It's funny when you imagine your parents meeting, courting, getting engaged, married, the whole ritual of a man and woman connecting and making the committment to stay together til death do them part. I actually enjoy hearing stories of how my friends parents met. Then, they ask me. In the beginning I hesitated to tell people; however, as time has passed, I feel it has some relevance to how my life turned out.
My father (then 19 years old) was a GI in the Army and stationed in Germany in 1954. One night he went to a Gasthaus (like a restaurant/bar in America) and saw my mother. It was post WWII and most of the GI's were warned that German girls were trying to get married to Americans so they could get out of the country. There was my dad, an African American male reveling in the beauty of my mother's Aryan features, blonde hair, blue eyes, alabaster skin. He immediately fell in love, and tried to woo her. She would not give in, but he continued to frequent the Gasthaus leaving my mother good tips, hershey bars and Marlboro cigarettes. I forgot to mention, my dad was a miliary policeman. Since it was postwar, he carried his weapon (concealed) at all times. So, one night he went into the Gasthaus and sat down for his nightly meal of schnitzel, sauerkraut, dumplings, and a Lowenbrau beer. He noticed a GI harrassing my mother, when suddenly the man pulled out a gun and put it to my mother's head. Apparently this man wanted my mother to sleep with him. Most of the GI's had perceptions that the German women were easy. My father jumped up from his chair and approached the situation. He pulled his gun out and put it behind his back, and approached the other GI, who wasn't really paying attention. He put the gun in the mans back and asked him if she was really worth dying for. After just a few minutes the man relented and gave himself up.
From that time on, my father endeared himself to my mother, her daughter, and my grandmother. My mother had been raped by GI's at the age of 19 and my half-sister was the product of that. Nonetheless, my father took care of all of them and then my mother finally agreed to marry him. The military did not look kindly on this for three reasons. He was black, she was white, and he was in the military. Believe it or not, that was an issue then. It took quite some time to get permission from his superior officers, but again he was relentless. My parents were married an 1955 and one year later my mother became an American citizen.
Two years later, I was born.
My father (then 19 years old) was a GI in the Army and stationed in Germany in 1954. One night he went to a Gasthaus (like a restaurant/bar in America) and saw my mother. It was post WWII and most of the GI's were warned that German girls were trying to get married to Americans so they could get out of the country. There was my dad, an African American male reveling in the beauty of my mother's Aryan features, blonde hair, blue eyes, alabaster skin. He immediately fell in love, and tried to woo her. She would not give in, but he continued to frequent the Gasthaus leaving my mother good tips, hershey bars and Marlboro cigarettes. I forgot to mention, my dad was a miliary policeman. Since it was postwar, he carried his weapon (concealed) at all times. So, one night he went into the Gasthaus and sat down for his nightly meal of schnitzel, sauerkraut, dumplings, and a Lowenbrau beer. He noticed a GI harrassing my mother, when suddenly the man pulled out a gun and put it to my mother's head. Apparently this man wanted my mother to sleep with him. Most of the GI's had perceptions that the German women were easy. My father jumped up from his chair and approached the situation. He pulled his gun out and put it behind his back, and approached the other GI, who wasn't really paying attention. He put the gun in the mans back and asked him if she was really worth dying for. After just a few minutes the man relented and gave himself up.
From that time on, my father endeared himself to my mother, her daughter, and my grandmother. My mother had been raped by GI's at the age of 19 and my half-sister was the product of that. Nonetheless, my father took care of all of them and then my mother finally agreed to marry him. The military did not look kindly on this for three reasons. He was black, she was white, and he was in the military. Believe it or not, that was an issue then. It took quite some time to get permission from his superior officers, but again he was relentless. My parents were married an 1955 and one year later my mother became an American citizen.
Two years later, I was born.
