All my family back to the 1700s were water Gypsies. My brothers and me, we were the first ones to be born on dry land. All the rest of them were born on barges in the canals.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
My family is basically Gypsies - for real.
I don't really have any people in my life who aren't gypsies.
My mother's family came from the British West Indies. And my father's family came from, well, my father's father came from the Montana/South Dakota area. They were Blackfoot Indian.
My family came in 1635 from England and settled in Williamsburg. Shortly after, they split up; half went to New England and half stayed in Virginia. I'm a Virginian Ballard.
I come from the countryside. I come from a bunch of horticulture family members. My best friend was a farmer's boy.
Both of my parents were born into poor families on the island of Cuba. They came to America because it was the only place where people like them could have a chance.
I'm from New York. My grandparents were settlers of Long Island City. When they came here, there was no bridge, and they had to hire a boat across the river. They had a farm, and my grandmother had to go once a week to Manhattan to buy provisions - very primitive.
Every June, Gypsies come in caravans from all over Europe to honor Django Reinhardt at a festival in Samois-sur-Seine. When I was little, I started hanging out with them. They fascinated me - they really, literally, live in the moment. They take every day as if it's their last.
I grew up in a world that was clannish - old Tasmanian-Irish families with big extended families.
My parents were born and brought up in New York City. My father was trained as an electrical engineer, and my mother was an elementary school teacher. They were the children of Jewish immigrants who had come to the United States from England and Lithuania in the late 1800s.