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Walking Down Memory Lane
IF YOU DON’T KNOW YOUR HISTORY YOU ARE DOOMED TO REPEAT IT. This was always the phrase used when growing up around my Pop-Pop and my dad who are complete history buffs. These two men impacted my life to become the woman that I am today. As we grow older, we sometimes forget key moments of our childhood that shaped us. I want to take a walk down memory lane and explore some of these forgotten times. I am happy that memories exist because we can always go back and relive them.
By Sidney Smith (Sid Smith)4 years ago in Families
Stay With Me, Baby
My father told me a story once about his first out of body experience. He had been young, 6 or so, the age when it seems like you shouldn't remember most things. This memory, though, remained clear as ice. It was freezing in Texas, with frost dusting the packed dirt around his family's farmhouse.
By Madi Scruggs4 years ago in Families
Black dads, ice-cream, and inflation . Top Story - June 2022.
Part of baby fever is wondering which of my parents’ stories I will tell. Children are like blank palette souls waiting to be colored by their experiences, and parents are like spirit guides who give frame of reference to every new color, shape, and texture. Thinking about which narratives I will perpetuate feels like curating my future children’s library. When my son notices that his hair is short and his sister’s is long, will I tell him the story of Genesis? Shall I give him a brief introduction to gender roles? Or maybe I will immerse him in popular culture by showing him pictures in magazines that inspired his look? Will I encourage my daughter’s anthropological curiosity by delving into the history, and even the utility of long hair? Will I explain to her that vitality and fertility is signaled by long hair? Or will I let my children’s hair both grow long and free, and wait until my son comes to ask my why he is different, and then should I choose that moment to reinforce to him that he is special? I think of the many ways my dad made me feel special.
By Vineece Verdun4 years ago in Families
A Dimension Unexplainable
I remember … Morning sunlight coming through our living room windows, forest green, gold and black design curtains drawn, thin white draperies still in place to maintain privacy. Our four bedroom home is in Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh. Mom and Dad are over by Dad’s desk in the large open living room connected to our dining room and then kitchen. Mom is standing behind him, wearing shorts and a top, her hand on his bare shoulder. Dad is sitting in his desk chair in his briefs, no shirt, bare feet. The living room is clean, lived in, comfortable. I know my niece is asleep upstairs, and Kolohe (our dog) and Ace (our cat) are probably with her. My sisters are far away, one in Hawaii with her husband and family, and the other, my niece’s mother, is currently on the west coast flying for Delta. It’s Sunday morning. I’m awake, having gone to the restroom, and for some reason I’ve popped myself out of my room to see my parents. I can’t remember why. I do remember the sureness of love. It is strong and deep.
By Craig Rose4 years ago in Families
Chapter Two
Hello everyone thanks for riding this crazy path with me. Now here we go chapter 2 with ad much background as I have we are into when life actually seemed real. My mother is still married to the evil step father at this point. Her relationship has very little legs to stand on. I’m getting ready to end elementary school so much went on at school I was bullied. I was a bully. I also was very involved in sports and activities to be away from home. That’s all the info I have again my Brian has erased so much so we’ll fast forward. My mom is divorced again for the third time. We finally get to have a relationship. See my mother always had a habit of being very involved with whoever she was with and it felt as if it wasn’t about a partner she had or my brother I was forgotten. But my brother went to college out of town and now that she’s divorced it was my chance for attention and a loving relationship. All I ever wanted. Which did start to happen and she was going on dates and what not but nothing serious until I was about 14 that’s when he came. Martin they met on farmers only which you know better than the last from Christian mingle. But here he was and here I was left to be forgotten, again. This led to my rebellion. I started acting out and trying “new things” drugs and alcohol. They’d go on so many trips for weeks and I’d be left home to fend for myself. So I did what any other teenager that was left alone would do. PARTY I drowned myself in trying to be the cool one around others. I did it out of spite because I knew if I did these things it would force my mother to pay attention to me. I quite cheering, I quite sports, I did whatever I wanted I drove her car I had people over 24/7, I gave up. I started losing respect for my mom. I met amazing friends who became family and many still are with the few I’ve lost including on of my best friends Frankie I miss you man. Just to give him some light. Frankie and I were very close I lived with him for a while and loved him like the brother I always wanted. Sadly he was taken too soon by a fake Xanax bar that was 3x the lethal dose of fentanyl. There’s not a day that goes by I don’t think about you or your intoxicating smile and laugh. Now I only ever smoked bud no other drugs. But I would buy a lot of it for friends and take it to them. I wanted to be accepted during this age I only had friends older than me wether it was 2 years or 6. I had to grow up and mature extremely fast. I definitely was heavily into smoking and became very dependent I couldn’t get through a day without waking up and smoking all day long. Now this was a crazy period of time but it leads up to a very scary time in my life where I put myself into survival mode. I met who would become my most rewarding nightmare. The boy who had my mind wrapped around his finger. Who I allowed so many horrible events to happen that would take me from my family and loose myself. This next chapter is all about it. Hang tight this is where it gets real. If you have any questions or advice please leave comments.
By BOBBI JAMES4 years ago in Families
How The Pandemic Made Me Stop Wearing My Wedding Ring
I got engaged in a botanical garden in Egypt. I was waiting in a gazebo while he used the bathroom. When he came back, he got down on one knee and did his thing. The ring wasn't actually a ring; it was a mould of what it would look like.
By Katharine Chan4 years ago in Families
Motherhood
What does it mean to be a mother? Is it the endless nights spent catering to your kid(s)? Is it the cuddles and giggles that you get in gratitude to the love you give. Is it waking up with both your boobs outside of your tank top as if a ghost carefully moves them every. single. night. Let’s be honest here, motherhood is like you made your very own masterpiece but despise the mess you made in the process. The crying. The sore body. The tired mind. Did I mention the crying? It’s as if they want you to explode. You try to keep your inpatient side tucked away, but then night time hits. Suddenly your a waterfall at the first sign of your child not wanting to be in bed. My 7 month old daughter is currently going through mental leap 6 early (whoopefriggndoo). I have never longed for sleep as much as I do at this very moment it’s 4:18 am and I’ve put her to bed four times. I have no bit of tiredness left in me. That’s how tired I am. My brain is in craving coffee mode. I love her very much. She’s my only child. Co-sleeping has worked great for us, but I need my bed back. So here I am telling a bunch of strangers that as much as I love my daughter…WHEN WILL IT END?! Will I ever know peace again or am I doomed for the next 10 years or so to a child that wants me at every moment of every day. I love the bc snuggling, the calling for me, and the nursing. What I don’t love is the screaming when I don’t pay her enough attention, crying ( and again screaming) because she needs to go to sleep, and most importantly MENTAL LEAP HELL. I miss the days where I could give her a pacifier and we both go to sleep. These days I am her pacifier thanks to relatives snatching hers out of her mouth. Don’t even get me started on that. Most nights she won’t sleep without a boob in her mouth. I could go on and on about all the ways motherhood has screwed me over, but instead I’ll tell you how it’s made me a better woman.
By DeMeya Perry4 years ago in Families
A Trucker. A Carpenter. A Father.
From the moment I was born, I was told I was extremely attached and close to my dad. I never wanted to be out of his arms and I would cry if someone took me away from him. I was my father's daughter, there was no doubt in anyone's mind about that.
By Rachel Slater4 years ago in Families
