Writer’s Tool: The Town Crier & The Red Pen Bandit; Otherwise Known as Your PR Person & Editor.
Author: dancingpalmtrees
An African/Native American Queen, Wordsmith, Photographer, Free Spirit and Teacher.
Musings of an Eisenhower Baby
Musings of an Eisenhower Baby
What it is. What it is, to those of you born during the Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations. Kindred spirits, for us the sands of time are running through the hourglass at an accelerated rate with no outstretched hand to turn it over and begin anew. Not enough time. Time is running out.
Walk Down Memory Lane
Rotary Dial Phones – especially the Pink Princess phone in my parents’ bedroom
Transistor Radios — portable and cool
S&H Green Stamps — Too much licking and sticking
Drive-In Movies — Dr. Zhivago
Ed Sullivan — I only really recall the little mouse Topo Gigo
Mitch Miller — Everyone in my neighborhood watched just to see Leslie Uggams.
Lawrence Welk – hated him, but my parents loved him so I had to watch
1964 World’s Fair – My Dad took me and all I remember is the animatronics Abraham Lincoln
Records: 78s, 33 1/3rds, 45s
RCA Magnavox TV with the tubes
Walter Cronkite
Huntley/Brinkley
Ralph Kiner and Lindsey Nelson
Johnny Carson, Steve Allen, The Jackie Gleason Show, The Alfred Hitchcock Show, The Million Dollar Movie, The Twilight Zone, One Step Beyond
St. Josephs Asprin for Children
Fletchers Castoria
Rheingold Beer
Schaffer Beer
Yes I do remember the jingles that went with both beers. No my parents did not allow me to partake.
Wattstax
The Automat – Through the small glass displays you’d choose your food selection and put in your quarter for a tasty meal. My Dad used to take me there all the time.
But with the passage of time and golden memories comes the passing of friends, family & co-workers who left way too soon while only in their 40s, 50s & 60s. I hate to pick up the phone or read my messages on Facebook for fear of hearing about another death. A close girlfriend from my previous job died last year of a massive heart attack at age 51 leaving behind her husband and three children. That scared and upset me so badly.
I had my own brush with death at age 49 on Nov. 7, 2008. My blood pressure had shot up to nearly 200 on both the upper and lower numbers. I had the worst headache of my life and I lost sight in my left eye. As I lay in the emergency room on that gurney my life literally passed before my eyes. The damage to my vision was so bad that I was blind in my left eye until I had retina surgery Jan. 2010. Some of my vision was restored but I will never be able to see the way I used to. Had to give up driving. There went some of my youthful freedoms.
I always thought time was on my side. Never thought I would become ill or disabled, however my DNA laughed at me. The very things my parents had that caused them to die in their mid-60s caught up to me and my brother. Genetics makes you reevaluate everything; past, present and future. When I turned 50 in 2009 I realized I had lived more than half my life and wasn’t going to live another 50 years. That’s when the race against time began.
Since I do have a chronic illness and suffer from chronic pain, there is definitely a sense of urgency to get everything done before these diseases snuff out my life. In order to accomplish my goals I’ve had to make critical changes in my lifestyle. I must watch what I eat, stay away from negative people, stand up for myself, and get my priorities in order. I’ve been fortunate in that my family came to live with me last year. I finally had to admit I couldn’t do certain activities on my own anymore and needed help. That’s another revelation, admit you need help and go get the help. Too much pride will kill you.
We Eisenhower and Kennedy babies have said countless Goodbyes to our parents, the Greatest Generation. That wonderful generation prior to ours who suffered through the Great Depression, WWII, the Korean Conflict, and Jim Crow to pave the way for us to have opportunities they could only dream about.
Now we pick up the banner and hopefully pave the way for the Millennials who are the future while still reaching forth for our hopes, dreams, & goals. Children born in the 50s & 60s raise your bottles of L’Oreal and Clairol high; and to paraphrase the 5th Dimension Let’s enter into the Age of Aquarius while flying Up, Up, & Away in our Beautiful Balloons!!
Cathay Williams — Civil War Shero & Buffalo Soldier
A friend of mine introduced me to Cathay Williams, the first African American Woman documented to have served in the Civil War. She was also a Buffalo Soldier. I hope to discuss this for a Black History Month program talk sometime in the future.
