Echoes of My Nola Past

Mom and Me June 1980. Happy Mother’s Day!!

This is a picture of my grandmother Odessa Amos and her friend Rue or Ruthie(this is what name mom remembers). Not sure of what year this picture was taken,  but they do look like they are having a good time. Actually they look like they are up to something. See if NaNa Odessa would have stayed around a little longer I am so sure that my noisey self would have asked all those questions that I am asking now. I am so sure that she would have answered all my questions or just told me that I talk to much for my age. How I wish to hear those words now.
Felicia

Now I know madness mondays are for those ancestors that drive you mad. Although Aunt Carol did not drive me mad, but she did a number on my mom and the family.

Although my NaNa Odessa only had one girl(which is my mom), her and NaNa Dora were real good friends so mom and Aunt Carol grew up together. Once my NaNa Odessa passed away NaNa Dora stepped in a mother figure for my mom and our families grew from there. Aunt Carol was like a sister to my mom and thats the way she treated her just like a sister.

All sisters and brothers argue but Aunt Carol was a totally different breed. She gave mom and Aunt Che Che(Angela) HELL!! She would cuss you out with a smile on her face. I used to laugh so hard because mom and Aunt Che Che would talk about her in a whisper, but Aunt Carol would say whatever she had to say about them in front of their faces. She would always tell me don’t let them take advantage of you. See while at family gatherings everyone would be full so I would be left to put things away. Although Aunt Carol would be full too, she would always say make them help, but didn’t offer any help herself. It was ok though i alwasy knew what she was trying to say. See once we moved to MD, she would call my mom everyday and leave these hour long messages on the anwsering machine and when you called her back, she would just say “where is your mama that piece of sh..”. God I miss her.

On one visit home Aunt Che Che entertained us with a story about how my Aunt Carol lost NaNa Dora’s medication and blamed it on everyone she could. She had Aunt Che Che so frustrated, she put Aunt Carol out of her house and Aunt CeChe was her ride home. Che Che said “she had me thinking that I lost the medicine”.

See those are the things Aunt Carol did. She passed away suddenly from complications of COPD. She would not stop drinking or smoking. You would think that someone with the diease would change their bad
habits, but not Aunt Carol. She was her own person and everyone knew that. I miss her so much that I have not returned to Chicago since her funeral which was 3 years ago. See whenever we flew home, that was where we stayed. One year she picked us up in a car that had flowers for an antienna. I laughed about it until she pulled over and told me to find my way. Although I have other family and freinds back home, that was always our first stop and where I stayed. She always made room for me and my boys and even when my mom traveled with the boys(without me) she would make my mom leave them with her so they didn.t have to get caught up in my mom’s madness of trying to visit everyone.

I miss you Aunt Carol. I think she would be so proud of what I have done with the family genealolgy and her memory probably would have been much better than moms. I know it. RIP Aunt Carol
Felicia

ODESSA AMOS
1907-1969

Today as I was shared with a co-worker about what I have learned about my family history so far. I shared with her that my Robertson/Robinson line of women were Mulattos. As I explained to her that Mulatto was a negative word that was used for mixed race. I joking said that someone in my family slept with and Indian or the slave master. We laughed but how true this is. The problem is that whom ever started this color line in my family, was not happy to do so.

I shared with my co-worker that my mom shared with me. She always told me that my grandmother Odessa was so light that she could pass for white. She said that growing up, their neighbors looked down on them because her and my uncle Bobby were light also. My mom said she used to hear them say “here comes Ms Odessa with them light kids of hers.” My mom said that one of the things neighbors said they think they are better because of their skin color.

How not true this is. My Grandmother had my mom and uncle at such a late age in life that after she had my uncle, she started having health problems. They were raised in the Robert Taylor projects in Chicago down on State Street. My grandmother worked cleaning homes and did whatever she had to do to help raise her family. See, my grandfather Robert was so messed up by the war that my grandmother was on her own with two kids and health problems. So how is that thinking that you are better? She went threw the same thing that every women went threw no matter what their skin color is.

My co-worker shared with me that she has the same issue in her family but in reverse. See Carolina is from the Dominic Republic and she shared that most women mixed with men from Haiti. She stated that her grandmother used to tell her” get you one of those men with the blue eyes and light skin.” That might not be the exact quote but you all know what I’m talking about. I told her just like in my family, all the light women went for that dark skinned man!! Even her(she has one of the cutiest little baby), my mom, my grandmother, my great great grandmother and so on.

See I am a true believer that it is not about the color of your skin, but about what you have in your heart and your character, but if you think about it no matter what color your skin is Mulatto, Light skinned, or dark skinned we are all African Americans and Children of God. I just wish things could have been different then and now!!