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<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=523951" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>Virginia's Story</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">Elizabeth Gates-Wooten is my Grand mom.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">She was born in Canada with her father and brothers. <br>They owned a Barber Shoppe. <br>I don't remember exactly where in Canada.<br>I believe it was right over the border like Windsor or Toronto.<br>I never knew exactly where it was.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">When she was old enough she got married.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">First, she married a man by the name of Frank Gates.<br>He was from Madagascar.<br>He fathered my mom and her brother and sister.<br>The boy's name was Frank Gates, Jr. <br>Two girls name were Anna and Agnes. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Agnes was my mother.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Frank Gates went crazy after the war<br>He drank a lot and died<br>Then grandma Elizabeth married a man by the name of Mr. Wooten.<br>He had a German name, but I don't think he was German.<br>She took his last name after they got married.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Then they moved to West Virginia in the United States.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Their son, Frank Gates Jr. Became a delegate in the democratic party.<br>He use to get into a lot of trouble because he liked to fight.<br>He was a delegate from the 1940's to 1970's.<br>He died of gout in the 1970's.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Anna was a maid and cook.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">She baked cakes and stuff for people as a side line.<br>She had a hump on her back (scoliosis) .<br>She had to walk with a cane.<br>She could cook good though.<br>She did this kind of work all of her life, just like her mom, Elizabeth</div><div style="margin:10px 0">They were both good cooks</div><div style="margin:10px 0">They had a lot of money because they had these skills<br>Especially when people had parties.<br>Because they would make all of this food and then they would have left-overs.<br>We got to eat a lot of stuff we normally wouldn't get because of that.<br>When they cooked, they didn't use no measuring stuff, they would just use there hand.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">My moms name was Agnes Barrie Gates. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">She married James Wright and moved to Cleveland.<br>My grand mom followed them there a couple of years later. <br>They had six children.<br>They had two boys named James and Felton.<br>They were the oldest. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">They also had four girls named Elizabeth, Virginia, Viola, and Harriet.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">My dad, James had to go fight in Spain. <br>He got drafted.<br>It was in the Spanish American War. <br>They had to dope him up to make him fight. <br>When he came back home he was not right.<br>He would have bad dreams and scream out at night.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">He started drinking a lot</div><div style="margin:10px 0">He drank himself to death when I was young. <br>He died when I was three in 1933 when he was thirty something.<br>It was the Great Depression! </div><div style="margin:10px 0">When my daddy died, my grand mom and my mom already lived in Detroit.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">My mom had a factory job. <br>My grand mom got a job working for some Jewish people across Woodward. <br>Black people couldn't go across Woodward back then. <br>Only Jewish people and white people could go over there.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">That was the good neighborhood.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The Jewish people my grand mom worked for lived on that side of Woodward.<br>Those Jews had lots of money <br>The Jews also had children who had big heads. <br>They called them mongoloid head kids. </div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br>The good thing is that we got to go to the Fox theater with them, because my grand mom worked for Jewish people.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Black people could go over there if they were working for white people <br>We got to see Ponochio, White Christmas, Cinderella, and a lot of things there.<br>We got to eat good, too. <br>Cabbage and Corned Beef, Lamb and fish.<br>All types of stuff like that.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">What ever was left over, Grandma Wooten got to take home.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">People would laugh at her for working with those big headed mongoloid kids. <br>But she didn't care.<br>She had a good job and got to have a lot of good stuff because of it.<br>Those big head kids were smart, too. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">They just had big heads.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">While my grand mom was working for the Jewish family, my mom was working for the factory, making nuts. <br>It was an airplane factory. <br>The men made the wings. <br>The women made the nuts.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">When I was 8 years old, my mom use to go out with this man who would pay her to have relations with her.