African American
Related: About this forumEntertaining Family History Item ...
Last night, I was talking with an elderly family member. She was relating a family story about how my Uncle "Chief" found/picked his wife. Uncle "Chief" was a flashy and troublesome guy ... in the mid 30s, at the age of about 18 (no one was really sure of his age) he had to leave Alabama ... something about his "relationship" with a white man's wife.
As he was hatting up, he "acquired" a flashy, brand new car. On his way out of town, he came up with a plan to "get him a good woman." He drive to the neighboring county until he found the first field of share-croppers. He stopped in the middle of the road and blow the horn ... He decided he was getting the first woman that popped her head up.
His thinking was he wanted a hard-working woman ... any woman in a sharecropping field had to be hard working; but the key was being the first to pop her head up ... that meant she was ready to get out of town!
10 kids and 3 business ownerships later, it seems his strategy worked!
I love hearing family tales.
Cooley Hurd
(26,877 posts)...and, despite that, your Uncle Chief sounds like he persevered!
1StrongBlackMan
(31,849 posts)he fruitfully multiplied.
Cooley Hurd
(26,877 posts)Irish Catholic - they were like freaking bunnies! Each family of my direct descendants had 8 kids in every family...
ColesCountyDem
(6,943 posts)A 'mixed' marriage-- Catholic and Jew. Had 17 kids.
blm
(113,122 posts)Some Moorish blood in the mix from centuries ago - it would annoy my mother when I would say I'm black Irish, but, I am.
Tuesday Afternoon
(56,912 posts)Sounds like a man with a plan
randys1
(16,286 posts)and confidence that made them a great pair.
Wish I could meet them.
Both dead I assume, but I have met his grand nephew or nephew? And he turned out pretty darn good.
Are you that old?
1StrongBlackMan
(31,849 posts)my grand-aunt had attitude, confidence and grit.
I met her (and Chief) only once ... at my grand-mother's funeral. They, both, drank from sun up to sun up, and I didn't see them drunk! And chief beat me out of most of my entire allowance playing Tonk. Then, sent me to the store to get him a half gallon and cigarettes (tells you how old I am that a 10 year old could go to the corner store and buy liquor and smokes, just on the word, "My uncle wants ..." and told me not to come home without them ... he gave me less than what I needed to make the purchase.
ColesCountyDem
(6,943 posts)I love family histories.
JimDandy
(7,318 posts)In my work as a genealogist, most of the family history stories I received from clients, when beginning work on their genealogies, were almost always whitewashed, 'good guys only' family histories.
People are complicated, good and bad, struggle with some things, and live life along a continuum of morals. It does a dis-service to each generation of a family to build up the earlier generations as only heroic and stoic and hold up these idealized personas as something for their children to emulate. What a burden.
Pass this story along to your next generations...
1StrongBlackMan
(31,849 posts)Most of the stories I have heard weren't washed ... unless stories that begin with, "That bastard ..." or "that MF .."
(My family will never be considered delicate )
JustAnotherGen
(31,980 posts)ReRe
(10,597 posts)... I was raised on those kind of stories and loved every one of them. Turned me into a genealogy freak and I've enjoyed every minute of it.
1StrongBlackMan
(31,849 posts)ReRe
(10,597 posts)... it was those once-a-year weekend-long family reunions where great aunts/uncles, their children and a ton of second cousins trekked across the country with their musical instruments. The reunion was held in a beautiful city park with playground equipment everywhere AND a swimming pool. Shelter had a stage complete with a piano and loud speakers. Out of the cases came the accordion, guitars, mandolin and fiddle. Mamma played the piano. One great uncle was a concert pianist!!!
Those were the days, 1StrongBlackMan. Those were the days.
kwassa
(23,340 posts)this be a white man ....
passed himself off as an Indian to sell patent medicines at country fairs.
He called himself Chief Black Horse.
It was considered a great disgrace.