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I am from the Sesame Street generation that inaugurated MTV, going from Fisher Price to Footloose and Barbie to the Breakfast Club.

I am from many houses, in many shapes, in many neighborhoods that all run together in my head until we moved into a house that I liked, with pink carpet in my very own room and a Mimosa tree right out front.

I am from the salt of the earth, a rose that blooms when no one else is looking.

I am from stuffy Sundays spent in church, from family reunions where we ate too much and knew too little; from a dad with many branches to his family tree and a mom who lost all but one, yet each one of them were strangers to me.

I am from martyrdom and self sacrifice in the name of religion, even though we all got buried under the crosses we wouldn't let anyone else bear.

From Jesus Loves the Little Children and "I'm just a bill" to "Beat It" and "We're Not Going to Take It."

I am from cartoon pages of Bloom County and a shelf of Stephen King novels.

I am from Southern Baptists who wouldn't dance, but could eat fried chicken and mashed potatoes like nobody's business.

I am from deep in the heart of Texas, a southern born Irish lass, who had Mrs. Bairds bread on the table for every meal, and begged for pineapple upside down cake for every birthday.

From a mother who was not allowed to play, but to work hard even from childhood, a father who helped pick cotton when he was just eleven years old. Where hard work and church took the place of true communication in my immediate family, and everyone kept big secrets to themselves.

I am from cardboard boxes full of cracked photographs; people whose history is lost to me because the generation that knew their stories are gone - faces of grandparents and aunts and uncles I never got to know because they died before I was born. The people I do remember are contained in tattered photo albums with yellowed edges and pages that don't stick anymore. Every time I thumb through I remind myself to tell my children what the stories are so the photos aren't just "things" but their very own links of where they're from.

Learn more about this author, Ginger Voight.
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