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Thank you, Kitty, for offering me something to convey. Mom was born in Oklahoma into an ostensibly German family. I don't think anyone in Europe (or honestly anywhere in the world) can truthfully make claims to be pure blood anything. Over the years, I have learnt more about the different heritages in my mom's allegedly German family. What made it most surprising to learn we even have some Jewish blood in us is because I grew up thinking mom's family were just Germans. Dad's family we always knew was mixed heritage 'cause dad always called his kid's a Heinz 57 variety.
Anyway, mom was born into a farming family. They moved from Oklahoma to the panhandle of Texas while she was still quite young. After the winds destroyed the farmland they migrated to California where she grew up, still farming. When in her late teens, or early twenties (sorry I don't know exactly), she met my dad in Bible School, in Los Angeles. She was always pretty stern when we were children, and never learnt to demonstrate affection until her children grew up and learnt how to on our own then taught her.
She is still very religious (Protestant), but often surprises me at how she is able to adapt to new things... except for liberals and Democrats I mean. We’ve taken her to India twice and her ability to roll with new experiences really impressed me. Still, watching the internal struggles, on her face, when she is with my wife is interesting. She loves and admires my wife, but my wife is a true liberal Democrat (whereas you’ve probably noticed, I vacillate a bit?) The mental contortions mom makes to reconcile her own beliefs with my wife's political stands has always been fun for me to guess at. This last visit mom wasn't as well able to cope though. She absolutely believes that non-American born Muslim, Barack Obama, is going to deliver America into the hands of the barbarian Islamists of the Middle-East. It clearly bothered her greatly that we are both Barack supporters. I think she pretty much concluded we are simply ignorant of the truth, but don't know it.
The day she arrived in early November, I met mom at the airport. My older sis was there to meet mom also. We went out for lunch, and mom saw me riding Wildfire to the restaurant. She decided she had to ride my bike before returning home so she could tell her girlfriends all about it. There was never a chance to give her a ride, between all our rain and mom spending time visiting with other family members while here. The morning she was leaving for her return flight, I woke up to see areas of blue sky amidst the clouds. After my breakfast and shower I rolled Wildfire out of her stable and called mom outside for a ride around the block. Though she still doesn’t express herself much, I could tell mom LOVED the experience. So, I had her sit on the bike and took her picture, once on my camera, and once on hers. Now she can show her friends back home. I got a real kick out of seeing mom sitting on Wildfire just like she belonged there.
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