Dom and I had an interesting discussion earlier. It came out during a discussion of why I always have cold hands and feet. When the weather changes for the cold, I find my extremities to get cold even when I have socks and gloves on. Dom is the opposite and always is hot. So you can guess I find myself seeking Dom's warmth much to his annoyance. But Dom being my source of heat is in our marriage contract...LOL.
One of the theories Dom shared with me was that since my family is from the "islands", Guadeloupe to be exact, where it's tropical, having cold hands and feet could've been a mechanism of cooling off. I realized with mentioning my country of origin that I've never ever mentioned it before in any of my blog entries from either this blog or my original one. Well, except for a story of a cousin that visited the family almost a decade back. I just said she came from overseas.
Part of why I didn't mention it could be that I was born in Detroit and only visited Guadeloupe two or three times growing up. So for me Detroit was home. It was second home of course for my Mom and Dad.
So Dom and I talked about how Papa came into Detroit in 1957 to stay with his Uncle and Aunt. His Aunt was by blood and was his Mother's (my paternal Grandmother) sister. I know Papa's uncle as "Uncle". Dom asked me how Papa's Uncle and Aunt came into Detroit. It was only then that I realized that I had no idea. Can you believe I don't recall ever asking Papa about it?
I only remembered the stories Papa told about how "Uncle" was miserly with his money and how he was protective of his possessions. The most infamous story was how Papa needed to borrow Uncle's encyclopedia set for something he needed to do research on. He recalled how he didn't return some of the books right away and how upset his Uncle was. After returning it, one of the first things my Dad did when he got a job was save up to buy his own encyclopedia set from World Book. The set was from 1960. I knew this because when we were in school we used that same set for book reports. And yes this was in the mid to late 80's so a lot of the information was over 20 years old and a lot of it obsolete.
But I remember how proud Papa said he felt when he got his own set. It was a form of independence from Uncle.
Papa's Aunt died less than two years after Papa came to Detroit which left him devastated. It seemed that Uncle and Papa's relationship was a tumultuous one. I wonder if losing his Aunt played into that.
The only other story I remembered was how Uncle didn't trust banks and kept most of his cash in his mattress. There was even a story of how Uncle could've bought IBM stock and had he done so, perhaps they could've gained some wealth when the stock really started appreciated. Speaking of which I never knew that IBM originated from another company called CTR (Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company). The name was changed to what it's known as today in 1926. Interestingly enough I've been trading stocks for a number of years now myself (though I'm not really good at it...LOL).
Who I knew as "Grandma" was the daughter of Uncle and Aunt. I never knew Uncle since he died in 1977 when I was 5 years old. I only remembered him through the stories. Grandma also had a husband who passed away in 1978 and they did not have any children.
So I never knew Uncle's story. Was he even from "the islands" or was he actually American? What was his family life like? I feel bad that I never asked Papa about his Uncle's history. I asked Tasha and Trina and they didn't know either. Sadly a part of family history is lost forever though perhaps it may be revealed on the other side of life. Who knows? If I do I won't be able to tell yall...LOL.
I can only guess there must've been some opportunity that led his Uncle to Detroit. A lot of times folks move for opportunities. That's why I moved to Maryland for a brief spell and ultimately Chicagoland. So it was probably the same for Uncle.
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