Hazel Langhorn

Humming the theme from Star Trek…….folks that know me have a hard time understanding my on going, never ending absolute love for Star Trek.  When it first aired, I was too young to stay up and watch it.  Back then kids had bedtimes and didn’t stay up all night during the school week. But thanks to re-runs…..my first love returned to my life.  My family tolerates that part of me.  Pooh will have to tell you about Mom’s reaction to us balled up on the couch watching Spock die for the 3 hundredth & eleventh time crying like babies.  lol Yes, we cried every time.

I am sure Jeannie’s memories of this adventure are a bit different then mine.    Well, this particular time…. Jeannie & Momma decided to pacify me by accompanying me & a group from the Klingon Armada International with friends to Las Vegas to stay In the Hilton & do the “Star Trek Experience”.  I was sooooo excited and it was sooooooooo hot.  Like little 8 year olds at 6 Flags we went through the  “Experience” and ran around to go back on…giggling and having a ball.  Mom went on to the slots and let us play.  One day…Mom was too through with me when we went downstairs to Quark’s…she was ready for lunch and I wanted a “Warp Core Breech”….you should see this thing!  It’s huge…served in a fish bowl and it actually smokes!  She & Jeannie went off to eat…while I drank to my heart’s content!  Of course, she made her statement about “drunks”.

But the highlight was when Momma & Jeannie put on the full Klingon regalia to accompany me!  I wore my Dax “Blood Oath” (my favourite episode) outfit and Jeannie wore the leather Klingon Battle uniform.  Momma wore Chancellor Azetbur…..blue velvet dress, blue velvet cape with a blue leather yoke, the braiding and proper necklace of office……..she looked stunning!  Their bumps (foreheads) looked great.  We made an awesome impression.  Three regal, magnificent Black women……ready to KA & TN!

I was so proud to have them with me! I loved every minute.

Words cannot express the joy I feel in my heart every time I re-live those moments.  You see……they did those things just for me….just to bring me happiness.  Maybe they never understood why I love it but they loved me enough to give me the experience….something just for me…only for me.

I bet my mother never realized that my attraction to the Klingons is based on the morals, values and virtues she tried to instil in us.

Qa pla!

Kikki - “Am I adopted?” 

 Mom - “WHAT!”

Kikki - “Am I adopted?”

 Mom - “Who told you that stupid sh*&?!”

Us – “OMG!  We’re going to die!”   “RUN!”

You see, we really didn’t mean any harm.  We didn’t.  But Kikki use to get on our nerves when we were little.  Let her be first……let her watch what she wants on tv…..that’s my baby….all those things were from Momma.  Since we couldn’t hit her.  We thought we’d get her back another way.  Let the truth be told….Dennis is the one who started the story. 

It kinda goes like this…..

“You’re not our sister and Momma’s not your Momma!”

“Yes, I’m am”

“No, you’re not.  The police found you in a sewer.  The rats were chewin’ your toes off.  You were stinkin’ & dirty.  You didn’t have nuthin’ ta eat either.”

“Uh huh”

“Yes, you was too!  You was thrown away and the police heard about how nice Momma was and that she had some good kids.  So, we told Momma to let you come live us.”

Crying…crying …saying through tears “Uh huh, I’m am too ya’lls sister”

“No, you’re not!  We’re going to have Momma give you back!”

“No! No!  I’ll be good. I promise! No! No!” Kikki says through tears

“Well, first you better promise not to tell Momma.  She didn’t want you to know.  Promise?”

“I promise”

We tortured Kikki for a while with that story.  But when Momma finally found out…she snapped.  I don’t remember getting a whopping for that one.  But don’t worry….Kikki paid us all back over the years for that torture!  Lol

And when all was said and done I went to Momma and told her to tell us the truth……..Gigi was the one that had a different daddy.  Momma didn’t think it was funny.

But that’s another memory by itself..lol.

When you are a child you just grow up not thinking about creating memories, you're just being a child. As you get older you find joy in your childhood memories that didn't seem like joy at the time. I have a lot of those, some early on and some a little later. One of my earliest involved the first and only whoopin I ever got from my dad. Here goes....

We lived across the street from some really poor people (mind you, so were we but we didn't know it). It was a larger family in a really small house (so was ours but again, we didn't know it). There was a boy who lived in that house and he was really bad. Real bad. He wasn't so cute he was just bad so as a child I thought he was bad and ugly.

My parents always tried to keep the peace with our neighbors. My mom just recently told me that her and Mrs. Watson have been neighbors for over 50 years and they have never had a cross word. Anyway, this bad boy from across the street was picking on me one day....remember pickin on , I don't even know what that means now but me and him got into a fight. Now i was probably 5 or 6 years old and my daddy came outside to see what this crazy commotiom was about. Back then you screamed and cried while you was fightin. He bought me into the house laid me across his lap and spanked my behind for fighting while telling me you don't fight boys.

Now I'm all confused because I thought I was told to stand up for myself so what was I supposed to do when he was "pickin" on me. As if being confused wasn't enough when he spanked me (maybe three or four swats) I peed all over his big sized 84 bib overalls Now you would think I'm crying, confused , wet and my butt hurts and that should be it but noooo, my daddy went into the bedroom, took those big gigantic overalls off, gave them to me, took me to the bathroom, ran water into the bathtub, got the washboard and made me scrub them humongous things on that washboard while tears ran down my face.