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">We use to listen at the door and look thru the key hole at them to see what the were doing.<br>He didn't have a real thing.<br>He had this thing he had to turn on and it would get hard and he would try to have relations with my mom.<br>We would laugh and giggle cause he could never get it to do what he wanted.<br>He would never have relations with her with that thing.<br>He would always take her out on the town and stuff and pay her even though his thing didn't work.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">When I was 8, we went to church one time and the preacher asked 'Does anybody have any questions? '</div><div style="margin:10px 0">So I asked 'Why do all of those hurricanes come out of Africa and hit all of the people in the United States? '<br>My Grandma turned around and slapped me<br>Later on she told me that I was not suppose to asked that kind of question.<br>I just wanted to know how Africa could be so rich<br>They had all of that gold, and diamonds, and oil</div><div style="margin:10px 0">And the white folks just come over there and take it</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Leaving them all poor<br>How did that happen? <br>What was god thinking of when he let that happen? <br>But I never got that question answered</div><div style="margin:10px 0">My grandmother made me stay in my room overnight, too.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The only thing is I never did asked any more questions<br>I asked them to myself<br>I didn't ask anyone else tho<br>I was just quiet<br>When I had kids i wanted them to ask questions</div><div style="margin:10px 0">I never hit any of them for asking any questions</div><div style="margin:10px 0">They could swear or anything<br>I just wanted them to feel free to ask things and find out about them<br>Not like how I felt<br>I just wanted to know things<br>But, I probably never will know they answer to all of my questions</div><div style="margin:10px 0">I probably will be dead before I get any of those answers.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Later on, during WWII, my mom got a job at the USO dancing for tickets with the service men. <br>She was one of those flapper girls.<br>A dime -a- dance girl! <br>Thats what they called them in the movies.<br>She had this real nice black hat with wings on it. <br>She got a lot of tickets for all of that dancing! </div><div style="margin:10px 0">She had lots of money.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">After the war, my mom worked in a restaurant. <br>It was a Jewish restaurant. <br>Thats all there ever was. <br>They (the Jews) were the only ones who had money and businesses. <br>They knew how to save their money. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">She worked and got tips.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">When I was a kid, I don't remember the first school I went to. <br>All I know is I went across the street and two blocks down to go there. <br>I lived on Russell, before you get to Caniff. <br>I didn't get to go anywhere much then.<br>None of us did.<br>My mom didn't want us around the factory workers down the street. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">My grand mom use to walk us across the bridge to Canada to this big market to get produce and shop. <br>It was really big and we bought a lot of stuff. <br>We use to have a big red wagon that we would bring all of this stuff home in. <br>She use to have us walk so that we would have strong legs. <br>I was about seven. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">I had special shoes made because I had something wrong with my legs and my flat arches. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">I still got flat arches. <br>So that's why grand mom use to have me made square toe shoes. <br>I wore those kind of shoes till I was thirty years old. <br>People made fun of me, but I didn't mind.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">My friend, name Virginia Green, live down the alley.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Her mother had fourteen kids! <br>She lived down the street.<br>All of the kids use to run down the alley.<br>We had to play in the yard.<br>She was afraid of the factory on the alley down from us.<br>All of the smoke coming out of it and the workers coming in and out.<br>She thought something bad would happen.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Virginia Greens family were Jehovah Witnesses</div><div style="margin:10px 0">They all had to pray every morning<br>The girls had to get the Kids ready in the morning.<br>The Mom had home schooled them.<br>My friend didn't go to school until she went to Northern<br>I use to see her on the bus once in a while after that.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">I stopped seeing her on the bus when we moved on East Grand Boulevard.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">There was a riot back then.<br>That's when my grandma got stabbed on her way from work.<br>She was getting off of the bus when it happened.<br>They stabbed her in the stomach and grabbed her purse, too. <br>She was getting of the bus going to Hudson's. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">And the bus driver couldn't do a thing. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">We didn't know anything about it<br>The white person who did it got away.<br>A lot of white people were stabbing black people back then.