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Popeye's House
Popeye was his nick name. He lived on the Base and we were invited to go over for dinner.
He was a foreboding large black man, and I could see why they called him Popeye. His wife was a beautiful, tall light blonde woman, and their children were stunningly beautiful. The children had a rich tan that most of us would have attempted to reach by laying out in the sun for hours. Their hair was kinky like a natural Afro but it went from a light milk chocolate color, to blonde on the tips as if purposely painted that way. But most stunning of all, were their bright green eyes. Gorgeous. That's all I remember. How lucky we were to be having dinner with them!
It wasn't ever going to happen again.
On another night, we were at another family's for dinner.
It was quite obvious early on that night, that we were all under military rule. "Yes ma'am and yes sir?" Thank goodness that was one thing I didn't have to be subjected to at home on top of everything else.
I was about 5 years old, I think. Sent to bed upstairs after dinner, to fall asleep in a small bedroom in a separate bed from one of their children. We whispered and tried to listen and make sense, out of what was soon to be a very heated and angry argument downstairs between the adults.
It was obvious to me, that she and I both shared a yearning for the physical and emotional contact we were lacking in the families we were growing up in. Hugs, a gentle hand, and words of kindness and praise weren't something readily available in military families I'm guessing.
She was soon under my covers, where we held each other and squeezed in as much affection as possible...until her mother came upstairs to check on us.
We froze as soon as she opened the door. She demanded that her daughter get in her own bed. So much for that. The "Yes ma'am" and immediate ratification showed me how fearful she was of reprimand.
After we fell asleep, I was woken slightly by what seemed to be a heated argument going on downstairs. I tried to ignore it, but before long I found myself being woken up and carried out to the car by my mother, as she muttered to herself how inappropriate and ridiculous my stepfather was.
I'm very lucky, that during the Social unrest of the 60's and 70's I wasn't living in the mainstream of the United States. What time I did spend in my early childhood was spent doing anything else besides sitting in front of a television set, thanks to my adoptive grandparents.
To this day, I've never brought up the incident to either one of my parents, but I will always remember that night and how my stepfather had openly spoken with our distinguished hosts, that he himself was a Bigot. I don't know that he used those exact words. I never understood the concept, as my parents were legally in fact my grandparents for most of my early childhood years and they were remarkable survivors of the Holocaust.
Many years later, I would learn that 6 members of my distant relatives were all taken to Aushwitz and gassed.
Even now, as this pertains to the current climate of separation and Bigotry I am confounded as to the reason behind all the negativity, abuse and shear violence going on today.
If we do not realize that the powers that be are inciting anger, prejudice, fear, and violence then we do not deserve to evolve as a species.
One has to become educated for starters, to realize that under everyone's skin our blood is the same. Also, that with climate change and it's fallouts someone somewhere seems to be manipulating the masses to destroy each other hence culling the populations.
It was evident to me, for example that Nursing Homes and Prisons were targeted, and if you can find honest statistical data it supports this theory. Then, those ignorant about the concept of the greater good opting to not get vaccinated, as well as younger generations flocking together in opposition, and the subsequent radical increase in Pandemic levels? Well, not too bright are we?
Of course I haven't experienced being anything but Caucasian, but I can tell you that I have lived as a minority before. I know what it feels like. Also, I'm not without experience of being homeless, of having nothing both by choice in my adult life many times, and by growing up with nothing.
We all have the same biological systems. The same air we breathe, the same eyes we use to see. And it's always been painfully evident to me even as a small child, that I did not have anything to do with someone's distant relatives being killed gruesomely by Bigots, or Kennedy or Martin Luther King Jr. being assassinated.
If there is a higher population of one race in a given area, then crime rate statistics will be evident of that no matter what happens. If we continue to bounce back and forth, repeating History over and over by means of violence, then we need to evolve. Desperately.
No matter what differences we have, we must evolve to the point where all life matters. From humankind, to the insects we depend on in our world. Otherwise we are doomed.
