MY INTERCULTURAL JOURNEY

My parents exposed me to many different cultures while in the home. These intercultural exposures continued throughout my adulthood. 

When returning to art college after 42 years and was asked at the beginning of the first semester to post twenty inspirational images of ceramic art on my wall that I would like to eventually make, I found myself posting many different kinds of pottery from all around the world. I couldn't settle on any one culture.

I was born in a very small town in Michigan in 1958 to Caucasian parents, although on my mother’s side we were told to just write the word caucasian down when asked, because she came from so many mixed races. Her people came in with the Pilgrims and were from  Scandinavia, Germany, Europe, Spain, Caucasian Mountain’s, Persia, Russia, Mongolia and Asia. According to the genealogy center in Sandersville Georgia we also have Native American in us as well, on my mothers side. My mother had the most beautiful black wavy hair that sun couldn't penetrate, olive skin and black eyes. Her mother and great grandmother too had her olive skin, black hair and black eyes. My dad added to the mix his European, Dutch, Jewish, Greek, Irish and Scottish lineage, but he had blond hair, was very light skinned with the clearest blue eyes like his mothers. 

At the age of three I dreamed of being a potter making enormous pots for the Almighty. I daydreamed frequently as a child making two massive pots on each side of His throne. We were not a religious family so I don't recall where these daydreams or images in my mind came from. My mother took us to the Episcopal church 45 minutes away on the weekends though.

When I lived in Michigan, our house sat high on the banks overlooking a very large spring fed lake below. Clay oozed from the banks of the lake. The Potawatomi Indian tribe lived on a reservation close to our town. I would find remnants of old pottery around the lake. It wasn’t uncommon to see an Indian Chief dressed straight out of the 1800's, head dress and all, sitting downtown on main street watching as the cars went by. My father frequently pulled out a large box of arrowheads he had found not to far from our house when he was a kid gardening. He owned the main auto parts store in town. In the store were remnants pf his fathers jewelry and watch engraving business in a large glass case. I loved the turquoise bracelets, earrings, and necklaces made by the Indians. My grandfather had purchased these to sell years before. 

  

A black woman named Leneta, worked for my parents until her passing when I was 14. She had graduated school with my father in Michigan and he created a job for her, working for us. I saw Leneta as my second mother.I remember waiting by the door in the morning for her arrival.  I have many fond memories of all the things she taught me as a child and of us dancing about singing black spirituals, and eating soul food. At the end of each day her husband Frank came over in his 1940’s pickup truck to get her. It became a ritual to pile into Frank’s truck with my three siblings and listen to all the stories of his ancestors; their triumphs, tragedies and hardships. I heard many slavery stories and wondered if I had lived during that time would I have been part of the Underground Railroad smuggling Leneta and Franks ancestors to their freedom?

 

As early as I can remember my mother took my three siblings and I to the local World Bazaar store. I was my favorite shop. I could live in there looking at all the things and I dreamed of far away places where they were made. The blue and white Japanese pottery caught my eye early in my youth, as did the pin cushions from China that were encircled by little people. I loved the blue landscape scenes, birds in branches, bonsai trees and lettering against the white porcelain on the vases. 

My Dutch paternal grandparents lived close to us and frequented Holland Michigan bringing us back Delft pottery, wooden shoes and tulip bulbs. 

When arriving home after school I have many memories of Swan Lake and other classical music playing loudly throughout the home. It was a treat to come home to. The music shifted to the Big Band era when my father came home. 

My town had once been a booming place for many famous big bands in its day my father said. Lots of  famous singers autographs graced my fathers office and old hotels and ballrooms stood empty around the lake and were telltale signs of another era.

 

Before I reached Junior high I remember my diet was mostly Mediterranean, Chinese and soul food. My closest friends family were French and another girlfriend was from the local tribe so I ate their food whenever I visited. 

While at home we had lots of lamb, fried fish, latkes, collard greens, spinach, dandelion greens, black-eyed peas, cornbread, sweet potatoes, sweet and sour chicken, dumplings, lo main, chow mien,and fortune cookies my all time favorite dessert. My all time favorite food where cheese blintzes  I had a hard time finding many of these these foods in the public school cafeteria. I seemed to settled upon the black-eyed peas and picked spinach while at school, 

My older sister had acquired two Japanese penpals before I entered jr high. I enjoyed seeing the Japanese letters and gifts they sent my sister. My maternal grandparents wanted to get in on the excitement and bought my sister a set of  dolls from every country in the world.