<br>It was a race riot! </div><div style="margin:10px 0">They took her to emergency to get stitches. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">We didn't find out till the next day<br>It kept her out of work for six week.<br>She was hurt really bad.<br>The rioters didn't burn any buildings or nothing. <br>They just robbed people, broke in the windows and took their stuff.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">It was a race riot.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">People were out of work and crazy.<br>My mom got something out of that Fur store on Broadway.<br>A lot of people took furs out of that fur store on Broadway.<br>We didn't get to go outside without an adult until I was ten! <br>My mom would take us outside when she got home from work and grand mom went to work<br>The lady that lived upstairs from us didn't like the noise from kids anyway<br>She kept complaining 'Stop all of that noise down there? '</div><div style="margin:10px 0">We lived there til I got married. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">I didn't get to go out on my own until I began High School.<br>Not until I got to go to Norther high school.<br>The kids didn't make fun of me then, because other kids were wearing them, too. <br>Then I got a pair of them other kind of shoes, buster brown like shoes. <br>Oxfords! <br>They had two colors on them! </div><div style="margin:10px 0">I have a picture of me wearing those shoes in the year book.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">I was in the Library Club.<br>I would sit at the desk and help people check out the books<br>Got paid twelve dollars a week for doing it.<br>In Modern Dance we danced and stretched and all of that stuff.<br>Then we would have to go on the stage at the end of the semester.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">We would get some awards.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Chemistry I didn't like to well.<br>Had to cut up things and stuff like that.<br>Frogs...Eeeeeh! ! <br>In Swimming I just would swim.<br>We got medals and stuff.<br>I don't know how I passed German! </div><div style="margin:10px 0">'Sprechan Zie Deutche? '</div><div style="margin:10px 0">I don't know what it means.<br>Same goes for French.<br>The French teacher would collect all of the books so that we couldn't look in them.<br>Then we would get the test.<br>She would give each of us a special question that she wrote out in her own hand.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Nobody had the same question, so they could not cheat.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">In 1948, there were a lot of German teachers in Northern high school.<br>Everybody couldn't understand why all of the teachers were German after we had just fought the war with them.<br>That didn't make no sense at all.<br>But all of the teachers were German.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">When I was 14, I went skiing with the German class<br>We went to some mountain up north, I don't remember it's name<br>And they served hot chocolate<br>Hot chocolate keeps you real warm when it's cold outside</div><div style="margin:10px 0">It's the only thing that keeps you real warm like that<br>The German teacher was a real good skier<br>I was scared<br>I was afraid that I would fall on my face<br>I didn't, but I was always afraid<br>All of those German speaking people<br>I couldn't understand a word they were saying.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">That hot chocolate was the only thing I liked about skiing.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Grand ma Wooten spoke a lot of German<br>She use to teach German when she lived in Canada<br>She learned the German because she was part German and part English<br>But I couldn't remember all of that German then<br>It was long ago and I didn't have anyone to speak it to<br>Not until High School</div><div style="margin:10px 0">There use to be a Cunninghams drug store across the street. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">We use to eat over there with the German teachers. <br>They made good coffee over at Cunninghams. <br>Good banana splits, too. <br>They charged 10 cents for a big mug of coffee. <br>Go good with a piece a pie for a quarter. <br>Big piece of pie, too. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Hot chocolate was a nickel. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Milk came in a little glass bottle. <br>There was cream on the top of the milk.<br>You could shake it up and drink it all mixed together.<br>Or you could drink the cream of first and then drink the milk.<br>Taste good either way.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">I met your dad (Mohammed) in 1947. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">We lived down the street from him.<br>He got over here by working in the engine room on boats<br>When he got here in the US, he jump ship in New York and came to Detroit<br>He lived in a big apartment building with all of his Indian friends <br>It was the first time I saw a steam iron.<br>One of the Indian Ladies had a Steam Ironing board! </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Just like they use in the dry cleaners.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">She did the ironing for all of the Indian men there<br>She showed me how to iron with it<br>You press down and steam would come out.<br>They also had this grill thing.<br>You make sandwiches on it.