Happy Birthday to My Mom....

My Mom's birthday is coming up this Friday.

She was born in Hattiesburg Mississippi (I think) on Saturday, September 13, 1941.  She would be 72.

I didn't get to know her very well but I worshiped her while she was here.

On the one hand I'm glad she didn't have to suffer anymore and on the other hand I'm pissed as hell that she left me here alone.

I still study everything I can think of, everything I find, to help me know more about her.  For instance...  

How Much things cost in 1941: 

Average Cost of new house $4,075.00 

Average wages per year $1,750.00 

Cost of a gallon of Gas 12 cents 

Average Cost for house rent $32.00 per month 

Beautyrest mattress $39.50 

Average Price for a new car $850.00

WWII started in 1939.  Only 3 months after my mother's birth in 1941, Japan bombed Pearl Harbor.  

The decade before saw The Great Depression and the infamous stock market crash.

Popular Films:
Citizen Kane Written and Directed By Orson Wells ( He also acted in the movie )
Dumbo
The Maltese Falcon

Popular Musicians:
"Chattanooga Choo Choo " by Glenn Miller
"Daddy " by Sammy Kaye
"Green Eyes " by Jimmy Dorsey
"I'll Be with You in Apple Blossom Time " Andrews Sisters

It was the time of Hitler, Mussolini, Tojo, Stalin, Churchill, and 
FD Roosevelt (who started his THIRD TERM as prez) - The majority of which, in current times, are considered monsters.

Bugs Bunny is taking shape.

Puerto Ricans are now Americans.

Hitler. Nazis. Germany taking over the world.

The first FM radio station begins broadcasting.

The first box of Cheerios (Cheeri-Oats).

Joe DiMaggio played for the Yankees, and the Dodgers were still in Brooklyn. 

The first television commercial is aired, for Bulova watches.

The Holocaust.

Did I mention Germany was taking over the world?

It was literally a hell of a year!

Everything centered around "The War".  The whole world was fighting with someone....

And in Mississippi, the war of racism raged just as painfully.

My Mom had some really ruff spots in her childhood.
I'm not sure at what age, but while she was still very young her mother "disappeared".
There were all kinds of stories, but to this day, I know of no one who knows the truth.  My mother wanted so, so badly to find her mother!  
I took up that search with the advent of the internet.  All my searches always came up empty. Until this year.  
I found her!!!  
And the funny part is, she was always assumed to be dead, but she outlived most. She didn't pass until 2007.  She was "back home" in Sweetwater, Texas. 

My mother was molested as a young girl, left to live with a stepmother who didn't want her, called a bunch of names because of her black, kinky hair, big brown eyes and thick lips. Her big brother used to tell her she was adopted from Africa.... and she almost believed it.  The only other explanation is that the stories of her grandmother being a full-blooded Native American are true, although when I found her Moms (Cliopal), I also found several others in that lineage and could find no authentication of Native ancestry.
Now all that means is that the blood heritage was not recorded, as often happened with Native Americans.  Natives were treated just as bad if not worse than Africans and Chinese in this country!  The difference is they didn't really resist for very long and just gave in to the white man. In order to live, they became "Americans", or just stayed on reservations to die.
God bless the ones who held on to their history and heritage!
I have no idea about mine other than what I know intuitively... And from my mother's pictures.

Opal Jean Howard Eure

She was troubled.  She was confused.  She was judged and misunderstood.  She was accused of being a hypochondriac until the day she died.  At the age of 40.  And 25 days.  
You showed'em Mom!
She was beautiful!
She was a champion for the underdog.
She got things done.
She had balls!
She was very sick.
And I was her princess.

Thank you Mom. 
I miss you.
Happy Remembrance...