15 Day Blogger Challenge - Getting to Know the Blogger
Challenge Questions:
8. Tell us a bit about your family!
My Family
What is there to tell about my family that you have not already heard? My family is the reason that I get up in the morning. They are my best friends, and the reason for living. It is through my children that my legacy will survive. My husband is my best friend. I have magnificent grandparents and parents. I have wonderful siblings and awesome cousins. My nieces and nephews are all good kids and my great nephews are the cutest little ones.
I have already filled you in on all of that, so I'll go another route. I guess I am what you could call a mutt. I know, it's kind of a crude way to explain to my ancestry. My maiden name is McGhee, so of course, there is some Celt in there. The Butler's and Bartley's were also Celtic. I have a little Creole in me. I guess that's where I get my spicy attitude. I am also Creek, Blackfoot, and Cherokee, all Native American tribes.
Though I have spent my life fighting it, I might as well admit that I am a southern girl all the way, just with a rock and roll edge. I was born and raised in Texas, but I am not what most people think about Texas. I don't wear cowboy boots, and I don't ride horses. I am not saying I never have before because I have. I did wear my share of cowboy boots through my high school years, but I traded them in for combat boots my senior year. I did have a horse, but that didn't make me a cowgirl. I am a plain old southern belle raised by a southern belle raised by a southern belle. The women in my family are kind, compassionate, and caring, but we are all tough.
The men in my family work hard to support their families, and they are a bit on the wild side. I guess you could say they are all a bit redneck in the truest sense of the word. Generation after generation has been raised in poverty, but not due to choice. It is a tough cycle to break, and unfortunately, I have not been able to break it either. All of the people in my family work very hard and get paid very little. Today, almost every person in my family is a civil servant. I come from a long line of pastors, ministers, nurses, law enforcement officers, correctional officers, soldiers, and teachers. The generations before these spent their lives working the land, making others wealthy off of their own blood sweat and tears.
There's a prostitute and a murderer back further. The prostitute did what she could to support her child after her husband died. Women did not inherit property, so the loss of her husband meant the loss of her home and all of her possessions. Also, during the time, Native Americans had not yet been recognized as being people by the United States government. Sometimes, a person has to do whatever they can to support their children. The murderer was a Confederate soldier, who believed the Civil War never ended. There were many soldiers during the Civil War that I am descended from, and each of them fought on the Confederate side. That must be where my rebel side has come from.
Going even further back, my Native ancestors were on the Trail of Tears, and I was raised on stories of heartbreak and loss, stories of mothers longing for their children, and children ripped from the arms of their mothers, their cultures erased. From across the Atlantic, my Celtic ancestors were driven from their homes by Cromwell, and they went into hiding in the New World. Legend has that back even further, we were descended from the first king of Ireland. My Scottish ancestors were highlanders, The Children of the Mist. None of us are land owners; and if we had been, it has been long ago taken from us. Regardless, we all dream of owning a piece to pass on to our children.
No comments:
Post a Comment