More of my famous friends
On our road trip, we stopped to see Sande and Margo McNabb in Ames, IA. Sande and Margo are dear, dear friends of mine. They are also Maya and Ben’s honorary grandparents (their two children never had any children of their own). Sande “adopted” me around my second year of college. My first year was a rough year, and I nearly flunked out due to a combination of overloading, poor class choices and emotional immaturity. As a former straight ‘A’ student in high school, I was about as low as I could get (in my mind, anyway) when Sande called and offered me an internship with the Program for Women in Science and Engineering at Iowa State University. He likes to remind me of my response at the time: “Why me?” (Just a side note: female undergrads can still apply for this program here)
While I never made any groundbreaking discoveries (I did discover a new strain of a tree pathogen, but it was hardly overwhelming), I discovered Sande, and that has made all the difference. He and Margo mentored me through college (read: got me through it) and have continued to be my good friends through thick and thin. They turned 80 this year and for the first time I saw them begin to slow down (Sande didn’t actually retire until he was 73, despite lots of begging from Margo). He still, to this day, mentors one student a summer.
My parents like to blame Gonzaga for my turn to liberal views, but I like to blame Sande and Margo. Margo speaks of Republicans the way some people speak of death-row inmates. The bumper-sticker on their car reads: “Democrats. They care about people.” Which made Marti and I chortle more than once. Heaven forbid you should ever get the moniker “Republican” with Margo: she says things like “Dr. So and so - Republican (in a low whisper) - cut the funding for [insert valuable research here]” in the tone one reserves to whisper about petty scandals. I love her to death.
I do admit that Sande and Margo were the first liberals I ever met that were also devout Christians. They changed my entire world view, and I am not exaggerating. I’m not sure they really know how dear they are to me; they won’t even know that I wrote about them, as they have abandoned the complicated world of the Internet. However, after I spent a summer with them I went home and, at the urging of my friend Cheryl (Democrat) I joined the GU Progressives and learned, for the first time, about labor rights and anyone’s ability to petition the state senate, and about modern workplace issues such immigrants getting sprayed with pesticides as they worked, slave labor and the plight of migrating laborers. To this day, I think the other progressives (dressed all in black, or all in hemp, depending) thought I was a mole from the Young Republicans. Little did they know! (I would link to them, but apparently they are no more — only Democrats, Republicans and Libertarians on campus now).
Anyway, here’s Sande and Margo on YouTube declaring their support for John Edwards’ campaign for President ‘08. Enjoy!