Montague Sanders

1/14/15
Family Tree Project
Writing Prompts

The more colorful relative I chose was my Great Grandma Willie Mae. Shes a 65 year
old woman that curses like a 21 year old sailor. Her full name is Willie Mae Switzer and she was
born April 25th, 1962. She is known to everyone as Granny or mamma but she has always
been there for everyone. She stands at 55 but has the boldest attitude. She has no problem
laughing and joking but will put you in your place in a heartbeat! She was very helpful for during
this project because she is the oldest relative I still have leaving. I sat her down to talk and see
what all she could tell me about her parents and she was more than excited. From her, I found
out that my family is from North Carolina. Her mother and father were born here in charlotte and
everyone else after them. She told me that her husband, Jonny Switzer, served in the Vietnam
War. I had never met him so I had no idea I had a Vietnam War veteran in my family! I also
found out that she actually stayed in Germany for a short period of time but later moved back to
North Carolina because she had to take care of her mother. My Great Grandma did not go to
school, but rather she worked. She described how working conditions were so dangerous for men
and how lucky she was to have a cleaning job. She worked for that company for 40 years and
was fortunate to retire. She wouldnt tell me much about her childhood because she went through
a lot of hardships and rough times growing up. I respected that and went on to ask if she could
recall anything about her parents but she wasnt able to tell me much. I believe what my great
grandma went through is what made her the awesome granny she is today. My granny will have
a drink with you then sit you down and tell you how you need to re-evaluate your life. She hosts
plenty of Sunday dinners and always makes sure her grandkids have eaten. She is truly a blessing
to still have around.

Writing Prompt#2

1/20/15

Going through my family history I noticed that many of my family member names have a
French origin, including mine. My name, Montague, is a French word meaning Steep Mountain.
I am the second behind my father with this name, but I have yet to find an answer to why I was
named after him. However my grandmother and her 3 other sister all have names that have a
French origin and meaning. As they started to have kids however, the names started to branch off
into many different origins which leads me to think that my family has no specific tradition when
it came to naming.
My Grandmother, Rosalind, is the lady to thank for giving my father his name. She told
me that she had put time and thought into the name well before he was born and picked the name
because of its uniqueness. The name Montague has a few different pronunciation options but she
went opposite of the popular way. The way she wanted it pronounced was like inserting an I in
for the A. Without prior knowledge of knowing how its pronounced, its really easy to miss
pronounce but thats one of the stipulations with choosing a different name from most.
My 3 Aunts Renita, Jackie, and Faye all have names of French origin as well. They are
all Daughters to My Great Grandma, Willie Mae, whose name ends the trend of French Origin.
My Great Grandmothers name is African, so going past her I believe the names are more from

Montague Sanders
1/14/15
Family Tree Project
Writing Prompts

Africa. We had a trend of French names for a little minute, but eventually they lead to different
origins.

Writing Prompt#3

1/28/15

My family has roots that stretch all over the United States from Texas, to New Jersey to
North Carolina and a few states in between. However there are no records of anyone in my
family who has been a citizen of another country. Going back to my great great Grandparents,
there are people who have visited other countries and traveled but no one has made the decision
to live outside the U.S. The majority of my family chose to stay near each other and for the past
few generations we have all lived in North Carolina.
Although no one in my family has lived in another country, many family members have
traveled outside the U.S. My Great Grandmothers father was one on them. His name was Jonny
Switzer and he served in the army. While in the army he got the opportunity to go to Germany.
Germany is one country I have always been interested in visiting. The German flag is a plain one
with just three colors; Red, Black and Gold. If I wanted to become a citizen today I would have
to pass the German Citizen Test, which would go hand in hand with learning the German
language. Becoming a German citizen would also mean learning a new national anthem, Das
Deutschlandlied.
Although no one in my family has lived outside of the U.S., its still not too late for me to
be the first. I believe living outside of the United States would be a really good experience and
opportunity. Moving out of the U.S opens would open your eyes to how life is for the other
countries and it can really show you how good we have it in the United States.

Writing Prompt#4
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

2/11/15

Barak Obama
Jerry Jones
Meek Mill
Bill Gates
John Madden
One thing that all these people have in common is that they all have found a way to
beat the odds against them at the time and make a name for themselves. Each one of these
people faced some sort of hardships on the road to the success that they have now, but none of
these men let the struggles of what they were going through at the time stop them. I think that
me choosing these five men says that I will not let the hardships that come with college stop me.
I believe I too can beat the odds against me and make a name for myself.

