Family

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I remember growing up in one of the toughest barrios in Albq,,, south Broadway area. They called me the Wedo from the ghetto....lol.
We were taught not to go sticking out your hand for charity, but get off you butt and go earn it. We were taught Pride in oneself and keep yourself clean. We Never got an allowance, cause my Dad was almost never there and my poor Momma worked as a waitress for next to nothing to raise her 6 kids. I mowed and raked yards, picked up trash and leaves since I was 10 make a buck. I also knew what prejudice was because we were one of the few white people living there, but let me add that those who hated us were a small minority who were taught stupid things about whites. Other than my family, All of my friends were Hispanics or Blacks. We all seem to have especially embraced the Latino people and their culture because all of my brothers and sisters married Hispanics and most of our children are coyotes.
We were so poor that the places we lived in, the bandito roach gangs would pull switchblades on the mice and take their cheese...lol.
When I graduated AHS (old school) it was my dream to get a job making $125.00 a wk, cause you could live gooood with that kind of money. Heck a coke was a nickel, a cheeseburger @ McDonalds was a dime, and the movies @ the Kimo were a quarter, or a $1.00 a carload at the drive in movies like the Cactus, the Terrace or the Duke City. But we mostly walked everywhere we went because gas was quarter a gallon, and a quart of bulk oil was 10 cents and we had to borrow an Uncle's jalopy car and fill it up with gas to go anywhere. They had the kind of car that had the doors wired shut with bailing wire or paint splotches all over the seat covers...... wow, and they burned as much oil as they did gas.
My how things have changed, but it is important to remember that we knew we were poor but we never FELT poor, for we had our FAMILY and many friends of all races to stand with us. And #1, we were taught that GOD LOVES US AND He always had our backs... and that's how it was folks!

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