I guess the best place to start, is right at the beginning. I was born in Oklahoma City, OK on October 5, 1967. I was the fifth child of seven and the baby boy of the family. I have two older brothers - Tony and Charles, two older sisters - Gaby and Sheila and two younger sisters - Audrey and Roxanne. Let's jump forward about 3 years now, to the point in time that I can remember things from back then.
I clearly remember the two story apartment within an area of Oklahoma City called The Village. It was an older neighborhood, and better known as the ghetto to those that did not live in that area. (Closing my eyes to picture the apartment...) As you faced the apartment from outside, the front door was on the right side. Upon entering there was a tall staircase that led to the second floor about 8 feet from the door. To the left of the door was the living room and to the left of that the kitchen. If you went up the stairs, our mother's room was at the far left, then the linen closet, then the bathroom. On the right side were my sisters' bedroom and then my brothers' bedroom.
I remember my brothers would always get me in trouble with mom by telling me to do something while mom was at work. When she would get home, everyone would tell on me, and I would get a spanking. But that all changed when I would tell mom that Tony/Charles told me to do it. Since mom couldn't tell who was telling the truth and who was lying, she decided that everyone would get spanked or in trouble when any of us did something wrong. Needless to say, things changed very quickly around there!
All of my family lived in that area so we were always around our cousins, aunts and uncles. Our grandfather lived on the other side of the city but we would go visit papa every other Sunday. It was always great to be at papa's house because he loved having his grandchildren around. We would run all over the place and just be kids, until one us got too loud and upset the older generation. Oh the food that we would have for supper...MMMMMM...ham, greens, cornbread, corn on the cob, mashed potatoes, cabbage, brisket, green beans, black eyed peas, turnip greens, collard greens, mustard greens, spinach greens, sweet potatoes, yams, biscuits with sausage gravy....(you get the hint). Now of course, all of the above was served at different times, not all in the same supper time. But those were some of my favorites to eat. (I think I just made myself hungry)
When the family wanted to get together, it was always at grandpas’ or at my aunt's house. They both had large backyards that would easily fit the whole family with space to spare. I remember my uncles sitting at a card table playing "bones" (Dominoes), my aunts in the house cooking or sitting outside talking about us kids and other people (typical gossip session). All of us kids would occupy our time with little games or playing tag until the sun started to go down. That is when the real fun started during the summer time...FIREFLIES!!!! We would run all over the backyard to find and capture fireflies to put into jars. We would do this until each kid had at least one in a jar. The older kids would be the ones that poked holes in the lids so that the flies would not die. We would just sit and watch the flies and count how many times each would flash their light.
It is sad to think that most kids in this time would never want to do anything that did not involve something electronic. I still believe that our generation grew up at the right time, because we know what it was like before and during the age of electronics. There are times that I miss using my imagination to create a fun game or activity that would entertain me for hours.
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