his own way.  He is not a nice man.”  Kathy is seeing more similar characteristics to Hillary: arrogant and self centered.

Good night

The raffle over and our plates clean, we say our farewells.  Kathy was on her way out to retrieve the packaging from her car for the glass cup set she had given for the raffle.  With her lovely, hearty laugh ringing, she said good night.

 
-- Peter