family loyalty

Before I begin at my beginning I need to lay one more piece of pipe to my story...Douglas McArthur Parsons - my so called ‘retarded’ brother.
I have learned in life that “Perception is Reality”. What you believe is your ‘truth’.
My Mom and Dad never could perceive Dougy as anything but ‘retarded’. So that is how they treated him. Sadly, since that was the way he was treated - that’s how he acted. Truth is he wasn’t/isn’t/or-ever-will-be ‘retarded’. You see I have a different perception of him. (Confused yet?)

It is about time for a disclaimer. Most of my family’s story is oral history. I have tried to get at least two accounts of incidents. Things I could not confirm by a second witness I regard as lore and have not included it. Besides, could you make some of this stuff up?

My Grandfather, Hiram, is the only Grandparent I met. I saw him twice. The first time he didn’t acknowledge me; the second time he looked at me and said, “Who the h*ll are you?” Daddy proudly claimed me as his son. To which Hiram said, “Just so long as he isn’t mine.” Hiram died in 1965.

My mom and dad married each other on the rebound.

My mom (Nyla Myrtle Mathews) was unceremoniously dumped by her fiancé when he found out her mother (my Grandmother) was bi-racial. My Grandmother’s father was a freed slave and her mother was Cherokee. When that came up in conversation, my momma’s fiancé walked out on her.

My dad (Press Parsons) had been dating my mom’s younger sister for a couple of month’s when he met this sweet little girl for whom he fell head over heels. They planned to marry but her father put a stop to it. He said that daddy was nothing more than poor white trash and forbade her to marry him.

These two events occurred on the same day.