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| Andie
Parton has genuine sympathy for the struggles
of young people and it shows in her new book. |
Be it ever so humble, there's no place like "leaving
home."
Humble, indeed. It's usually cockroach-infested,
drafty and full of rowdy housemates. Hey, but at least
there's no one to tell you what to do.
Well, now there is. But the good news is it's not
mom or dad. It's Andie Parton and she doesn't so much
tell you what to do as give you a road map with lots
of good, practical suggestions and tips in a humorous
way.
Her new book, illustrated by her good friend, Lynn
Johnston, who does the internationally popular For
Better or For Worse cartoon strip, is called Leaving
Home: Survival of the Hippest. And it fills a big
gap.
What are young people supposed to do once they leave
home? In school they teach them algebra they'll probably
never use but not how to do the laundry.
Parton's eminently qualified to weigh in. She's made
all the mistakes. But she got a lot right, too.
"I left home early in the '60s and travelled across
the U.S.," says Parton. But without a work permit.
"I learned how to stay one step ahead of the immigration
officials."
She worked as a bartender, a carny, a photographer's
model and a migrant worker on the Mexican border.
"I knew how to get a job as soon as I got into a
new town, so I could buy a meal," says Parton who's
now 55, lives in Dundas and has three grown children.
"And I've been in gambling tents at migrant workers'
camps where people would blow a day's pay and have
to live on raw vegetables."
She had to learn the hard way. But she learned. And
picked up a lot of interesting tidbits along the way,
including how to jump a freight train.
Some are simple things, but things people, especially
inexperienced people, don't think of.
"When you're looking at an apartment, turn on every
light and flush every toilet," says Parton.
"Come back at night and stand on the corner and see
what's going on in the neighbourhood."
Parton has chapters on roommates and compatibility,
budgets, finding and keeping jobs, handling bureaucracy,
developing buddy systems, and eating.
She tells you -- but never in a preachy way -- how
to leave a place if it's not working out and how to
clean, decorate and furnish it cheaply if it is.
The book is full of humorous asides and helpful tips,
such as using laundromats as an information and people-meeting
resources.
There's a flinty honesty here, a hard-won pragmatism
and a stomach for the sometimes less than elegant
realities of life. She's not above nudging readers
to crash free food affairs like wedding receptions
and college faculty functions when hunger is deep
and pockets shallow.
Radiating throughout is sympathy for and understanding
of the true, unsanitized struggles of young people.
Parton has helped raise foster children and was a
life skills coach for teenagers. "Did they ever teach
me things," she says.
"Sometimes when a 15-year-old girl tells you she
wants a baby, it's an actual goal, as misguided as
it is. It's not carelessness. She wants someone for
once who will love her for herself."
It's that kind of insight and feel for the psychology
of young people, as much as the tips, that makes Leaving
Home such a valuable resource.
"It's not just about how to stretch your money but
how to make your way socially, how to be on your own,"
says Parton, a lab technologist at McMaster. Parton
befriended Johnston in the late '60s when they were
both struggling single mothers in Dundas.
They never lost touch, even as Johnston shot to international
fame and Parton went on social assistance rather than
give up breastfeeding, then applied herself to her
studies and became a lab technologist.
"I'd be raising three children and writing terms
papers," says Parton. "I remember once I got a paper
back and the professor gave me a C but an A-plus for
my daughter for the scribble she made on one of the
pages."
She started writing at Johnston's encouragement.
"I started writing about three or four years ago.
Lynn and I always corresponded back and forth and
she'd say, 'I've read your letters. You can do this
(write).' "
She composed short poems to accompany Johnston's
small gift books.
Finally, after years of talking about it, they collaborated
on Leaving Home.
It is published by Andrews McMeel Publishing out
of Kansas City and is available at most bookstores.
By the way, to jump a freight train, you've got to
catch the "cadence," then time the jump and "hope
your legs are still there when you're done."
That's what Andie Parton says.
jmahoney@thespec.com
or 905-526-3306. |
