Amazingly, my story is not too different from many of yours, with only a few exceptions. I was born in Columbia, Mississippi in the late 40's. My parents were married. I was the second child in a family of 4 children. We owned our own home, right across the street from my Mother's mother,who was the matriarch of the family. My father's Mother was part Indian, my fathers father was part White. Being raised in the 50's and 60's in Mississippi, I wish I could tell you that I was not subjected to racism. But it would be a lie. I never went to school with White children. And, yes, as I have mentioned before I was called the N-word while growing up. Yet, I am not bitter. I have overcome all of that.
In order for my father to find a decent job during the 30's in Mississippi, he had to go to the Northeast. He ended up in Farrell, PA working for Sharon Steel Mill for about 40 years. The strange part about it was that my Mom and Dad chose to leave my Mom and the childen in Columbia during the winter and then Dad would come down and load us up in the family car (Dad always had nice cars)and take us to Farrell for the Summer. In August, he'd load us up again and bring us back to Columbia for school. While we knew that Dad was taking good care of us financially, my brother and I suffered in other areas. Our Dad was a man of many skills. He was a master carpenter. He could do plumbing. He could fix cars. My brother and I know very little about those skills. Even today, if there is something more complex than tightening something around the house, I have to hire someone to do it.
One memory that sticks out about my childhood is the death of our Mother. We had gone to school that morning, I was around 14, and Mom wasn't up yet. That was a little strange. But in my rush to be on time for school, I didn't think much of it. Around 9:00 that morning, someone came to get me out of class to tell me that Mom was dead. Of course, I didn't believe them because, after all, it was April 1st, April Fool's Day. Well, it was April Fool's Day AND Mom had died in her sleep. That was an awful day for me.
Dad rushed home from Farrell. We buried Mom and the plan was for my two sisters to move in with our Grandmother across the street and my brother and I would stay in our house under the supervision of our grandmother. Then in May Dad would come and pick us up and we would live with him until we all graduated from school. Evidently, someone forgot to check with my Grandmother. When August came, my Grandmother demanded that we be returned to Columbia. My Father gave in and we were returned to Columbia where we stayed until we graduated from high School. My wife and I married right out of high school. We went on to graduate from Jackson State University. Moved to the Atlanta Metro area and have made a pretty decent living while raising and educating three kids, two girls and a boy. All three children are college graduates. Life has been good. My wife and I celebrated our 42nd Wedding Anniversary on Thanksgiving Day.