Raised by an irresponsible mother during the Great Depression in the Jim Crow south, my father was on his own from the age of 13.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
A middle child, I was born in the depths of the Great Depression. My dad and mom were factory workers, struggling to make ends meet.
My parents were children during the Great Depression of the 1930s, and it scarred them. Especially my father, who saw destitution in his Brooklyn, New York neighborhood; adults standing in so called 'bread lines,' children begging in the streets.
My father was a mean, controlling and manipulative person for most of his life. He was unpredictable and unstable.
My mother, brave woman, lost her whole family when she decided to marry a black man in the '60s. When the marriage fell apart, she had to come back to her family.
My father was raised with brothers, he was a football player and a boxer, he was a chief petty officer in the Navy, he was a man of his times.
Mother had to support herself at age 18 because it was during the depression and when my grandfather lost the farm and there was no place for her; she worked as an assistant to a maid.
My mother lived through the Great Depression. Her family of 11 children pulled themselves up by their bootstraps and moved to wherever there was work at the time. And in rural Oklahoma, that wasn't easy to find.
My father died when I was nine, but I came from a stable family environment, which I think does contribute to being well-behaved.
My father grew up in a life of extreme privilege.
I was raised mostly by my mom.