So I’m at work today and an older gentleman comes up to my register and says “You don’t remember me do you?” So I’m looking at him with a grin on my face because I’m waiting on him to say GOTCHA! or something. Since I work at a truck stop, I get a lot of truckers that try to play pranks on the cashiers just to pass time lol and I’m thinking he’s one of these folks. But in my most polite voice, cuz you know you have to keep that A+ customer service, I tell say to him “Excuse me”. And he’s like “After last week when you helped me (i don’t remember helping him) I did some digging and I found out that I’m your uncle” and he’s grinning from ear to ear. By now I’m giving him a strange ass look and in my mind I’m thinking ok my maternal grandparents had 8 kids and I know them all unless my grandfather got around more than I realized. But then again it’s still possible because my fathers side of the family is foreign to me until recently…I’ll tell you more about that in a min. So I ask the man “um who’s brother are you?” And he says to me “I’m Clarences brother”….and that puts a WTF look on my face because I have no clue who Clarence is. I guess he read the look because he said “you don’t know Clarence?” and I’m like “no sir” and he’s like “oh I must have the wrong person then I’m sorry” and he leaves me standing there wondering what the hell that was. Apparently my supervisor was wondering the same thing because she was like “Koko what was that about” I tell her and we laugh at the strange shit that happens to us.
And that had me thinking about my relationship or lack thereof with my father’s side of the family. He passed when I was very young and I only have a few memories of him. He was a much older gentleman and to this day I couldn’t tell you exactly how old he was. I just know he was more than twice my moms age when I was born. I know my moms dad always said “I’ll be doggone if that man is younger than me!”…so I’m left to assume my pops was very old. lol I’ve recently learned he was married about 3 or 4 times and had kids with all of his wives. So he had probably about 10 kids with me being the last youngest.
I’ve always known I had a lot of siblings on his side, but I didn’t remember the few I actually met when I was a kid. It wasn’t until recently that I finally said it’s time I met my family on his side, so 2 summers ago I took a trip down to Mississippi and met 3 of my sisters and 1 of my brothers. I was then told I had 3 other sisters and 1 brother I still didn’t know. Two of my sisters are older than my mom. Crazy huh?
I was suppose to go back down there this summer for a family reunion that my fathers sister wanted to have so I could meet the rest of my family. However not many people responded so I don’t think it’s going to happen. When I called my Aunt to inquire about the family reunion she informed me that I had 2 sisters right here in Michigan with me and gave me their number. She also made the comment that she could meet me on the street and wouldn’t know I was her niece and she didn’t like that. I don’t like it either.
I’m glad I’ve been taking an active role in meeting my family. I will meet 2 of my sisters the beginning of May and I’m honestly looking forward to it. Apparently I have a niece that’s the same age as me, how cool is that? I’ve met a few already so 4 down and only Yah knows how many more! But I’ll keep you posted…
Peace!
It amazes me how people sometimes take other people for granted. We sometimes get so consumed in our own personal trials and tribulations that we rarely stop to take a moment to just breathe and take in what’s going on around us. We miss the fact that we aren’t the only ones with a lot going on and the very people that are closest to us are going through it too. I’m sure that I’ve been guilty of this numerous times, but I just got a very cold splash of reality that I almost let get to me. But I made myself stop before I blew up and I assessed the situation. The conclusion I came up with is that “now I know”. I didn’t know the rules to the game and now I do. Guess it’s my fault for having an “individual instrumental purpose & exchange” mentality, clearly I need to grow up. Reality is bitch, and I’m going to stop taking her for granted.
I don’t understand why people choose to test you when good stuff starts happening. I was offered a management position and now all of a sudden another manager seems to have an issue with me. Clearly I have my ideas of why I think this is coming up suddenly, but I just don’t want to focus on the negativity of that realization. Instead I’ll just keep on keeping on towards the management position and hope that all of the other crap that’s starting…stops.