© All Rights Reserved
He was a foreboding large black man, and I could see why they called him Popeye. His wife was a beautiful, tall light blonde woman, and their children were stunningly beautiful. The children had a rich tan that most of us would have attempted to reach by laying out in the sun for hours. Their hair was kinky like a natural Afro but it went from a light milk chocolate color, to blonde on the tips as if purposely painted that way. But most stunning of all, were their bright green eyes. Gorgeous. That's all I remember. How lucky we were to be having dinner with them!
It wasn't ever going to happen again.
On another night, we were at another family's for dinner.
It was quite obvious early on that night, that we were all under military rule. "Yes ma'am and yes sir?" Thank goodness that was one thing I didn't have to be subjected to at home on top of everything else.
I was about 5 years old, I think. Sent to bed upstairs after dinner, to fall asleep in a small bedroom in a separate bed from one of their children. We whispered and tried to listen and make sense, out of what was soon to be a very heated and angry argument downstairs between the adults.
It was obvious to me, that she and I both shared a yearning for the physical and emotional contact we were lacking in the families we were growing up in. Hugs, a gentle hand, and words of kindness and praise weren't something readily available in military families I'm guessing.
She was soon under my covers, where we held each other and squeezed in as much affection as possible...until her mother came upstairs to check on us.
We froze as soon as she opened the door. She demanded that her daughter get in her own bed. So much for that. The "Yes ma'am" and immediate ratification showed me how fearful she was of reprimand.
After we fell asleep, I was woken slightly by what seemed to be a heated argument going on downstairs. I tried to ignore it, but before long I found myself being woken up and carried out to the car by my mother, as she muttered to herself how inappropriate and ridiculous my stepfather was.
I'm very lucky, that during the Social unrest of the 60's and 70's I wasn't living in the mainstream of the United States. What time I did spend in my early childhood was spent doing anything else besides sitting in front of a television set, thanks to my adoptive grandparents.
To this day, I've never brought up the incident to either one of my parents, but I will always remember that night and how my stepfather had openly spoken with our distinguished hosts, that he himself was a Bigot. I don't know that he used those exact words. I never understood the concept, as my parents were legally in fact my grandparents for most of my early childhood years and they were remarkable survivors of the Holocaust.
Many years later, I would learn that 6 members of my distant relatives were all taken to Aushwitz and gassed.
Even now, as this pertains to the current climate of separation and Bigotry I am confounded as to the reason behind all the negativity, abuse and shear violence going on today.
If we do not realize that the powers that be are inciting anger, prejudice, fear, and violence then we do not deserve to evolve as a species.
One has to become educated for starters, to realize that under everyone's skin our blood is the same. Also, that with climate change and it's fallouts someone somewhere seems to be manipulating the masses to destroy each other hence culling the populations.
It was evident to me, for example that Nursing Homes and Prisons were targeted, and if you can find honest statistical data it supports this theory. Then, those ignorant about the concept of the greater good opting to not get vaccinated, as well as younger generations flocking together in opposition, and the subsequent radical increase in Pandemic levels? Well, not too bright are we?
Of course I haven't experienced being anything but Caucasian, but I can tell you that I have lived as a minority before. I know what it feels like. Also, I'm not without experience of being homeless, of having nothing both by choice in my adult life many times, and by growing up with nothing.
We all have the same biological systems. The same air we breathe, the same eyes we use to see. And it's always been painfully evident to me even as a small child, that I did not have anything to do with someone's distant relatives being killed gruesomely by Bigots, or Kennedy or Martin Luther King Jr. being assassinated.
If there is a higher population of one race in a given area, then crime rate statistics will be evident of that no matter what happens. If we continue to bounce back and forth, repeating History over and over by means of violence, then we need to evolve. Desperately.
No matter what differences we have, we must evolve to the point where all life matters. From humankind, to the insects we depend on in our world. Otherwise we are doomed.
© All Rights Reserved
