My Family of Origin

Where Our Family Came From:

I am a mix of Irish, Scottish and Dutch decedents. On mom's side of the family our tree was traced back to three brothers that came over from Ireland in the 1600's. They settled in the low country of South Carolina. Two of the brothers moved from the low country to the area that later became known as Spartanburg. On my dad's side the tree goes back to a Irish Scottish descent. There has been several attempts to do a family tree, but it really never got off the ground. I remember my grandmother talking about the spelling of our last name changing after our ancestors settled in this country. some of the family says that there was two groups that came to the new world at the same time. One family stayed in South Carolina and the other went north to what is known as Virginia today.







My Immediate Family Members:

There was only three members of my immediate family. There was my mom and dad and they were married for five years before I came along. I have no brothers or sisters, so I was the only shot at carrying the name sake on that is connected to my dad. My wife and I have seven children. We have four daughters and three sons. So I believe that the name sake will live another generation or more.






Where I Lived and Grew-up:

I lived in Spartanburg till I was three years old. Dad got transferred to Morristown and that is where I grew up. I lived on the east side of Hamblen county for all of my childhood and teenage years. When I played ball it was teams that represented the east side of the county. I remember that there was a big rival between both sides of town. The west side of town was where most of the rich people in Hamblen county lived, but it was also where most of the blacks lived. There was a lot of racial tension between the east side of town and the west side of town. My sophomore year in high school the school board wanted to build a mega high school and combined both schools. That did not set well with the students and to protest this move all the students from East High walked out of school and down the middle of the main highway. It was pretty cool to see all the students band together to make a point. That was nearly thirty-three years ago and there is still two high schools and no mega school, I lived in Morristown till I was in my thirty's and now live close to North Carolina, but in Tennessee.


My Heritage

I really don't know how to pin point our family heritage. I would say the biggest thing that has been pass down from mom's side of the family would have to be the fact that most family members have very curly hair. This trait was pass along to our daughter, so the heritage of curly hair will carry along for at least one more generation. Other things that might fall in the heritage category in our family would have to be the fact that my grandfather and great grandfather were known as the king of moonshine in Spartanburg county. When my grandmother was still alive we use to have big family dinners around Thanksgiving and sometime in the spring and all my family on mom's side would get together and fellowship. The one piece of heritage that came from dad's side would have to be the fact that dad and his brother are great in woodworking. It doesn't seem like there is much heritage in our family, but you get outside the immediate members and there is not much communication between each other.

http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/

I found this web page loaded with all kinds of information on world heritage. The map on this page was interesting with what they had listed as a area with world heritage value.



My Cultures

Most of my cultures come out the south. I love southern cooking such barbeque, fried potatoes, and apple pies. We live in the bible belt, so mom and dad made sure I grew up in church. I would consider playing baseball and football as part of my culture. Hunting and fishing is a part of the southern culture that I love. Part of the culture that most southern raised citizens have is our own way of saying certain words. Outside of the typical southern culture that I was raised with, I believe that part of my culture came from music. The type of music that I grew-up listen too and loved was hard and heavy metal music. This was not typical southern raised music.


Question:

Now that we have looked at our family and discussed some of our heritage, culture, and places growing-up, lets think about this question.
How much does heritage, culture and where we live play in how we look at things as we get older?


   

My early years

I was born on October 18, 1965 in Spartanburg, South Carolina. There has not been to many stories told about my birth. The one thing that has always been told was the fact that my mother was not suppose to be able to get pregnant. Well guess what, the doctor was wrong. Around 4:00 on the morning of October 18 I appeared. There was a happy couple on that day in Spartanburg.



       



         Spartanburg General 
    

                                                                 

      

According to my mom, I was around 14-15 months when I began to walk. She said that there was really no stories about me beginning to walk. The one story that she did tell me about was when I started to crawled. We lived on a dead end street in Spartanburg and mom said that she was outside hanging clothes on the clothes line. She had left me laying on a blanket and when she turned around I had crawled out into the road. I guess I'm lucky that it was a dead end road and was during the 60's, because today a parent would go to jail for that.

Mom said that I was slow when it came to talking. She did say that when I started I did not know when to be quiet. Mom said that I was about 11-12 months old when I started talking. Mom said that we would go to my grandmothers house and she would ask if I was ever going to talk, but after I started talking my grandmother would say that she wished I would be quiet for awhile. I laugh about it today, because my wife says that I never met a stranger.

                      MY BEST CHILDHOOD MEMORY

 

There were two memories that stuck out in my mind when seen the question about the best childhood memory. The first would have to be the time dad and I was fishing on Cherokee lake and I caught a 12 pound rock fish. I was 10 years old when I caught that fish. Fishing was the one thing that my dad and I did all the time. It seem like we went every weekend and after he got off work during the week. The other memory that I calm as rating the best was when we won the state little league tournament. That happen when I was 11 years old. I played catcher and was a pitcher on that team. 

 

Most common first childhood memory

 

I thought that this was funny, because I didn't want to remember my trips to the dentist.




                    MY WORST CHILDHOOD MEMORY

The worst childhood memory that I can recall is the death of my dog. I had this dog for around nine years when it was killed by another dog. This dog was my best friend and went everywhere I went in the neighborhood. As kids we had a little gang that roamed all over the neighborhood and my dog was the mascot. I was about 11 years old when he was attacked by a bigger dog and was killed.

   

 

 

 

 

 

                  
                MY EARLIEST CHILDHOOD MEMORY

The earliest memory of my childhood that I can remember is when I was about 3 years old and we lived in Spartanburg. I remember playing outside with our next door neighbor's son. He was the same age that I was and I do remember his name. I often wonder what is doing and where he is living.



Question:

How would my life be different if we had stayed in Spartanburg my entire childhood?