I'm Back

Well I'm back and its my birthday!!!!!
I got so pissed because my dad was so late to my house and we had to wait on him to light the candles. And then the bastard had the nerve to turn on the tv before we could even sing!! I asked hime was he watching anything and he told me about THE VILLAGE and a fight but not anything important. So then I reached around and unplugged the TV. Thats right!

Hey here is a cool article about my great grandma.

smooches
Freshgal


At 99, this elder has imparted a lot of wisdom
--------------------

Jemele Hill
SPORTS COMMENTARY

June 28, 2005

DUNDEE -- Her blue eyes still dance with mischief.

She still corrects her children, even though they have their own
grandchildren now. She still plays a mean version of W.C. Handy's "St.
Louis Blues" on the piano, touches her toes upon request and disciplines
her great-great grandchildren with a frosty look and upraised arm.

If this is life at 100 years old, we all need to sign up now.

If some of the Miami Dolphins are wondering why assistant defensive line
coach Travis Jones says things like, "every shut eye ain't sleep and
every goodbye ain't gone," it's because of his grandmother, Cecilia
Crawford.

Crawford is the woman who taught Jones, a former defensive lineman at
Georgia, so many life lessons he can hear her voice whenever he has to
make an important decision.

"She told me, 'You got a good head on your shoulders,' " said Jones,
whom Crawford gave the middle name 'Orlando,' because she liked the
city. "Don't allow other people, namely women, to influence you in any
way and get you off the beaten path."

Thankfully, she didn't feel that way about Jones' wife, Melody.

On Saturday, the family will gather in Lake Wales to commemorate
Crawford's 100th birthday -- even though it's officially not until July
25th.

"She was always the head of the family, whether she was married or not,"
Jones said. "She really kept everyone in line. She worked two or three
jobs at a time, trying to keep the family together, keep them fed and a
solid roof. She was a very strong woman."

Many of today's African-American families don't have matriarchs like
Crawford, who is the link to her family's history and culture. According
to the 2000 Census figures African Americans had the highest teen
pregnancy rate among all groups. That, coupled with the rising number of
single-parent homes, has wiped out the presence of elders.

And sadly, we lack a sense of history because of it. When Africans were
brought to America as slaves, the elders used story telling and oral
history as a way to keep the displaced peoples cognizant of their
culture and families. Since slaves were not permitted to read or write,
they couldn't exactly make their own history books.

"You don't always see those relationships in the black community," Jones
said. "You don't get generations of family like it should be.
Grandmothers are now 45 years old. I've been fortunate."

Crawford has passed the family history down to seven children, 31
grandchildren, 55 great-grandchildren and eight great-great
grandchildren. From Crawford, they learned of their Native American
heritage. She was born to full-blooded Native American parents in
Paducah, Ky., in 1905.

"You know what comes from Kentucky?" said Crawford, who moved to Florida
in 1935 with her late husband. "Fast horses and pretty women."

Crawford moved to Chicago as a teenager, where jazz musician Fate
Marable taught her to play piano for 50 cents a lesson. Marable had a
young phenom in his band named Louis Armstrong, whom Crawford met once
at a ball. While still a teenager, Crawford worked as a riverboat
pianist, playing tunes along the Ohio and Tennessee rivers for $15 a
performance.

"She's told us about President Roosevelt," said Crawford's daughter,
Tillie Travis Tomlin, one of Crawford's seven children. "She remembered
when social security came in. She told us there was a time when women
didn't smoke in public. She was in Chicago when John Dillinger was
killed."

It's one thing to read about history, another to have it right there in
your living room.

Asked why she thought she lived this long, Crawford said: "Because God
let me do it."

Surmising growing old just as well was 60 Minutes commentator Andy
Rooney, who said, "I didn't get old on purpose, it just happened. If
you're lucky, it could happen to you."



Copyright (c) 2005, Orlando Sentinel