Virginia Poethig - Sandwich Bug
"I ate in a restaurant down on the island, and there was a bug in my sandwich – a dead one. And I didn’t like that much. It was not my favorite thing that happened over there. They wanted to know if I wanted them to fix me another one, and I said ‘No Thank you.’ That was enough!"
Virginia Poethig - Lived Everywhere
"I was born in Iowa – very cold country – cold country. I have lived in many places. My husband was in the military, so I was in Guam for a year. I’ve been in the middle-east with my daughter and her husband. He was working for a gas company. They invited me over there and went for a year over there. I have been to a lot of states. I have lived in Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri – I could name some more, but I can’t think of them right now."
Virginia Poethig - Guam
"Guam! The mean temperature in Guam was 85 degrees. The mean temperature meaning that most of the time the temperature was 85 or more or less, but usually 85. It rained a lot. We went to the movies. The movies were outside. We took a poncho with us. Every time it rained, we pull the poncho up over our head. When it quit raining, we would put the poncho down. I have gone through a lot of rainstorms. There were a lot of Filipinos in Guam. They came over there to work. They made very little money. I had a house boy who came to my house every other week for 2 hours and ironed and cleaned. The people there are very nice. They are pretty – I don’t know exactly how to describe it – there are Hawaiians, and all kinds of different nationalities. I liked it! I liked it there!"
Virginia Poethig - Guam Bugs
"I was there for a year with my husband. We used to go swimming in the ocean –loved that! There were a lot of things there that I really, really liked. There were some things there that I didn’t like. I didn’t like the bugs. There were lots and lots of bugs. But otherwise I liked it."
Virginia Poethig - Emilio
"Interviewer: What memory of Guam sticks out the most with you?
Virginia: Probably Emilio who was my house boy and who was really, really good to me. My husband decided that I didn’t need help – that I had enough time on my hands that I didn’t need to have help, so he wanted me to fire my help. I told Emilio and he said, “I come and work for you for nothing.” He said, “Because, I think you need me to be there.” So, he came and worked for me and I slipped money to him when nobody was looking (laughs). He is my memory from there a lot because he was really good to me. The only thing we used to laugh about is - my daughter had dresses with sashes. He would forget to iron the sashes. He would iron the dresses beautifully. But he would forget to iron the sashes. So I would have to tell him and he would get the iron out and iron the sashes. Yep, I remember Emilio."