Like all my family and class, I considered it a sign of weakness to show affection; to have been caught kissing my mother would have been a disgrace, and to have shown affection for my father would have been a disaster.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
There were people I know that got upset that I kissed people; I kissed them for luck and love, that's all. That's what my mother did to me. There were people upset that I would embrace or hug someone of another color.
Few misfortunes can befall a boy which bring worse consequence than to have a really affectionate mother.
I was born with an enormous need for affection, and a terrible need to give it.
If I did not have for him the warm affection a son feels toward a less austere and preoccupied father, I at least had an immense respect for him, and a great admiration.
While my mother lived, I always felt to a certain degree as if I had somebody who was my superior and who exercised a mysterious protection over me. I belonged to something - I hung to something - there is nothing that has so much reverence and religion in it as affection to parents.
My mom was very affectionate but also very loud. My whole house was very loud. My father screamed, my mother screamed - everybody screamed.
But I was very, very unhappy because my mother was very charming and generous, but to me, very dominating.
All my life affection has been showered upon me, and every forward step I have made has been taken in spite of it.
We were never intimate mother and children while she was our mother - but... when she became our child, the affection came.
I didn't hesitate to kiss my father in public. And that's how I tried to raise my children. We're physical.