Montague Sanders
1/14/15
Family Tree Project
Writing Prompts

Writing Prompt#5

2/22/15

My items for the short research project included some comics, specifically The World of
Jughead and Bleach. I never had an interest in reading comic books, however after doing
research for this project Ive discovered that all comics book arent the same and some can be
pretty interesting. The comic book, The world of Jughead, is an example of one of the more
interesting comics book I have read. It comes from a comic book series entitled Archie Giant
Series from the Archie Comics Company.
The Archie Comics Company published the title Archie Giant Series in 1954 with the
first comic being called. Archies Christmas stocking. The comic series has a total of 632
volumes with titles including World of Archie, World of Jughead, and Katy Keene. The World of
Jughead seemed to be the more interesting one for me because it uses common situations that are
faced in everyday life that are easier to connect with. The most interesting thing I discovered
when doing my research on The World of Jughead was that there is one particular special copy
that is really rare. There was a comic titled Jugheads Folly that was published in 1957 and
featured Jughead has the legendary Elvis. I havent got the details on how much this comic
would be worth today but from research it shows this title, unlike many of the others, was not reused later in the series within other publications. It was Published the one time in the 1957
Volume and never again.
I want to go more depth into the history of Jughead and how the character relates to the
Authors life. What was happening during the time period Jughead comics were released? I also
want to go in depth on what it would take for me to obtain a copy of the rarest comic the
company published or the price it would be today.

Montague Sanders
1/14/15
Family Tree Project
Writing Prompts

Writing Prompt#8

3/21/15

Figure 1.
Source: UNCC Mascot google.com
Commentary: Norm before he underwent the major changes, looked old and outdated. His clothes are
baggy and non-appealing. He has a nice clean cut beard and a very inviting smile however, he has no
muscular tone and is not very appealing.

Figure 2.
Source: UNCC Mascot google.com
Commentary: This is Norm after his major make over. He now has a hat with the UNCC logo on it and a
more scruffy beard. He now has some muscular definition and more tailored fitting clothing. He was
equipped with an official UNC Charlotte basketball uniform, pick axe and new shoes.

Montague Sanders
1/14/15
Family Tree Project
Writing Prompts

Figure 3.
Source: UNCC Pickaxe Logo Google.com
Commentary: The end result for the logo change is supposed to be a simpler more recognizable logo.
Right now there are around 8 different colors associated with our logo, when the change is complete
there should be around 4. This change will reduce the cost of printing the logo by almost half.

Writing Prompt#9

4/1/15

When I first started this project, I had the impression that I would be just focusing on
how the logo its self has changed over the years along with color changes. Once I started
completing some research, one thing that made that impression change was the numerous
amounts of mascot changes weve had. Norm has undergone three major changes since 1949. I
also found out that at first we were the Night Owls and not the Forty-Niners.
In 1946 UNCC, was a two-year college called Charlotte Center of the University of North
Carolina. The colors for the school at the time were Maroon and Grey and their mascot was an
Owl. The colors were in place up until 1965, which is when the Green and White was
introduced. The color white was chosen because of the relationship with the other top schools
in NC; Chapel Hill, NC State and UNC Greensboro which all have the color white as one of its
major colors. The color Green came as a way for UNCC to stand out from the other three
schools.
The mascot was another item that UNCC changed over the years. Norm was originally
seen in the year 1949. He started out as an Irish looking gold-miner with an old fashioned pipe
in his mouth and a pick axe. In 2000, he transformed into a full blown gold miner with his
scruffy beard, pick axe and baggy clothes. In 2011 he transformed into the norm that we see
now. He is stronger, his beard is nice and clean and he has clothes that he can fit.
These two other things that I found when doing research add to things I can elaborate in
when presenting. Along with the many logo changes the school has undergone, these are two

Montague Sanders
1/14/15
Family Tree Project
Writing Prompts

more attributes in representation of the school that has changed multiple times and show no
signs of settling.

Writing Prompt#10

4/6/15

After talking to a few people about the changes that the UNCC logo have
undergone along with the mascot, I found out that many people were unaware of the changes.
The people asked were aware of the current mascot, logo and colors but when asked when to
compare these to what were used in the past many couldnt answer. Some of the people were
aware that Norm the mascot had evolved but when asked if they knew about the on-going
battle to change our distinct logo, many had never heard of it.
One person interviewed gave me a perspective I had missed when doing my research. I
asked the person, Before the Niners, what was our nickname? The answer I received was
Before Norm, UNCC was CCUNC and the nickname for the school was the owls. This piece of
information gave me a new point of reference when completing my research. I can take this
information and go deeper into why they chose not to keep the name owls and if the owls
were the same green and white color. This also brought up flags into what mascot was used
when the schools football program first started derailing in 1949.
The interview conducted proved to be beneficial because it gave me more topics to
research about and add to the presentation. I can take the information about the previous
nickname we had and go deeper into why they school switched from the owls to the Niners
and this could lead me into other changes that the school underwent that are hid in the
background of the booming campus we have today.