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Thie American Life - Great Story Telling


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There was an interesting story on This American Life about a family in Maywood IL. The young woman (Italian) was date another student. Her beau was also Italian. At the same time the young lady was banging this Brother (Black) who was on the basketball team.

The young lady became pregnant and as was custom during the time (about 40 years ago I believe), the girl's father forced the kids to get married

When the child was born the young it was the Brother's child but the young lady was in complete denial -- so much so she truly believed the child was her husbands. The rest of the family, unaware of the young lady's jungle fever had no reason to suspect otherwise... at least not desire to.

The family was Italian and suggested the darker complexion child, a boy, inherited Moorish trails from their southern Italian ancestry (which makes me think of Pioneer's argument ;) ).

Whenever the young man encountered people in public they assumed he was Black. The poor boy was confused too as he had no reason to believe he had a Black father.

If you are into great telling of true stories check out This American Life, from Chicago Public Media. this story of just one of hundreds -- though fascinating this one is not even one of my favorites. It just reminded me of Cynique because the principals involved are from her neck of the woods.

You can down load this and other stories (as podcasts) from Amazon or Itunes

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Hummm. Veeery Interesting. My 2 older kids were probably class mates of the threesome in question. Most of the Italians who went to this high school lived in Melrose Park, a town that borders Maywood, and was like a little Italy. If a student had an Italian surname, you knew what to expect when it came to their appearance. They would be olive-complexioned and dark-haired. .

Back during the time I went to this school, there was one notable exception. The star quarter back of the football team was blond and blue-eyed but was an Italian from southern Italy. The Italians tended to distance themselves from the Sicilians because Sicily was the home of the Black Hand society or - The Mafia and they were a tougher breed. When I went to my 25 year class reunion, there was a large contingency of the Italian alums, and a lot of the paisanos, who were then middle-aged, looked like mobsters. They all had on black suits and black shirts and white ties, smoking cigars and drinking Scotch and casting shady glances at the Blacks in their Afros and bell bottoms. But before the night was over, as the alchohol flowed, a good time was had by all. There were also Jewish guys who I went to school with who had nappy hair, as Semites sometimes do.

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The reunion must have been a sight! Did you attend the 50th or a more recent one?

The son in the story, describes how, when he was a kid, he meet another boy (Black) just hanging his neighborhood. He asked kid if he wanted to go to his house and kids said, "yeah", and off they went...

When they got home the visiting kid sees his sisters playing in the yard and said, "Who are they?".

The son replied, "Those are my sisters".

The parents step into the back yard to meet their son's new playmate, and the visiting kid says, "Who are they?"

The son, growing incredulous says, "Those are my parents"

The visiting kids say "Aw man!" and he leaves. :o

Cynique it would be something if that visiting kid was one of you sons.

I'll try to find the story and post a link. The American Life has this habit of cleverly naming programs that obscures what the stories will be about, but make it really hard to reference.

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