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Like that George Foreman thing, except for families</div><div style="margin:10px 0">They also had big pots.<br>It was a big coffee maker.<br>Another Indian woman had a black and white TV in their restaurant.<br>That was the restaurant Mohammed took over after Jathia got sick and he lost his job.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">I started dating Mohammed right before I graduated.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">We got to go out alone. <br>Then we started going to the movies at the show. <br>The Holbrooke on Holbrook and the Fox downtown. <br>They didn't let black folks in the Fox. <br>But since I was with Mohammed, they let me in.<br>That was in 1949.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Mohammed was working at Hudson Motors before we got married.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Me and Mohammed went everywhere together in 48<br>We were really going together in 50<br>We got married in 51<br>When Eron was born, It was cold<br>It was June, but it was raining</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The wind was blowing</div><div style="margin:10px 0">I was on Hasting<br>I was on Russell<br>Then I went to Hastings when I got out of the hospital<br>It was daytime, morning<br>It was about 6 something<br>He weighed only 6 pounds too</div><div style="margin:10px 0">I had a mid wife help </div><div style="margin:10px 0">By the time the ambulance got there I had had the baby<br>The doctor gave me a slip to go to the hospital the next week<br>You know to go to the hospital for your six month check up<br>Six week check up! <br>He lost his job at Hudson Motors when he was hospitalized for ulcers<br>When he got better, he took over the restaurant<br>But he lost it when one of the kids got sick</div><div style="margin:10px 0">It was either Big Eron or Jathia who got sick</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Mohammed also took me to the Pakistani club for meetings. <br>They had a lot of card games at the club.<br>They use to make a lot of money down there.<br>Drinking coffee, playing cards, praying and making money.<br>One day we didn't have any money, and the next day we did.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">When I got married, grandma moved to Hamtramck. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Mom and Harriet moved in with her friend. <br>Viola moved in with her boyfriend. <br>My brothers were still in the war. <br>James was in Korea and Felton was in the Paratroopers.<br>When there was and emergency, Felton would have to paratroop the things they needed to them.<br>Like at the hospitals and in battle and stuff like that.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Mohammed was working at Hudson Motor company when we got married. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">We had three kids during that time.<br>We rented a restaurant from a friend of Mohammed's later.<br>I went to work at Cunninghams in Imperial City. <br>Then Mohammed went to work at Ford. <br>Then Jathia got sick real bad.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Ford didn't like that Mohammed had to pray seven times a day. <br>He also had to work in the restaurant when he was done there<br>So he got sick. <br>They let him go after he had to leave when Jathia got sick. <br>She got hooping cough real bad. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">We were only renting the restaurant, so we lost it so that we could take care of Jathia. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">When Jathia was born <br>I just went to the hospital and had her<br>I was in the house on Holbrook<br>When I had got out of the hospital<br>We had already moved to 18th street</div><div style="margin:10px 0">But the boy down stairs had hooping cough</div><div style="margin:10px 0">She was in Herman Kieffer for three month<br>I had to look at her thru the glass<br>Thats why you have to be careful with babies<br>Make sure they wash their hands and stuff</div><div style="margin:10px 0">They can get germs on the baby and make them sick</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Since he couldn't find any work, we had to go to welfare to get some help.<br>Jathia was sick for eight months with hooping cough. <br>She was a baby. <br>The next year I had Audrey, we lived on eighteenth street then.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">When Audrey was born, we lived on Clinton</div><div style="margin:10px 0">It was a nice day<br>I had to go the hospital <br>That was her due day<br>But I thought I was going to have her on Jathia's birth day<br>But I ended up having her two days before</div><div style="margin:10px 0">I took her home right after she was born</div><div style="margin:10px 0">She didn't get sick or nothing<br>The next year I had Talile.<br>It was cold<br>We were getting ready for thanksgiving then<br>We were decorating for Christmas <br>And putting turkeys up in the window</div><div style="margin:10px 0">We put up black and orange lights</div><div style="margin:10px 0">We didn't turn them on till thanksgiving<br>I started feeling pains on the fourteenth<br>You don't know when you were born? <br>I was having pain, pain, pain! <br>Talile was born in the morning<br>I think it was 8 or 9<br>The was weighing him and testing him</div><div style="margin:10px 0">They had me walking up and down the hall way<br>They were telling us about when we get out what times we have to go to the hospital<br>They did that for three days<br>Then we went home</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Kennedy was president when we moved to Clinton.