Bob Marley — Buffalo Soldier
Cathay Williams or William Cathay (Cathey)
Private, Thirty-eighth U.S. Infantry 1866-1868
http://www.sangres.com/history/cwilliams/index.htm
http://www.buffalosoldier.net/CathayWilliamsFemaleBuffaloSoldierWithDocuments.htm
http://userpages.aug.com/captbarb/femvets2.html
http://dashingclaire.hubpages.com/hub/First-Female-Buffalo-Soldier-Cathay-Williams
Last year marked the 150th anniversary of the Civil War. Here is a very short story about one of my ancestors who fought bravely for freedom.
In December of 1863 my Great Great Grandfather, William Henry Halstead, who lived in Tarrytown, New York, traveled to New Haven, Connecticut to join the 29th Connecticut Colored Infantry. On his Volunteer Enlistment papers it notes his occupation as a farmer. He enlisted for three years and was discharged on the 24th day of October 1865. He married and had five children. William Henry Halstead passed away in 1888 and was buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Tarrytown, New York. His wife moved to New York City with her five children. Her children grew up in Harlem and belonged to various organizations such as Odd Fellows, Ladies of the Grand Army of the Republic and the Daughters of New York.
One of his descendents was my grandmother Eva Sophronia Gordon Palmer who was born in 1892.
A Mother’s Wail
The Massacre of the Innocents is found at Matthew 2:16–18, Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled: “A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.”
Her very essence is gone. Her core destroyed. Madonna Badger’s face is etched in grief and sorrow. Hers is a piercing cry I’ve heard before coming from the seat of a grieving soul. Her sorrow doubled in the multiple loss of her parents and children in a fire on Christmas Day.
Yes I’ve heard that those mournful wails before within the walls of New Jerusalem Baptist church coming from the mother of Kevin Miller. Kevin was killed while on his way to get a snack from McDonald’s. A reward from his Mom for making the Honor Roll at school. Kevin another innocent victim of gang violence in the year 2009.
Kevin Miller, 13, a godly boy, holy, righteous, an upstanding youth
A good student, modest in dress and manner
A junior usher at New Jerusalem Baptist Church
Cut down before he even had a chance to live his life
Kevin’s mother and grandmother were at service the Sunday before his funeral. Such a wail, a cry of grief went out from his heartbroken mother that it reached the depths of my soul and I’m sure rest of the congregation. I did not attend Kevin Miller or the Badger children’s funerals but as a woman I can feel that pain, as their tears make a pathway to hoping as the grief stricken Orpheus to make a trail for Eurydice’s lost children to follow.
But alas there is no way back for little souls pure of heart now at play in the garden of Paradise. Women and men everywhere embrace their small souls and your heart Madonna Badger with our hearts and prayers.
Yet like Kevin Miller’s Mom and Madonna Badger I ask Why?
My Maternal Ancestry Tree: The bond and bridge that enable me to crossover from America to Africa
Friday, December 02, 2011
My Maternal Ancestry Tree: The bond and bridge that enable me to crossover from America to Africa
Maternal Ancestry Journey
Isaiah 54:1-3
New King James Version (NKJV)
A Perpetual Covenant of Peace
1 “Sing, O barren,
You who have not borne!
Break forth into singing, and cry aloud,
You who have not labored with child!
For more are the children of the desolate
Than the children of the married woman,” says the LORD.
2 “ Enlarge the place of your tent,
And let them stretch out the curtains of your dwellings;
Do not spare;
Lengthen your cords,
And strengthen your stakes.
3 For you shall expand to the right and to the left,
And your descendants will inherit the nations,
And make the desolate cities inhabited.
The eternal question, Who Am I? Many of us find the answer within our respective Family Trees. It was obvious to me that my ancestry began in Africa, but where in that great continent did my ancestors originate. But for me as an African American some of the branches were broken off and gone missing.
Thus began my quest to not only discover my maternal lineage but my genetic link to Mother Africa. Hidden within the larger search to trace my family history on my Mom’s side was the greater goal to honor my mother and complete myself as a branch of the family tree. DNA can now unlock the secrets and the past giving voice to generations of women, the collective matriarchy that ultimately formed me. Living in a society that often devalues, trivializes and cuts Black Women down, within my personal family history lay the opportunity to validate and reaffirm self.
