April Fools Day
I love April Fools Day pranks... now. As a child I liked this little Mexican gal and told her I was Darth Vader's son and the entire Star Wars movie stuff was real. She wasn't too bright and actually believed me. Later that day some one told her I was having fun with her, due to it being April Fools day. And she walked over and punched me in the mouth. She split my lip! So for a very long time I hated April Fools day.
It is kind of the same for St Patrick's day. My family was poor. So I didn't have a single green shirt or really anything with green in it. I got tired of all that pinching. Especially since NONE of the kids had a bit of Irish in them. I grew up in a part of Texas that was made up of Mexicans and Germans. English was a second language for everybody there. Except for my mom, my brother and me. We had so many German speakers, who's people came over in the 1840's and 1850's for the most part, that when they brought over Nazi scientist, our town was one of the places they got relocated too so they would be around a familiar atmosphere and work harder on the US rocket/missile programs. Half the town was German and the other half was Mexicans... who's families had been there since before America had been born.
There was one other family there like ours. We had a black federal judge and his Japanese wife. Their twins were in my class. One a boy the other a girl. So I had a very different view on what it meant to be black. We had a tv but my parents tightly controlled what we watched. I didn't see a black face on tv, except for football, until I was able to see reruns of the Jeffersons in 1983. Keep in mind I am 43 so I was about 15 then. To me black people were highly educated, could speak about five languages (in the second grade mind you) and made staright A's. I still love nerdy Japanese gals to this day because of little Yuko.
The difference between our families was Yuko's had money. So they came to school decked out head to toe in green on St Patrick's day and avoided the pinch-hell I went through all day. While i now like a little pranking on this day... I still hate St Patrick's day with a passion.
It is kind of the same for St Patrick's day. My family was poor. So I didn't have a single green shirt or really anything with green in it. I got tired of all that pinching. Especially since NONE of the kids had a bit of Irish in them. I grew up in a part of Texas that was made up of Mexicans and Germans. English was a second language for everybody there. Except for my mom, my brother and me. We had so many German speakers, who's people came over in the 1840's and 1850's for the most part, that when they brought over Nazi scientist, our town was one of the places they got relocated too so they would be around a familiar atmosphere and work harder on the US rocket/missile programs. Half the town was German and the other half was Mexicans... who's families had been there since before America had been born.
There was one other family there like ours. We had a black federal judge and his Japanese wife. Their twins were in my class. One a boy the other a girl. So I had a very different view on what it meant to be black. We had a tv but my parents tightly controlled what we watched. I didn't see a black face on tv, except for football, until I was able to see reruns of the Jeffersons in 1983. Keep in mind I am 43 so I was about 15 then. To me black people were highly educated, could speak about five languages (in the second grade mind you) and made staright A's. I still love nerdy Japanese gals to this day because of little Yuko.
The difference between our families was Yuko's had money. So they came to school decked out head to toe in green on St Patrick's day and avoided the pinch-hell I went through all day. While i now like a little pranking on this day... I still hate St Patrick's day with a passion.