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Mohammed couldn't find any work in Detroit for a while.<br>So Mohammed went to New York to work at CBS as a maintainance and letter delivery worker. <br>When Abdul was born.<br>It was cold<br>I was on Clinton<br>I was on the other part</div><div style="margin:10px 0">After I had him I had a cyst on the breast</div><div style="margin:10px 0">They had me put hot water bottles on them <br>So they could take the puss out<br>But it burst out<br>I was paining<br>They gave me some medicine<br>Some antibiotics</div><div style="margin:10px 0">I couldn't nurse Dewey</div><div style="margin:10px 0">I had to give him a bottle<br>After a month, i could nurse him better<br>It was the same one I had cancer in<br>When I got home<br>I kept having pains in my stomach</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Thats when they took me back to the hospital</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Thats when they found the Gaul Stones<br>After they took them out<br>Thats when I felt better<br>Thats when my momma and my grand mama were coming over to watch all of you<br>Thats because Mohammed was going to work</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Cause I was in the hospital for two weeks</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Thats where I got that big cut on my stomach<br>Then they sewed it up<br>Those Gaul Stones.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br>I went to work at Cunninghams for four months. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Mohammed didn't want us to be on welfare. <br>So Mohammed would send his check home so I could pay the rent and utilities.<br>Mohammed was at CBS when the Beatles performed on Ed Sullivan<br>Mohammed came home a little while afterwards<br>Then Kennedy got Killed<br>Then Johnson became president <br>Mrs. Adele was watching the kids while we were working. <br>We had to pay rent to the government. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">The government owned all of those houses in that neighborhood. <br>Thats why they never fixed them up. <br>Some are still standing today because the government owns them. <br>That's why they could order everybody to move when they were building La Fayette Park, because they owned most of all the homes.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">I quit my job when Mohammed came back from New York. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Mohammed came back because someone got him a job at Receiving Hospital downtown. <br>Mohammed sold incense to make money to pay the medical bills. <br>He had to because there wasn't any blue cross or nothing to pay the medical bills. <br>When he went to General Motors he had insurance to pay the medical bills. <br>He still kept selling incense, because he had clients who liked him buying them from him.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">There was this crazy man. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Pedophile man. <br>He was this nutty man<br>I think he was catholic too<br>He would get these little girl about five or six years old<br>He would kill them on the way to mass</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Then he would clean them up<br>Dress them up like little dolls<br>People had to start taking their children to church<br>They didn't know who was doing it<br>He would dress them up like little dolls<br>Probably because his mom liked little dolls</div><div style="margin:10px 0">By having the police out there undercover</div><div style="margin:10px 0">I don't know how they caught him<br>BUT THEY CAUGHT HIM! <br>He would get the girls, kill them, clean them up, then wrap them up in blankets. <br>They found him after he had killed six girls. <br>They found him working at a church. <br>St. Something. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">It was three or four blocks away from us in a good neighborhood on the other side of Chene.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">We lived upstairs from Mrs. Adele. <br>She had two daughters, one who's name is Sarah, and a son named Sonny, who was in the service. <br>We lived across the street from Duffield Elementary School.<br>All of the Kids went to that school.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Talile and Eron went around the corner to the store</div><div style="margin:10px 0">This weirdo was telling people that we were his kids<br>But the store man knew us <br>So he called Daddy and the police<br>He got them outside and tried to cut Talile ear off<br>But the police and their Daddy showed up<br>And he was arrested.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">It was mothers day<br>I had cooked a dinner and all, turkey and stuff<br>And then I had to go to the hospital and have Umor<br>Cause your daddy was home by then<br>I didn't think he was coming that day<br>But he changed his mind<br>So I had to go to the hospital<br>And thats how I had Umor.