 

At the age of 14 my family, along with my paternal Dutch grandparents picked up roots from Michigan and we all moved together to my mothers native homeland in Florida. We moved into a Frank Lloyd Wright design home in Sarasota. The home was equipped with a Japanese tile roof, Japanese gardens, a large lanai on the back of the home, bamboo lining the walkways along the side of the house and a koi pond. The inside had fake rice paper sliding panels throughout most of the main area. Upon arrival my mother planted a pink floss tree overlooking the canal that looked like a huge bonsai tree and bought two lion dog statues placing them at the front door entryway of the house to guard it. 

My favorite part of the house was the main shower. A sliding glass door in the shower led to a very private small Japanese garden with fake rice paper panels that kept any peeping Tom from looking in at you when taking a shower.

 

When we arrived in Sarasota I was quickly accepted into a local peer group of school friends. I never understood why they accepted me along with a few other friends, because they were the brainiacs of my entire class and we three were only average in academics. A close friend in that group was James a Chinese boy that lived only an 1/8 of a mile away from me. Our group spent many days on the beach playing volleyball, water football when not in school, and at each other’s home’s, or racing our bikes along the canal in pitch darkness after watching a Godzilla movie. 

My maternal grandparents had made a trip to Hawaii when I was about 8 years old and befriended a Hawaiian couple, Mr and Mrs Pike. 

My maternal grandparents lived only a few hours away in Orlando and had a rustic home on the Banana River in Cape Canerval Florida where my grandfather net fished on the weekends. 

Mr and Mrs Pike made frequent trips to my grandparents home in Orlando and to our home on Siesta Key during my teenage years until their passing in my early twenties. I have fond memories of us all sitting around singing Tiny Bubbles and other Hawaiian songs while Mr Pike played his ukalay and we munched on the macadamia nuts they brought that were packaged in long tubes.

 

At the age of 16 I made an attempt to learn the bagpipes in my band class so I could play during football games while the Scottish Highland dancers danced. It was very short lived though when I realized it required a lot of wind. I quickly went back to my piano, organ, flute and piccolo. 

By 16 I had joined a local and the high school swim team as a spring board diver. 

I took French in high school at 16.

It came in handy when the entire swim team was invited to St Croix Virgin Islands to swim against their school team. I stayed two weeks with a French speaking family on the island and ate French foods while touring the island between swim practices. 

It was around my late teens that I realized my parents had exposed us to many different cultures. 

My older sister began dating a man from France several years.

I declined a marriage proposal from a black friend from Jamaica, only because I was too young. Two years later after a dramatic experience,  I quit my art college and moved out west with another boy who I met at art college, to raise a family. His fathers family was of Scotland descent.

After getting married, I sadly put away my Chinese, Soul food, and Mediterranean diet, exchanging it for the all American diet that he liked and his mother had cooked for him when he grew up. Every once in a while I got a taste of my roots again when we went to the local Chinese restaurant, Mediterranean restaurant or my black friends home for a visit.

My older sister traded in her French man, settling for a Russian Jewish man. They took part of her honeymoon in Japan and from that point forward they were in Japan annually. She brought back many Japanese foods for us to sample and I added seaweeds to my diet whenever I could. My then husbands brother married a girl from Columbia. She brought a flair to our Christmas festivities when she'd have us all singing Feliz Navidad while eating foods from Columbia.

My husband's uncle always had to show up in his Scottish kilt for all the festivities.

I found my roots in my garden, and  I planted Japanese black pine trees across our property, a wide array of asian veggies and black eyes peas, along with the conventional veggies.  

 

Halfway through my marriage I joined a local speed skating team for 20 years. We had three coaches, but our longest speed skate coach was a man named Hernan who was a world class master inline speed skater from Colombia. The skating parties always included many Colombian foods. 

Twenty years into my marriage my husband and I launched a soap business from my hobby and took my organic farm hobby to a larger scale. I was growing many Asian vegetables by then, along with conventional fruits and veggies, We sold our organic soaps and organic produce at many markets. I was exposed to so many different cultures of people who bought from us. I started developing a line of soaps and bath care products for black women, Middle Eastern women, and Caucasian women. We were in over 26 grocery and health food stores around the US for ten years.

After 30 years my marriage failed, and my two minor children and I were thrust into a large domestic violence shelter that was largely all black women and their children. The day we entered the shelter my daughter and my our long hair was corn rowed and we dressed in bling. We remained there in community living two and a half years while we healed and sought out wise counsel. I felt like I was returning to some of my roots. We continued our speed skating classes with our Columbia skate coach weekly while in the shelter.

I home schooled my children a total of 33 years. My two youngest children and I joined a local synagogue for ten years and we all learned Hebrew in song.  

We attended an outreach program after leaving the shelter that lasted until only a few years ago. My counselor who is a black woman is now my closest friend.

 

My life change brought me back to college at the age of 62. When I found out the college had Asian study classes I found myself wanting to find out more about  Japanese and Asian culture. 

I realize that I have been exposed to many foreign cultures. These make up who I am today.

 

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