Friday, February 01, 2013

Freedom To Be Me...

When I started this blog a few years ago it was because I had been freed from the bondage of my past, thus the name: Free To Be Me. But I was still bound by rules, rules of my parents, formed by rules of the church, that I've always been a member of and love. In my last blog here I said I'd be writing more about new feelings and beliefs and rules. However, this has been life changing and I discovered it's too big a topic to cover in one posting. I began writing, in my newer blog, about Adapting to Change: Dance; Movies, Technology and there'll be more coming. These can be read on http://allinthedayofme.com I hope you'll go over and read them, because they've been life changing for me. What a difference freedom makes!

My sister, Lorraine, and I used to talk about the rules we grew up with. It was freeing, for both of us, to talk about them. They were rules put on our parents by our church. They believed they were doing the right thing. Lorraine resented them more than I did, probably because she was a couple years older then I and because of our personalities.


We both had long hair and so did our mother. Mother's hair was so long she could sit on it! She braided it in two long braids and wrapped them around her head. Oh...well, I think she was beautiful!

Lorraine and I had long braids that hung down our backs. I was eight in this picture. You can see my braids going down my back. We lived in Covington, Oklahoma. Lorraine wanted her hair cut like her friend's hair. She begged Mother to cut her hair. One of Lorraine's vivid memories of our childhood was Mother saying, "I hope the Lord will forgive me for this." Then she cut Lorraine's hair! Well, Lorraine never got over that statement.

In the early 50's Mother was having headaches and wondered if it could be her long hair. It was very thick and heavy. We were living at Elk Run Heights, very near Waterloo, Iowa. I remember one morning she went by bus to visit a friend in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. When she returned that evening her braids were gone! She looked altogether different to us. My younger brother, Billy, was very upset. She just didn't look like our mother!

There were so many rules put on us. It was such a negative time of our lives but even so I have wonderful memories of my childhood. Thank goodness those legalistic years are gone now. I'll be writing more about these changes in the days to come, both here and on allinthedayofme.com.