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">When I had Muktsar</div><div style="margin:10px 0">We went shopping and stuff for Christmas<br>We had got all of our stuff<br>I thought he would be coming after Christmas<br>But he came a week early<br>It was a lot of snow that day<br>Because the ambulance was having a hard time getting there</div><div style="margin:10px 0">They goy me to the hospital</div><div style="margin:10px 0">They had to go slow because there was so much snow<br>But I didn't have him until I got to the hospital<br>I didn't have him until late at night<br>They thought I would have him sooner<br>But I was having a lot of pain<br>It took seven hours<br>It was about 10 or 11 o'clock </div><div style="margin:10px 0">I know I was tired of the pain</div><div style="margin:10px 0">I didn't want to be knocked out<br>I wanted to see the baby when it comes<br>Cause it was around that time people were stealing babies out of the hospital<br>I wanted to see how my baby looked<br>So they couldn't do something like that</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Umor and Muktsar were born on Clinton, too.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Sarah Adele gave Muktsar his middle name. <br>She liked Marvin Gaye and I like Marvin Gaye.<br>So Muktsar's middle name is Marvin<br>Eron was sent to stay with Aunt Tony and Grandma Wright for a long time<br>He would stay with them because they had kids</div><div style="margin:10px 0">And Daddy didn't want him running up and down the street in our neighborhood</div><div style="margin:10px 0">They liked to play card and that penny game<br>Eron stayed with Aunt Tony and Ramona the longest.<br>He stayed with Grandma Wooten because he help her do things<br>She liked to go to the market early in the morning<br>They had fresh fruit and Day old bread for a dollar<br>Eron was allergic </div><div style="margin:10px 0">But he knew enough to stay away from that kind of stuff</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Jathia wanted to stay with her dolls and stuff with her friends<br>Their were a lot of girls on that street<br>Down the block<br>Jathia didn't get into trouble until she got into high school<br>She would like to go over her friends house<br>Her daddy didn't like her going over there<br>There were crazy people out there<br>She wasn't scared of those people though</div><div style="margin:10px 0">We would talk to her</div><div style="margin:10px 0">I had to spank her<br>She would run away from me<br>I would have to grab my extention cord and swing it under the bed to get her<br>Her daddy didn't spank her though<br>He didn't spank anybody</div><div style="margin:10px 0">I couldn't reach yaw with the switch</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Yaw would hide under the bed and laugh at me<br>So I would take the extention cord an get yaw<br>Sometimes I would get one of yaw<br>Your daddy didn't like it<br>He talked to me about it<br>But yaw would laugh at me</div><div style="margin:10px 0">I didn't like that</div><div style="margin:10px 0">He would always talk to yaw about it afterwards<br>But yaw would still run away like that again<br>Yaw would laugh at me<br>It hurt my feelings<br>It wasn't funny to me<br>But it was funny to yaw<br>Sometimes it was funny to me</div><div style="margin:10px 0">I would sit down in my chair and laugh</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Audrey was sick a lot<br>She would have to stay home<br>She was allergic to a lot of stuff<br>I had to spank Audrey when she was little</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br>Talile got to stay with Ramona and Viola</div><div style="margin:10px 0">He would just play and chase the animals around<br>They had cats<br>We had cats, too<br>He did his homework from school<br>Listen to records</div><div style="margin:10px 0"></div><div style="margin:10px 0">Abdul got to go with Talile where he went</div><div style="margin:10px 0">They did a lot of things together<br>Sometimes Daddy would take the boys to the ball game<br>The club would have their people come with their boys<br>I guess they would all play together<br>I know they didn't come home till evening</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Umor got to stay with Ramona and Tony<br>They would got to the park and go on the merry-go-round. Roller coaster<br>It was in Ildlewild, it was in another county<br>They would fish and camp there</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Muktsar would go, too</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The boys would all get to go together<br>No girls were allowed<br>Back in those days, Boys did what boys did<br>And the girls stayed with their mama.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"></div><div style="margin:10px 0">After Muktsar was born we moved to East Grand Boulevard because it was a bigger place. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Mohammed still worked at Receiving Hospital and he still kept selling incense. <br>We lived above the East Pakistani Club, that was downstairs. <br>The only thing I remember about East Grand Blvd was taking you kids on the bus everyday to get your shots. <br>Every morning. <br>Some of you were allergic to school dust, chalk dust, everything! <br>Eron, Audrey, and Muktsar were allergic to everything. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Jathia was allergic to mold and bugs. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Talile was allergic to wheat (that would explain everything) . <br>Dewey was allergic to going out into the air and some sweets. <br>Umor use to get hay fever when he was younger.<br>But he got over it. <br>Johnson was president then<br>And then there were the riots. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Then Robert Kennedy got killed.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">They burned buildings in this one. <br>Breaking the windows and taking everything they could find.