Interview by Jane Martin with (L) Lane Rodriguez-Dickens, (C) Colin Rodriguez-Dickens, (J) Jahlise Allen, (A) Angelique Allen on Jan. 14, 2007, with (W) Audrey Wilkinson present. Lane and Colin are brothers; Jahlise and Angelique are sisters. Lane is in 9^th grade, Jahlise in 8^th, Colin in 7^th, and Angelique in 6^th.

What follows is not the complete interview, but it does capture the flavor of the interactions. I started by explaining that my goal was to introduce them to other members of the church, because all four started attending within the last year or so.

On Sports

A: I’m on a basketball team, they put me in a lot of positions.

L: That’s like me and football, I play a lot of positions. I did football for two years. This year we made it to the play-offs.

W: Do you (girls) cheer for the guys?

J & A: No.    but  J: My cheer team, we went to Florida. Got 4^th place.

L: Last year, we had to play an extra game, and if we’d won that game, we would have gone to Florida. If we hadn’t had to play that extra game, we would have gone. This year, the ref didn’t know what he was doing.

C: That was like our second to last soccer game, but we still won it. The ball bounced off the goal and back to where he kicked it, and the ref said it was a goal. And the ref counted it when this huge guy pushed our goalie, with the ball, into the goal. Then we tied it, 2-2, so we had to go into sudden death. They went first and missed, and we went and won.

J: I’m also on a basketball team, and I play the lane. We have to get the ball and shoot.

J: Our best game was the only one, and we won, because they weren’t moving. I had the ball. (Told her sister) You pass the ball too much. You have to provide defense. Don’t just stand around.

A: What am I supposed to do?

J: Just move the ball

A: How? That would be like traveling or double dribbling or something.

L: Colin tried out for basketball in 6^th grade, he got like one out of ten baskets.

C: I play soccer, but not now, and we won the championship, and I air-soft. It’s like plastic guns that shoot little plastic pellets (sort of like paint ball), and it doesn’t hurt as much.

L: I played a lot yesterday. I shoot at gophers with mine. Mine is full scale like a real gun, and it even has replica wood.

C: I’m starting a dog walking business, so far it is only for one customer.

L: He walks the dog once a week.

A: My friend walks her cat.

L: We used to do that; we’d swing the cat around in circles.

J: You should ask Judy, because she can’t walk her dogs. The big one’s nice.

They made sure he knew who Judy was and described the dogs.

On other subjects

All of them: The 6^th graders keep getting smaller and smaller, except for Angelique. Luke is about as tall as the other 6^th graders; he’s about average for a 6^th grader.

C: I haven’t grown since last year.

L: I came across a picture of me today, and I gave myself an orange and blue mustache and beard, and Colin took the markers and practically ate them. That was when we lived in Utah. We just came back from Utah.

L: Colin has a dinosaur-hunting license.

C: It’s so cool, I can kill one pterodactyl, and a tyranosaurus rex, and some other thing. In Utah. It’s like this old thing from pre-school in Utah.

On CPC

W: Do you guys have a favorite thing about CPC?

C: The last church we went to, that was like kneeling and stuff, and that hurt my knees. This is more interactive.

L: It’s a community here.

A: With Ann, we had to like do things. We went to a Catholic church and the bread tasted like cardboard, and it got stuck in the top of my mouth. And they gave us wine, and everyone drinks out of the same cup.
(Note: Ann was her confirmation mentor when Angelique joined CPC.)

L: And have you ever been to a church where everyone speaks Spanish? That’s hard.

C: And the other church we went to, they were all adults, and they stared at my sisters.

A: We like the friends [here at CPC]. They were so serious at the Catholic church, and the kids were dressed in robes.

C: That’s like being Mormon.

L: You don’t know what that is.

C: Yes, I do , it’s not drinking beer and stuff, and not eating meat.

A and J: At this place when we were little, they (a couple of Mormons) tied us up in jeans. They weren’t nice.

C: And they’re too serious. At this other place, they’re saying “Sh.”

W: We talked about being deacons.

A: Judy’s a deacon. Who takes care of her then?

W: If you’re a deacon, and you get sick, the other deacons do things for you.

J: I have to do everything for her [Judy], at her house. Her dogs follow her. They don’t really like her (Angelique), because she growls at them.

W: Would you ever join choir?

All: No (unanimous).

A: I’m like scarred from our chorus teacher. Everything’s happy. She’s like the teacher you never wanted. She’s always happy and always annoying.

 

 

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