I was born in 1933 in Ohio. The Great Depression is in full swing but luckily my father has steady - if low-paying - work as a minister and my mom occasionally brings in extra income from side projects.

I spend the first year of my life living with my parents, grandparents, aunt and uncles on the family farm. My mom's asthma is getting worse, though, and in 1934 my dad makes the radical decision to move the family out west on the recommendation of a local doctor.

We end up living in Phoenix when my mom's aunt offers to let us stay with her and her longterm roommate temporarily. Dad finds works doing odd jobs in the 1930s as the family grows. After my youngest brother is born we're finally able to afford our own place.

My childhood is poor but happy. In early 1944 I catch pneumonia and am sick for months. Penicillin is still a few years away from widespread availability so I have to fight it out on my own. Luckily I'm young, otherwise healthy and don't have a severe case so I (probably) survive.

As a married father in his late 20s/early 30s my dad is able to avoid being drafted in World War II. My mom's brothers are drafted, though, and while both back it back home one is very badly injured.

My parent's financial situation improves after the war so much that I not only graduate from high school but am able to go to college thanks to an academic scholarship. I earn a teaching degree and begin working on a local Indian reservation.

I never meet @drewcosten. He had health problems in infancy that may have killed him in the 1930s. Even if he had survived, we lived to far away from one another to ever meet in this timeline.

After working for a couple of years I marry one of my fellow teachers. He's a nice enough fellow although I really miss working after the wedding. We have two children, a girl and a boy, because that's what married people do.

At this point the year is 1962. My daughter is starting Kindergarten. I'm happy to only have one kid at home all day and eagerly looking forward to next year when my son joins her at school. Chasing small children was never something I enjoyed and even though I appear to have the picture-perfect family I'm feeling very restless.

Love this, Galadriel! Too late to entertain the thought of me writing about my own birth in 1904, but I'll be mulling it over. By the way, lots of women worked, especially during the depression years and WWII. My grandmother (b 1896) was a teacher for awhile; you only needed a high school diploma at that time.

Thanks, Anne! I knew women worked during WWII but didn't realize it was common in the 1930s.

Looking forward to reading your alternate life story. :)