Family Skeletons Revealed
Hattie Finney Banks was my grandmother. Hattie and Mattie Finney were twin sisters. Mattie Finney moved to Illinois and married a man named Harper. I always wondered what became of Mattie. My grandmother Hattie Banks never spoke of her twin sister Mattie. I always thought that was unusual but I did not ask any questions. Did not want to pry.
About two years ago my brother Stephen and I spent Thanksgiving with our New Jersey cousins. My Aunt told me a family story which might explain the split between the sisters and why they never again contacted each other.
My grandfather Hugh Banks, Hattie’s husband murdered Daniel R. Finney. So Hugh Banks killed his in-law, his wife’s close relative. Hugh Banks died in prison sometime around 1940. My Aunt went to the funeral. She does not know the reason why Hugh Banks murdered Daniel Finney. All this took place in the 1930s. After the funeral Hattie took my Mom, Mable, her sisters and moved to Dayton, Ohio. Hattie told everyone including my mother, her sisters and me that Hugh Banks had died in a coal mining accident.
I suppose she had to make up a false story and hide the truth because of embarrassment, shame or just wanting to forget. From what little my grandmother Hattie Banks told me Hugh Banks was a violent and abusive husband. I guess when she moved to Dayton to be with her brothers Clarence & Willie she just want to forget the past and start with a clean slate. I can’t prove it but somehow, some way this murder was probably behind Hattie and Mattie breakup.
23andme Ancestry
Good Ancestor News: Found out this week that through my maternal line my ancestors were from Mozambique. I belong to the maternal haplogroup L3e2b1a.
I also probably have some Nigerian ancestors. My maternal genetic makeup is 85% Africa, 12% Europe and 3% Asia.
Our ancestry and genealogy are traced through mitochondrial DNA which is only passed down from mother to child. This is fascinating information. By the way the study affiliated with Dr. Henry Louis Gates is free and they are targeting African Americans. I’ve wanted to have my DNA traced for several years and when I saw the ad in Ebony or was it Essence along with the word Free, I immediately signed up. I was so thrilled to find out this news. Now along with my African co-workers feel a more direct connection to the Motherland.
Naturally, I’ll never be connected to Mother Africa the way in which my co-workers from Nigeria, Ghana, Cameroon, Burkina Faso, Togo, and Mali are since they were born there and have a direction connection with the culture, language and respective tribes, I feel now more of a blood tie. Now I can plan for my pilgrimage to this country of my ancestors in the next five to ten years.
I’ve shared my findings with a select group of like-minded co-workers and when I return to work on Sunday will continue to do so.
As I previously stated, Hattie Finney Banks was my maternal grandmother. I’m in the process of writing a book honoring my mother, Mable Elizabeth Palmer, Hattie’s eldest daughter. Right now I’m trying to locate the birth certificate of either Hattie or her twin sister Mattie Finney. I want and need to know who their mother, my great grandmother was. I need that piece of information for not only my research but for my literary work. I know plenty about my Dad’s family history but almost nothing about my Mom’s side. Also there is something in me which needs completion.
When I look in the mirror I see Mable Elizabeth Palmer. I see unknown people from my collective past begging me to tell their story. I must answer their cries to be heard. Before I travel to Mozambique, South Africa I’ll have to visit West Virginia and examine birth, death, prison and military/Armed Forces records that may be available.
Then in 2012 back to Ancestry.com for more research on my maternal family tree. My maternal ancestors from Mother Africa call me and I willingly answer the call. Our patriarchal society bows down to the greater stronger Matriarchy for only females carry the mitochondrial DNA that enable all of us to trace our roots and find our origins. The Journey continues!!
National Geographic also offers a similar test but it costs $99.95. That will have to wait until I receive my Federal income tax check next year. I want to see if genetic lineage test comes up with the same result as 23andme. I would think that for $100 the testing would be more wide-ranging and comprehensive. My goal is to find out more about my maternal lineage. My ultimate goal is to deepen my connection to my mother, grandmother and of course Mother Africa.
Espiritu en Fuego/A Fiery Spirit 