NW Ohio was and is many different things to many different people. I grew up around families who had lived in the area since their ancestors first immigrated here from counties like Germany or France or Poland or England*, whose cousins, aunts and uncles, grandparents (and even great-grandparents, if they were still alive) lived down the street, or a few block away, or maybe 20 minute drive away in the nearest small town.
There were many people whose families were not among the first wave immigrants, of course. Most of them were white, although the town I spent the majority of my teens living in had a fairly substantial hispanic community as well.
Many of my high school friends ended up having a certain type of discussion with their parents about dating. A few were told, in no uncertain terms, that bringing home a black boyfriend would lead to them being disowned. Another friend got into trouble for wanting to attend prom with her boyfriend - her father has serious issues with his daughter dating someone who was hispanic. From what I can recall, she did attend prom...but not with him.
And then there were my parents. They didn't care, not even when the front door was firmly latched, the window shades were closed, and there was no-one outside of our immediate family to witness what they really thought about the idea of their daughter dating someone who wasn't white. They were just weird like that.
(Or at least I thought it was a little weird (albeit in a very good way) until I moved to Toronto where it's weird to have parents who do care about such things. But I'll save that for a future post. :) )
*Germany was probably the most common, though.
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3 comments:
if i could have found a black man in northwest ohio when i was 18, i might have married him just to show the world that i could! ha ha ha
Heh, I'd forgotten about that disagreement between you and Grandpa. :)
his point was that marriage is difficult enough without the huge cultural differences of marrying someone very unlike yourself. he thought the more alike you are, the better your chances of a successful marriage. i'm not sure if he's right, but i find it interesting that i married a german mennonite, and it's still working after 27 years. :D ha ha
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