[Hollylane]

Originally Posted by Miss_Tia

ACK! Yes! I was raised by parents whose parents came from the Old Country. My parents were not Americanized yet...it was my generation who finally learned and abided by American culture. So, when my mother bought or made me school clothes, she did not have the "rules" to teach me. Like,stripes and prints do not go together. you dont wear forest green herringbone skirts with an orange belt and a purple Nehru shirt..with a smiley face on it. LOL. I didnt know you wore different shoes with different outfits! I had no concept that certain textures didnt match! I was raised by farmers...we didnt even have tv. We never bought magazines. I had no close neighbors. When I went to school for the first time, and saw hundreds of kids my age, I could not understand why I stood out and was targeted by the bullies. If you are not raised to see differences, you cannot see them. I did not know there was such a thing as a hair style. We only had hair cuts. Classmates had running water in the house. We had a well outside out kitchen. We had an outhouse until I was 9 years old. We didnt even have a radio to listen to music. It was there for news. Or talk shows. It was a very plain and simple life. And America was becoming much more complicated as capitalism and consumerism began to grow. My mother had two dresses when she was in high school. I had 4 outfits. One pair of shoes. And ankle socks. While everyone else was wearing knee highs.

yes, yes, the fashion police should have shown up and taken me to a kind prison or reform school where I could have learned all these things. it wasnt until i was actually graduated and got a job in a retail store that I learned American ways. I was floored you could buy dishes in a SET! And sheets too! And silverware!

Life when I was young, was very hard, and very interesting. I was tormented. And it affected me for the rest of my life. But it taught me so much about perspectives and I never forget that the world I live in, might not be the world the person standing next to me lives in..even if they are my neighbor...

Thank you for sharing a part of your history Miss Tia. It was wonderful reading, and I enjoyed getting to know a little bit about you.