I was lucky enough to have 3 moms. Charlotte, Barbara (Bobby), Dorothy. What’s funny about that is I don’t have a big family. Of the Tice family in which these fabulous women came from there were nine living children. Out of Nine, two sisters and a brother produced 3 children. My mom Charlotte was the product of Willy, Bobby was the product of Sara, and Dorothy was the product of Leola (T). My mom was the only one to have children.
One of my earliest memories of my moms was 4th of July, 1968. I was four years old. We lived in a two flat apartment building on the south side of Chicago. My family, consisting of Mom, Dad, my brother Gordon and me lived upstairs, my Grandmother lived downstairs.
All the men were downstairs and I don’t know why I was with them. but I was bored to tears and started wondering where my moms were. I went upstairs to our apartment and there they were all sitting around the kitchen table, Mommy Charlotte, my two additional mothers, Bobby and Dorothy, cousin Juanita and my Grandmother.
When I came in our cousin Juanita asked,
“Nora Girl, do you want to have your ears pierced? “
Of course I said yes.
So now they had a project.
They got the highchair out and sat me down. Juanita exclaimed she needed some ice to numb my ears,
“We don’t want to hurt her.”
So they numbed my ears with ice, then Juanita explain the process. They would stick a needle through my ear lobe, with string attached. I would keep the string in for a week, then straw for a week, and then I could finally have my earrings.
It kept everyone busy for about an hour, my mother gave me a bath and put me to bed.
As she tucked me in I longed to be in the kitchen with all my moms, my grandmother and my cousin, being apart of their conversation, but I was four and I had to go to bed.
I slept peacefully; not understanding how much love filled the air.
Two weeks later I had gold hoops in my ears.
5
4.5