<br>Store people had to get guns to keep people out.<br>At the end the store people just started giving them away, because they were burning everything up.<br>And the Fur place over on Broadway? </div><div style="margin:10px 0">The people stole the furs and burnt the place down! </div><div style="margin:10px 0">They were throwing stuff at the police men and everything.<br>The people were crazy.<br>It was a Race Riot.<br>The people mad because they were out of work.<br>The white people were trying to kill the black ones.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Black people trying to kill the white ones.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Mexicans were trying to kill both the white and the black folks.<br>Italians were stealing everything and shooting everybody.<br>You know, with all of this happening, your dad still went to work. <br>Lots of people told me that if it wasn't for your dad their children would have been in jail. <br>He talked to them about doing the right thing and not hanging out with the wrong crowd. <br>A lot of people told me at the funeral that they would have gone to jail if not for your father. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">After the riot we moved from East Grand Boulevard to Fort Wayne. We lived there for about four years. <br>When we lived at Fort Wayne, everybody was getting sick with something.<br>Talile kept talking about how everybody was getting sick except him.<br>Then he got real sick and had to go to the hospital.<br>Everybody said he was faking it, just to get attention.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The doctors kept him for a week, and found out that he had ulcers.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Just like his daddy, he had to eat special foods.<br>His daddy didn't, but I baked him vegetables and chicken all of the time.<br>When Talile finally got well, he got sick going outside.<br>He kept getting this real bad rash.<br>The doctors couldn't figure out what was causing it at first.<br>Then when they did know they told us.<br>The sulfur in the air was making him sick.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">We had to move to Gray</div><div style="margin:10px 0">So we moved from 6413 Meige in Fort Wayne to the east side on 4810 Gray.<br>When we first moved here there was water down in the basement like there is now.<br>The Landlord said that maybe one of the kids was running the water and that caused it.<br>Then it started snowing it stopped.<br>But when spring came and it started raining, your dad would go downstairs after he came home from work and sweep it down the drains.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The kids were going to school.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Umor and Muktsar went to Hosmer<br>Abdul and Talile went to Jackson<br>It was real nice over here when we moved here.<br>Then Talile started to say he was having bad dreams.<br>He was getting ready for his performance, and I heard a bump, bump.<br>I went upstairs and saw him bouncing around.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">We took him to the hospital.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">When we took him to the doctor, they couldn't find anything.<br>I called the school and told them he was in the hospital.<br>He went to a lot of doctors before we found one doctor who knew what was wrong.<br>This doctors name was Dr. Slaughter.<br>He said Talile had epilepsy.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">I went to see Talile perform at Jackson, Cass, and Finney.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Talile was in the concert band at Jackson.<br>Audrey and Jathia went to Cass.<br>Audrey was a Chemistry Major and Jathia as just taking English and Drama<br>They went to WSU after Cass.<br>Eron was in finney then the service.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">He was in the service for three years from 1970 to 1973</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Later, Talile went to Cass.<br>Then Talile went to Finney.<br>Abdul, Umor and Muktsar were not getting the grades they were suppose to get.<br>So we had them go to an alternative school named The Detroit Free School<br>We talked Talile into going, so that they would go to this new school.<br>Talile graduated from that school.<br>Abdul, Umor, and Muktsar didn't want to go to that school no more.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Talile moved out.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Then Jathia moved out.<br>Then Audrey moved out with the church.<br>Talile went to stay at the church with Audrey for a while<br>Then Talile moved in with Aunt Tony<br>Then Talile moved in with some friends of his<br>Then Talile left town</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Mohammed still worked at the factory and he still sold stuff to his customers cause he needed money for some things.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Then he got his ulcers back.<br>Then he got that lump behind his knee.<br>It was cancer and they removed it.<br>The doctor told him not to go to work so early.<br>But he did anyway.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Then he had to go to the cancer place to have radiation.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">It was freezing there.<br>He would still go to work.<br>When Talile got back, Talile would fuss at Mohammed and tell him that he would die if he didn't take care of himself.