I found out my loving, sweet, wonderful Grandpa was a high-up wizard in the Klu Klux Klan!!! He was a large part in planting the homesteading seed in me. Oh my God, skeletons in the closet!!!! He's been dead about 20 years now be its still a shock to find that out. Anyone else ever find out something they wish they didn't know?...Kirk

-- Anonymous, April 25, 2001

Answers

Well, nothing that interesting! I did find out that my dad had been married before he married my mom. I found that out at 33....and after he had been dead for some time. Mom said they didn't use to talk about that kind of stuff then (she married him in 1945.)

I always wondered if I had siblings out there that I never knew I had. I never got the details....Maybe you're my brother, Kirk!!!

-- Anonymous, April 25, 2001

Sheepish: I very well could be your brother!! That mean I can ask for a loan?....ha!!!....Kirk

-- Anonymous, April 25, 2001

Kirk, Don't let this skeleton destroy any of those memories of your grandpa, remember he was probably brainwashed wrong. With all the sweet thoughts that you have of him,he obviously planted some very good seeds. Try to concentrate on the produce of the good crop that he cultivated in you. In Love Tren

-- Anonymous, April 25, 2001

Let's see my quintessential kind sweet dear loving country gramma tried to drown my grampa in a wash tub.Guess she was mad at him! Watch out for angry women.

They and 11 kids almost starved to death in the drought year during the depression.

Some other things too,but those I won't go into.Let's just say the good old days weren't as pure as the driven snow like some want to think.It's just that things were kept under wraps.Mom started talking a few years back.Heard some shockers.

A geneological search was done on both sides of the family and interesting things do turn up.

Two first cousins married about 4 generations back.It was sparsely populated,so not a surprise.No brothers and sisters tho,thank goodness!

Gets interesting! They,like us, were human,too.

-- Anonymous, April 25, 2001

Aren't you glad we have had all these discussions about fear and love?? All the KKK stuff was so fear motivated and that mentality still is. His love and caring for you was obviously not affected by his fear in that area of his life. I found something out about my granny that floored me after she was dead, but that never changed that she loved me and influenced me more than anyone else in my life. She taught me about nature and walking softly on the earth. Once again we have to chose where we are going to focus, love or hate, fear or trust. I chose love and trust. take care

-- Anonymous, April 25, 2001

We live in an area where the KKK is still alive and well - one of the downsides of trying to escape civilization as we knew it. Kim had one particular encounter when she tried to discuss their philosophy! They threatened to burn us out that night - strange since we didn't give them our address! I would concur that they are brainwashed. You have a circle of friends that small and that closed-minded it's hard to be enlightened. Ignorance (maybe as in lack of education) plays a factor too. Fear, I don't know - it's kind of strange since the community here is about as anglo as you could get anywhere.

Anyway, there's good in everyone as well as bad, so you can concentrate on the good and blame the bad on something else!

-- Anonymous, April 25, 2001

If I was going to find something out, I'd just as soon they be dead already. Lord knows I hope I'm dead and gone before my kid finds out some of the stunts I pulled in the 70's. Ahhh - those were the years - just wish I could remember 'em!!

I've found out lots of things over the years, some while folks were still living, some after they'd passed on. I found it changed my perception of them a whole lot more if they were still living - after all, dead folks don't get another chance to change things or repent. I wouldn't waste a trip to piss on my maternal grandfather's grave - never could stand the man while he was living just from the stories about him. And the whole time I was growing up he was just a sickly old man who piddled around in his workshop making things out of wood - all his offensiveness was in the past; but since I knew about it, I couldn't see past it. If you already loved someone, it would make it a lot harder to hate them for something in the past - at least for me.

Racism lives and breathes in this area - everyone hates Blacks and Hispanics and won't go to no foreign doctor and all that horse-pucky. I recall one old great uncle going on and on with the N word. I leaned over and gave him a smooch on the cheek and said "I love you, but I really really hate that word - don't use it around me 'cause I want you to keep being my hero." Never heard it again. Told one backwards friend that I'd met a lot of asshole redneck hillbillies too, and it hadn't turned me against him, let alone all of 'em. (Heck, I'd have to disown my whole family in that case!) I've caught some crap about white people too - I said "Now, just tell me what in the heck I've ever done to you?" and "Don't you even think about lumping ME in with 'those people'." Told one patient "You need to spend some of that energy loving yourself instead of hating other people - you'd be amazed at the difference it makes."

-- Anonymous, April 25, 2001

Yer a feisty one Polly. Cool!

Its funny how the times change. I remember a conversation I overheard between my folks way back when. It was one of those family secrets I guess. My Great grampa Gordon was a Klan member I guess and this was in PA. I asked mom about it not too long after I heard about it and she wouldn't say anything about it but twenty years later I asked again and she fessed up, minimally.

Then there was the big family scandal about my grandma Ferguson, dads mom. It was always whispered about amongst the "adults" but the kids were kept in the dark. It wasn't until 4 or 5 yrs before her death that mom told me, after much prodding, that Grandma had been "living in sin" with her commonlaw hubby after dads birth father died in a coal mine accident. My response "Yeah? so whats the big deal?"

-- Anonymous, April 25, 2001

Polly perhaps you can start a new thread telling us what you did in the 70s!!!! Ha Ha...Kirk

-- Anonymous, April 26, 2001

Oh Kirk, maybe it should be what we all did in the 70's.....except I don't think people who know me now would even have a clue....just as well!!!

-- Anonymous, April 26, 2001

Great idea diane.You, Kirk and Polly go first tho.That way I'll be able to decide whether I will fess up or not!HA!

-- Anonymous, April 26, 2001

Here's an idea! Along with the 70s thread we all dig-up one old picture to post! Polly, Diane, Sharon then me. hows that sound?...Kirk

-- Anonymous, April 26, 2001

Wait - it's all coming back to me now......kind of hazy....(sniff, sniff) or maybe that's smoke...;o)

So, umm - do you want the stories about all the small controlled substances businessmen I helped to make successful, or the ones where I ruined guys for all other women?!

I'll see if I can find a photo from the bad old days and get the kid to scan and post it (no scanner at home). She just loves to look at my old yearbooks and giggle and snort. Brat! Love her bunches!

-- Anonymous, April 26, 2001

I have this feeling I was pretty tame compared to some of you -- ripsnorts! I'd like to read your stories though . . . .

-- Anonymous, April 26, 2001

Well Joy, there's still plenty of time! LOL (But really, why bother????)

As for me, I'm so grateful that I escaped my teens and twenties without a criminal history, mental illness (hmmm...*maybe* I escaped!) or any sexually-transmitted diseases. I would not consider a free-wheelin' lifestyle these days AT ALL!

I cannot imagine how life as a youth would be currently. I thought it was risky hitchhiking as a teen, and that was 30 years ago (didn't stop me from doing it, though.) I too, considered my body to be a veritable chemistry experiment, although I had a very healthy distaste for needles or most things that required use of sensitive nasal membranes for dosing...

I have wondered what would have happened if I had become a parent, knowing what I did and what I know now.

What about some of you other free spirits out there? How do/did you raise your kids? Did they all turn out like you?

Maybe we should start a new thread....

-- Anonymous, April 26, 2001

Thats the spirit Polly!!!!! Lets start a new thread in case some others want to come clean!....Kirk

-- Anonymous, April 27, 2001

O. K. Polly, you first.

-- Anonymous, April 27, 2001