Mom and Dad did the best they could with what they knew. They both came from male dominated homes. Girls were raised to be silent and do their work. Boys worked with their dad's often absent from school because field work demanded them at home. There was no television to show them a different world. They didn't travel far from home and lived in the same neighborhood their entire lives. They parented from what they knew.
I hungered for more one on one with Mom and Dad. As I grew older, I wanted them to recognize the person I had become. Without that recognition, I became a rebel. The Rebel on Neff Road.
When I look at my life and my rearing, I realize that I had a rich growing up on the farm. However, three sisters left searching for something more than we had in that big white house back the lane. For all the pull the farm had for me, I knew that I could not go back to the loneliness I felt there. When we left one last time, we sold my parent, the farm. I was born of the rich black soil, the smell of the barn and an old house that hugged me.
No comments:
Post a Comment