Trapped in the body of a White Girl..

I grew up in the San Francisco bay area in the late 1960's with a white Mama a black Daddy, and a whole lot of brother and sisters all falling somewhere in between Mom & Dad on the color scale.

My parents didn't end up getting married until 1976 for what ever reason.. but through thick and thin, because of and in spite of a whole lot of people telling them they were making a mistake.. have managed to stick together ever since.

And let me tell you right flat out..it wasn't easy being us. Most of the time it was a pain in the ass to be us.. Especially back in the early years. 

 My Mom was born into a strict catholic Italian family. She went to mass , Ate no meat on fridays, went to catholic schools and when she was old enough to marry.. she was expected to be a good italian girl and marry a good Italian man.  She did just that. That lasted all of about 18 months when that so called good Italian just up and ran off with a bartender he met one night while he was out drinking with a buddy.

My mom quickly picked up the pieces and took a job at San Francisco Airport with United airlines working as a cabin service worker where she met my dad.  And just like that.. She met the man she would spend the rest of her life with. And just like that.. she was alienated from her family and told that if she continued to have a relationship with a black man, she should consider them dead to her and never darken thier doorway again.

My mother chose love.. Thank the lord!!

My Dad with my son..a Proud Grandfather

  My Mom & Dad at my Son's graduation this year

We lived near the SFO airport in a small mostly black neighborhood. Near the Martin Luther King Center. I remember my parents having trouble finding a house to rent because nobody wanted to rent to a mixed couple back then. They ended up finding a house owned by this black slumlord name Mr. Brown. He was a cheap bastard who would never fix anything.  But was always available to pick up the rent check.  

As luck would have it , our street was chosen to have us childrens of poor working class folk bussed to a school on the other side of town. The white side of town.
The schools were bussed to were exceptionally  clean, the grass was all neatly manicured and the teachers let us know every chance they got that we were lucky to be allowed to attend there and should be thankful. 

We were mercilessly picked on by the well to do upper middle class white kids,  We were teased for wearing cheap unstylish clothes, we were alienated during lunch, we were given special green colored lunch tokens that designated us as getting free lunch. We stood in a different line to get our food. and believe me!!We constantly got into fights and when shit went down.. we stuck together and looked out for one another.  We had to.

I joined the girl scouts and managed to stay with it for a couple of years but it was funny that when ever there was a meeting to be held at my house.. it was cancelled for some wierd reason.. None of the girls that I did manage to make friends with parent's would allow thier children to stay the night at my house but I was always welcomed to sleep over at thier place.

My parents worked hard to keep a roof over our heads, to make sure that we always had clean clothes to wear and we always managed to go on a camping trip to yosemite every summer.. and it seemed every other day after school my dad would drag our asses with him down to some new fishing hole he would find along bay shore where we would entertain ourselves for hours on end while he tried to catch a striper bass or a monster sized sturgeon. he would mostly catch sting rays and leopard sharks but every now and then he'd hook a big one. And the moment he'd catch his Bass or sturgeon we'd head home and he'd clean and fry the damn thing stinkin up the entire house.   

I spent my entire childhood fishing , fighting and listening to blues and soul music on the fm radio.. And on Sundays we would spend all day in church singing and gettin' the ghost.. I'd pretend to anyways.. just so I could act up.legitimately..lol

 to be continued