<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
<meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 15 (filtered medium)">
<style><!--
/* Font Definitions */
@font-face
{font-family:"Cambria Math";
panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;}
@font-face
{font-family:Calibri;
panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4;}
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;}
a:link, span.MsoHyperlink
{mso-style-priority:99;
color:#0563C1;
text-decoration:underline;}
a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed
{mso-style-priority:99;
color:#954F72;
text-decoration:underline;}
span.EmailStyle17
{mso-style-type:personal-compose;
font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;
color:windowtext;}
.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;
font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;}
@page WordSection1
{size:8.5in 11.0in;
margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in;}
div.WordSection1
{page:WordSection1;}
--></style><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapedefaults v:ext="edit" spidmax="1026" />
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapelayout v:ext="edit">
<o:idmap v:ext="edit" data="1" />
</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]-->
</head>
<body lang="EN-US" link="#0563C1" vlink="#954F72">
<div class="WordSection1">
<p class="MsoNormal">Hello Readers,<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Please find attached and below questions for the Ditch Digger’s Daughter. There are 30 but the discussant should feel free to pick and choose.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">We are meeting at 7:30 Wednesday February 5 at our home The address is 810 22<sup>nd</sup> Street South, Arlington 22202.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">As usual we will order dinner. I will send a menu closer to Wednesday. Please plan to arrive between 6:30 and 6:45 for dinner.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">John <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">ditchdigger.pdf<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Southfield Public Library <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The Ditchdigger’s daughters by Yvonne Thornton Discussion questions used at SPL -- February 2009
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">list of 16 items<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">1. Whose story is this? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">2. What did you think of Donald? Did your opinion of him change over the course of the book?
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">3. Did the daughters realize how different their dad was from other people?
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">4. How would you describe his parenting style? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">5. Did Donald have different strategies for each daughter? Would it have been better if he did?
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">6. Were Donald and Tass’s work ethics passed along to their daughters?
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">7. Were these girls exceptionally smart or were they the product of their environment? What do you think made them so driven as a family?
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">8. What was up with Donald’s family? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">9. What sort of role did gender play in their lives? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">10. What type of child was Yvonne? What type of woman? <o:p>
</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">11. What was the relationship between Donald and Tass? <o:p>
</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">12. Between Donald and the daughters? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">13. Between the sisters? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">14. What was the best piece of advice Donald gave his daughters? What was the worst? (picking out rabbits, too dark of skin, women are stupid about sex,<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">comments on their looks) <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">15. What do you know of the theory of birth order? Do you think these ideas applied to the daughters?
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">16. What did you think of the way they performed on weekends and kept up their studies? Could you have done that? What did their mother’s dreams of show<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">business contribute to their career? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">list end<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">list of 14 items<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">17. Were you surprised that there didn’t seem to be any real issues of them playing at all white colleges, especially in the South, during the 60’s? Or<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">was that history re-written, do you think? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">18. Two sisters complained of this book after it was written. Can you guess which two? (Jeanette and Rita)
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">19. Their biggest complaint was that their mother’s role in their lives seemed diminished. Would you agree?
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">20. Another was that the book “barely hints at the emotional toll their father’s dreams exacted on the family.” Would you agree at that?
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">21. Yvonne gives her opinions on why some African Americans don’t always succeed in college - the differences in social skills, dress and so on. Do you<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">think those are valid? Were they valid back in her day? <o:p>
</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">22. Interesting comment from Yvonne that perhaps her dad kept them fat on purpose . . . from reading the book would you agree that is something the dad<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">would have done? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">23. Were you surprised at Donna and Jeannette’s rebellion? Were you surprised at how long it took? Why didn’t the others follow their footsteps?
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">24. What did you think of Yvonne’s wedding? Why was it so grand and formal?
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">25. Did Yvonne have more trouble as a woman or as an African American? Can you even separate the two? Did she?
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">26. How did losing Tass affect the family? Did that show how much – or how little- influence she had on the family? What was the biggest change after her<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">death? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">27. How did Yvonne treat her husband? Her children? Did you see some of her dad in her?
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">28. Yvonne’s parents’ opinion was that it didn’t matter if you loved a man, but he has to love you -- would you agree?
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">29. Let’s talk about a few passages from the Gospel of Donald - see if you are believers!
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">30. What are some of the other messages in this book? What lessons can people take away from this book?
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">list end<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Southfield Public Library <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">General Discussion Questions <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">list of 1 items<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> For the person who chose the book – What made you want to read it? What made you pick it for the book club? Did it live up to your expectations?
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">list end<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">list of 1 items<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> How is the book structured? First person? Third person? Flashbacks? Narrative devices? Do you think the author did a good job with it?
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">list end<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">list of 1 items<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> How would you describe the author’s writing style? Concise? Flowery? How is language used in this book? Read aloud a passage that really struck you.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">How does that passage relate to the book as a whole? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">list end<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">list of 1 items<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> How effective is the author’s use of plot twists? Were you able to predict certain things before they happened? Did the author keep you guessing until<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">the end? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">list end<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">list of 1 items<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> Did the book hold your interest? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">list end<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">list of 1 items<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> How important is the setting to the story? Did you feel like you were somewhere else? Did the time setting make a difference in the story? Did the author<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">provide enough background information for you to understand the setting and time placement?
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">list end<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">list of 1 items<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> Which is stronger in the book – the characters or the plots?
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">list end<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">list of 1 items<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> Would you recommend this book to someone else? Why? And to whom?