<br>But he didn't listen and he went back to work.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Then Mohammed went into the hospital.<br>Then he died.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">After Mohammed died, I went back home.<br>Aunt Tony took care of the funeral arrangements.<br>Talile packed up his stuff and left town again.<br>I had to pick up all of Mohammed's stuff.<br>Then I had to get a lot of doctor papers.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Then I had to go to social security.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Then the doctors had to tell them what I had<br>Then they let me get on social security.<br>They didn't believe that I could go to school with only one bad eye.<br>So I had to get my birth certificate saying I was Forty Six.<br>I had to go to see the doctor to tell me what I am going to have to pay.<br>I was going back and forth from Social Security to get my eyes, lungs, and everything checked<br>Answering questions for social security</div><div style="margin:10px 0">I was going backing back and forth</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Then everybody moved out<br>Jathia went with Donald<br>Audrey went with the Church<br>Dewey went with the police station<br>Umor was going to electrician school, trying to get out<br>Talile was going all over with his friends.<br>Eron moved to Highland Park.<br>Everybody was gone except me, Umor and Muktsar</div><div style="margin:10px 0">It was a cold winter then.<br>Talile returned and went to Nursing School<br>Muktsar had a baby with Tracy<br>The baby's name was Jinnah<br>They were having trouble with her Grandma</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Then they finally got permission to move there</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Then they had Syeed<br>Muktsar was working at Kohls<br>I guess they were going to get married<br>The grand father and the grandmother didn't want them to get married tho'<br>So pretty soon Muktsar started going with Veda<br>Tracy said so long as he was taking care of the boys its alright! </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Then Muktsar moved in with Veda</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Then Tracy's grandfather died <br>The boys moved back in here with Muktsar<br>Tracy went back to school<br>She graduated and she went to work.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Muktsar and Veda got married.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">They moved back over here.<br>Then they moved to Hamtramck with her mom<br>Then they moved to Piccadilly with her mom</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Then I went back to school.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">I got a liberal arts degree from WC3.<br>Then Talile went back to school<br>Then Talile graduated<br>Then Talile got a job and started teaching at Friends School</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Then Muktsar got a job working on shows<br>Jinnah graduated and had a baby named Jinniah<br>Eron went to MSU with Ariel<br>Syeed went to MSU, then quit<br>Briana quit MSU, too</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Ariel Graduated and now has a job as a Social Worker</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Jinnah and Syeed work together way out in Farmington Hills<br>Tracy is working in Ann Arbor<br>Raquiem is going to WC3<br>Big Eron had a stroke and is retired<br>Talile got in a fight with Claire and is kicked out again<br>Dewey is married to Sharon and has a beautiful family</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Marlin is about to graduate</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Shay is at Cass<br>Khalil is getting bigger<br>Little Eron is a daddy and has a baby boy named Ein with his girl friend Lily<br>Briana is still not in school<br>Azaria is about to graduate and is on the honor roll at DSA</div><div style="margin:10px 0">I got real sick</div><div style="margin:10px 0">I fell down and hurt myself<br>I went to the hospital and started bleeding<br>I had to stay in the hospital for months<br>When I got out I got a bump in my boobie</div><div style="margin:10px 0">They said it was cancer</div><div style="margin:10px 0">They had to cut off my boobies! <br>I got no bobbies! <br>I look like a pear bear made of jello! <br>I hurt all over! <br>My arms hurt.<br>My legs hurt.<br>My feet hurt.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">My surgery hurts.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Everything hurts.<br>And I am old.<br>I am so old.<br>I'm wearing diapers.<br>My foots crooked, from the stroke.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">I can barely see.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=Talile+Ali">Talile Ali</a><div class=q>
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<script type="text/javascript" src="//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=citatepedia" async="async"></script><div style="display:inline-block" class="addthis_sharing_toolbox" data-url="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=523951" data-title="Virginia's Story de Talile Ali" data-description="Elizabeth Gates-Wooten is my Grand mom./She was born in Canada with her father and brothers. /They owned a Barber Shoppe. /I don't remember exactly where in Canada./I believe it was right over the border like Windsor or Toronto./I never knew exact..."></div>
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