Momma must have ben at work because when she came home she was so mad at daddy for spanking me. I know she knew the only thing he hurt was my feelings but she had no problem standing up for my feelings. (As I see it now).

She gave me a soda bottle and I went to Adas and got me some its. (penny candy) and again Mom made it all okay. I never forgot.

It was 30 years ago today at 5:17am my first child was born.  Boy, was it hard.  Nothing like it is today.  I believe god wanted women to suffer thru labor and I suffered thru 24 hours of hard labor, dialated to 10,  water broke and due to heart distress of me & baby I had to have a c-section. Can't leave out the part that I was in the hospital 14 days afterwards with fever.  Was sent home with an actual staple puller and it was almost 6 years before I decided to try it again.

I'm sharing this story because without my mom we would have never made it.  She was right by my side carrying me and without her I don't think that him or I would be here today. 

My sisters are great at mothering and even though I think but I know that I'm not the baby of the family they all baby me like I am and they are carrying me.  So to my sisters that I wouldn't trade for anything in the world.  Thank-you for being here for me!  I have so much to be thankful for.

Bits & pieces…glimpses into our past & hearts

I remember sitting on the front porch steps gazing into the stars and Mom telling us the story of how the Big Dipper appeared in the night sky.  It was a sad story of a little girl carrying water to her dying mother.  Every time I spy the Big  & Little Dippers, I remember that story.

Mom used Royal Crown on our heads.    It came in a red can.  It would sizzle when she pressed our hair.  Sometimes we used it on our knees & legs to deal with the ashy husk..lol.  We even used it to shine our black Mary Janes.  Our hair was washed in Prell…it was the prettiest green color. I wonder if they still make it.  I use to dread the line up for getting our hair done…ugh!  Plus I was tender headed in the top and Mom was heavy handed.  She combed our heads every morning before we went off to McKinley and she could french braid so pretty.  Marcia, Jeannie & Gigi picked that up from her.  I still can’t do a nice job to this day. 

I can’t remember if it was me or Jeannie that crawled up under the bed and got our top braid caught in the spring that held the box springs.  Whichever one of us it was…we were really little.   Mom to the rescue…she cut the entire braid off.  It’s in one of our baby books.

Speaking of those beds…there was another time when we got in trouble.  The beds had a steel frame.  Well, our floors were linoleum.  If you dragged the mop through the hallway into the room, you could make a slippery slide.  You know….run…hit the wet spot and swoosh.  Well, Jeannie hit the wet spot and swoooooooooooooshed ……under the bed & hit her forehead on that steel frame and popped it wide open.  She carried that scar for a long time.  Momma dared us to entertain ourselves like that again.

Noxzema cold cream is what Mom used on her face.  I wonder if it really helped keep the wrinkles away.  Her face never looked like the face of others her age.  Gosh, I hope I inherit that youthful appreance.  But thus far, all of us seem to be losing the grey hair fight!  My eyebrows & eyelashes are even white!  Mom’s hair didn’t grey until recently.  I guess we took the white hair stuff from daddy’s side of the family.

Fingernails…..Mom always had long hard nails.  But once she started keeping her hands in water they could become brittle. 

One time Mom decided to make sauerkraut.  She had us shred a gazillion, bajillion heads of cabbage.  She bought a huge plastic garbage can and we salted the stuff down.  We let it ferment & then put it in mason jars.  OMG!  We did something wrong in the process because it went bad and when I say bad …I mean BAD!  It turned out to be some of the most vile, foul smelling stuff I have ever had weft through my nose.

Do ya’ll remember when Mom use to collect cats?  We forced her to do it if you think back.  We use to do our shopping at Ada’s (Trapps) the store around the corner on Second Street that we loved because of the penny candy..  Miss Ada had a son named Donny and her husband could hardly talk because he’d been shot in the throat during a robbery.  Well, anyway…we use to take our Christmas shopping money and go shopping at Ada’s.  She had a display case with costume jewelery in the front.  But on the back wall were shelves with figurines.  We always got cats…until we were old enough to go downtown.  Back then Mom use to have a Coke every night.  She use to like Cherry Coke, too.  In the 80’s she switched to Pepsi…I don’t remember why.

Mom gave away bamagaes. (That’s a real inside story)  lol  have Gigi act it out for you.

We were working a project in the house and Momma sent Tiny  (Mary Ann Crowder) to Ed’s store on the corner of Webster and Second Streets.  Tiny came back and said, “Aunt Hazel, they ain’t got none”.  Mom sent one of us to get what she wanted and we came back with it.  Mom said, ‘I thought you said they didn’t have any!”  Tiny replied, “They said they ain’t got no crackle lacks”.  Mom said, “I told you to get CARPET TACKS not no damn CRACKLE LACKS!”  That story brings a smile to my face every time I think of it.  They are both gone and I have some wonderfully fond memories of Tiny too.

Stay tuned for the next series of “Bits & Pieces”