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">list end<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Southfield Public Library <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The Ditchdigger’s Daughter <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">General background information <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Taken from: <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">---<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">February 20, 1997 <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Sisters, United in Success, Are Divided on the Details <o:p>
</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">By LENA WILLIAMS <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In her inspirational 1995 memoir ''The Ditchdigger's Daughters,'' Dr. Yvonne S. Thornton paints a loving portrait of her father, Donald Thornton, a black<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">New Jersey laborer, who held the improbable dream that his six daughters would all become doctors. Two of them did so; a third is a dentist, and the others<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">are a lawyer, a nurse and a court stenographer. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Now, two of Dr. Thornton's sisters say that her account of their family's story, which has been made into a television movie, is flawed. They say that<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">it virtually ignores the role their mother, Itasker, a domestic worker, played in her daughters' success and that it barely hints at the emotional toll<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">their father's dream exacted from the family. They also say the book was written without their knowledge or permission.
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In a new, privately published book, ''A Suitcase Full of Dreams,'' Dr. Jeanette F. Thornton, an Albany psychiatrist, and Rita L. Thornton, a lawyer in<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Atlantic Highlands, N.J., portray their father as a domineering man who manipulated and bullied his daughters and drove a wedge between the three younger<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">sisters and two of their older siblings that exists to this day, years after their parents' death. (Mrs. Thornton died in 1977, her husband in 1983.)
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The squabble might have been kept within the family, but the impending broadcast has the sisters worried about how their family's history will be presented.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">It is one thing, Jeanette and Yvonne Thornton said, for sisters to disagree with each other, quite another to have an outsider interpret family matters.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The movie, which will be <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">broadcast on Sunday at 7 P.M. on the Family Channel, was adapted for television by Paris Qualles, a screenwriter and friend of the Thornton sisters. Mr.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Qualles, whose credits include a television movie, ''Tuskegee Airmen'' and a feature film, ''The Inkwell,'' attended elementary school in Long Branch,<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">N.J., with Rita Thornton, the youngest sister. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Mr. Qualles said his adaptation was based on sources other than those included in the book. It expands on the relationship between Yvonne, the third daughter,<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">who always tried to please their father and became the first in the family to become a doctor, and Jeanette, the second oldest, who rebelled against their<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">father's tight control. She was the first to shatter the dream of having six doctors in the house when she chose to pursue a doctorate in psychology, although<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">she went on to earn a medical degree. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">''It is a success story; that is what ultimately drew me to the project,'' Mr. Qualles said during a telephone interview from Los Angeles. ''Conflict within<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">the family is not new, nor is it particularly dramatic. But when you have conflicts with a single goal, it makes for a more interesting story.
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">''What I hoped to do with Jeanette, she being the rebellious one, was to elevate one of the daughters, to represent the voice of people watching today,<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">especially the younger generation, which probably will watch this program and wonder why these girls put up with this.''
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The movie presents Mr. Thornton, played by Carl Lumbly, as an enigma: a man who once said he loved his daughters better than life itself but who demanded<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">their unconditional love in return. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">To the outside world, the Thorntons appeared to be a close-knit family, though sometimes the togetherness became suffocating as the sisters grew older.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The girls, who were not allowed to play with other children in their Long Branch neighborhood, studied together and attended the same schools, through<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Monmouth College. Even though they achieved success and even performed as a teen-age jazz and rock band called the Thornton Sisters, they were forbidden<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">to mingle outside their family circle. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">But Jeanette Thornton expressed concern that the movie would leave its audience with the incorrect impression that what it was seeing was the authentic<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Thornton family experience. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">''I'm afraid that after seeing the movie, people will go out and buy the book and end up believing that version of our story,'' said Dr. Thornton.
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">She and her sister Rita said they had been forced to publish their own book after they learned they could not stop their sister from going ahead with hers.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">They said they did not know about their sister's book until she mailed them a copy.
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Disturbed by what they read, including the omission of their half-sister, Jo Ann, who was born before their parents married, they tried to file suit but<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">learned they had no legal grounds to do so. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">''We were told that this is our sister's view of the family, and that she has every right, legally, to tell the story as she saw it,'' said Jeanette Thornton.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">''Had it been entitled, 'The Ditchdigger's Daughter,' we could understand. But it's about all of us, when only one of us was involved in the writing. Furthermore,<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">the title is misleading. Our father was a construction worker. He may have dug one ditch in his entire life. To use that title only trivializes what he<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">did.'' <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Yvonne Thornton, who is director of the perinatal diagnostic testing center at Morristown Memorial Hospital in New Jersey, said she had her own anxieties<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">about the movie. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">''The first script didn't have me graduating from medical school,'' she said. ''I understand they had to focus on my father, rather than me, because he<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">was my focus. In so doing, and for creative purposes, they created intergenerational conflict. I hope they show that this was a loving family in the time<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">allotted.'' <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Dr. Thornton said she had not read her sisters' book, which is available only by mail.
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">''What's done is done,'' she said. ''My parents are gone, but they always told us that we have to cover for each other and have to love each other. And<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I love every one of my sisters.'' <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Southfield Public Library <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The Ditchdigger’s Daughter General Information <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Connect to this website for an audio interview with Yvonne Thornton
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">http://psychjourney_blogs.typepad.com/wisdom_dad/2008/12/the-ditchdiggers-daughters-a-<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">black-familys-astonishing-success-story.html<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">For more on the family, go to <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">http://www.thornton-sisters.com/<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">To hear them perform, go to <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtJA7aMVNJw<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Yvonne has written a sequel – Something to Prove: a daughter’s journey to fulfill a father’s legacy. Published in 2010.
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Jeanette and Rita have also written a book. Theirs is called A Suitcase Full of Dreams and was published in 1996.<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
</body>
</html>