mother part 2

mother made everything a teachable moment.
if u got c's and d's on your report card she would explain the importance of having an education and how hard black people had faught for the right to go to school.
mother never learned to drive and would call me to take her to the store or walk her to the neighborhood store.
i remember when she use to walk me to elementary school she taught me that the boy always walks next to the street so that the girl is safe from traffic.
mother taught me to cook, sew, iron, and clean house.
she said that these things were important skills to be the perfect husband and that a lady will always choose the man who can help not the man who needs help.
mother taught me to love and respect her and my sisters.
to never curse or call a lady out of her name.
one day at age 5-6 i was outside playing and a neighbor boy slapped me across the face and i started crying.
mother came out furious.
she made me go in and she told me in so many ways that if someone hit me that if i didnt hit them back that i would never ever go outside again.
i never saw mother so mad.
but thats the way it was in the projects.
mother in extreme poverty over protective of their children.
nothing scarier than the fury seen in a ghetto mother whos child has been bitten by another kid.
"GET OUT THE WAY".
mother had 12 brothers and sisters.
grandmother, that made 11 people under one roof.
a hot in the summer,clod in the winter project roof.
my childhood memories are filled with oatmeal, creame of wheat, and peanut-butter and jelly.
mother and one of her sisters had their own project apartment so that made three apartments that we visited.
during emergencies everyone would rally at grandmothers place.
those were fun times.
all my cousins and uncles and aunts would be their.
this was the early and mid 60's and us children didnt relize that the majority of those emergecies that brought us to grandmothers was racial tension in this america.
i remember being at grandmothers house as a little boy the day martin luther king was murdered.
the ladies were crying, the men were cursing and everyone had to lay on the floor under beds.
the whole time i could here voices saying " stay in your home or you will be shot, stay in your home or you will be shot".
one of my cousins is looking out the window and calls me over to look.
to this day i will never forget what i saw.
dozens of men in police uniforms everyone of them has a gun and that voice, "stay in your house or you will be shot".
i was 4 yrs old.
i asked my uncle "why all the police were out there with guns".
and he had to tell a 4 yr old boy that "the police have come to kill us".
i remember this like it was yesterday.
yes, we were taught to fear the police at very young ages.
when you see the police you run home.
in 1968 or 2008 or 2010 the police are still to be feared.
any encounter with them can mean lose of liberty, lose of freedom,and even lose of life.



more about mother soon



paul