Marcia Lee,
Savannah, GA
When we were growing up we moved a lot, never really met very many relatives on dad’s side. Our widowed granny, dads Mom lived with us and we had finally settled down in a town in south Mississippi. We were teenagers then and it was in the sixties, not a good time or place for anyone who wasn’t all white. Two of our cousins were living with us and they didn’t look at all like us. Our ancestors that we knew about were part CHoctaw and Scotch and French so we looked like a lot of other kids sort of Spanish
or French on dad’s side with straight dark hair and green or hazel eyes. Cousin Lynda had curly hair which I secretly loved and she hated. Many days I secretly ironed her hair. Granny was the cause of that as she would pat us both on the head and say of my straight hair good hair and of my cousins curls bad hair. Then she was always after us about not getting sunburned, even in summer she wore long sleeves and wide brimmed hats. Now we really just went along with it as the way Granny was. Then one day one of my brothers mentioned the cute girl he’d met and wanted to date, when Dad heard her last name he called all us kids to the dining room for a meeting. We knew it was serious cause Dad was a very quiet man.. The next thing he said was aimed at my brothers the truly scary words were you will never, ever think about that girl again, she’s not for you, then he turned to me and you don’t look at her brother. You all know her family are passing. About two years later we found out Granny’s secret, she was passing and so were we.
