Latest Stories
Most recently published stories in Families.
The Joke
A Practical Joke Frank Williams was a millionaire several times over, but if you met him on the street, you never would have guessed. His taste in attire ran to blue jeans, a well-washed cowboy shirt, and a woven straw hat with a soiled sweatband. His belly did attest to the fact that he ate well, but then some folks bulged with much poorer fare.
By Ramona Scarborough5 years ago in Families
The Gift of a Life
I will not claim to have any sort of grand plan cooked up to better myself. I stopped taking resolutions seriously years ago. They never seem to work for me, or anyone in my vicinity. Even the idea of making resolutions just because it is a new calendar year feels like an annual setup. You make goals, put a bunch of energy into them, crash, fail, and spend the rest of the year thinking about how much better your life would be if you just met those goals. And after the year I have had, that we all have, it felt empty and silly to force any sort of lifestyle change just because humans habitually mark time.
By Katie Moll5 years ago in Families
The Legacy
My mother used to say, “Bad luck always comes in threes.” As I stood in her empty bedroom thinking about the last two months, she could not have been more right. My husband had injured his back at work over a month ago and was suffering while waiting for surgery to be scheduled. My hours at work had been reduced due to the economic downturn, and we were scraping by on his meager disability payments and my pathetic paycheck. Worst of all, Mom was gone.
By Penny Harding5 years ago in Families
From Different Worlds
Returning home never crossed the young woman’s mind, watching the trees pass by in such a hurry, seemingly creating an everlasting blur. Recalling the memories of her old life made the woman uneasy. Spending years to get away from that only to have to come back after all this time.
By Just Fantasy5 years ago in Families
Black families need to start talking at the dinner table.
I guess for me this not just a learned experience, I needed to make some quick income. This not only forced my hand but, made me try things I normally would not do. I did not have a lot of money so, I had to be smart about how I spent it. Learning to invest in stocks are a bit difficult for most black people. I guess because we didn't talk about it at the dinner table. Hey, like life insurance. We just did not know about term insurance. I plan to write about that later on in another story. Learning about stocks have been real interesting though. Most blacks don't know much about stocks either. The most well known black man I knew that knows about stocks is Mr. William Payne of FOX Business. He is found at (www.foxbusiness.com) On air he states he made most of his net worth from learning how to invest in the markets. What a gamble it is at times. I started out using apps. The apps made it easier because, it would separate each stock by industries. That made easy to keep up with. Learning how the stocks move up or down was very important too. This is what you have to balance out so you know which stock to invest in and how much and how long you hold on to the stock. Sometimes you needed to take it easy and buy in small amounts and sometimes buy in larger, more aggressive amounts. Thank goodness, the apps today allows you to buy much smaller amounts. My favorite one today is Stash. This is found at (www.stash.com). It let's you buy small pieces of stock like for .25 cents or so. This let's you buy more stocks so you can eye out the ones that are important to you. Some of the other apps are Robin Hood, or Acorn. They are found at (www.RobinHood.com and www.Acorn.com). Nearly all the apps let you invite people and split either stocks or funds with you and the one you bring in but Stash, goes a bit further. They have Stash Parties, where they give out free stocks to people that just log in during the Stash party time. Nearly all the apps today will help you learn to invest, I just think this app is going the extra mile in serving the customer. I think black people and other minorities have really missed the bus with investing. Learning the power of 72 or compound interest. That was a life changer to me. I learned you could start late in life and still achieve your goals in life. I think black families need to start talking about these things at the dinner table as a family to strengthen our resolve to this particular problem. Learning how to invest and how to save money will go a long way with black families setting up their financial futures. Because we as a people have gotten away down home teachings were we are going through what our ignorance have allowed us to go through. The good thing is, we can fix this. All of this will start when we start black families start back talking at the dinner table. Most minorities didn't know about what type of companies we should have even been dealing with. When it comes to insurance, banks, and stock brokerage houses. We should been dealing with fiduciary companies. This is weather it was an auto insurance or heath insurance. I still remember when the life insurance man would come to the house to pick up the payments. Back then, it was in a packet behind the door on a nail. They came to the house in person. Very few of them would even tell you to change your coverage unless you brought it up. That to me is what is missing. we can fix this. This is one of the problems in black families today, that can be fixed by black families. Right down to young black man staying there in the lives of the children they help to create. These are the tings that must change if we want anything different to happen in our lives. Yes, we must do different to get different. Passing these things down in our families will improve our future families lives. I'm only one person but this conversation needs to be had real bad. In my future story, I will go into why this part of the story and others are needed to be had by our black families today. No more blaming anyone for us not doing this, we just need to start doing this like, yesterday. These are life long lessons that are needed to be, past down to our children. How can we leave them anything, if we ourselves can't make what is needed to leave them? Young black men know about material things but, they are not looking at owning things like land, homes and legitimate business. Something that keeps money coming in. These are the stories that should be told at the dinner table. Even for me it was all the things said around the dinner table that I remember most.
By Horace Albert5 years ago in Families
Thank you
Twenty-three years. Some of you reading this aren’t even that old. That is how long I was married before we got divorced. Twenty-three years, although we were together for at least 25 total. More than half of our lives. People would say, “I’m sorry” when you’d tell them you were getting divorced; like it was a failure. It was never a failure. Twenty-three years is a success. Things happen, people grow and not always together. I know we both grew; I know I grew in a different, better direction for myself.
By Meg Lagares5 years ago in Families
HalfCircle
All my life I have wanted nothing more then to have a family. My family was no more, when in reality I have always been alone. My mother put my brother and I up for adoption when I was six and he was eight. By the second foster home we were in the state decided to separate us in the hopes we would be adopted quicker. It failed in this purpose with us both not getting adopted until the age of twelve.
By Vonia Martin5 years ago in Families
Palmer's Books
The room was cold, dim, and quiet as the Palmer siblings looked at each other with disdain. None of them had spoken to each other in years, not because of a falling out, but because they were all so selfish, greedy, and caught up in their own privileged lives.
By Rachel C Willis 5 years ago in Families
Death, Ducks and Peyote Rainbows
by Ginger Casebeer It all started this morning when Derek pushed a woman in front of a moving cab. Accidentally, of course. He was looking for the coffee shop, she was looking in her black book, and he knocked her off the sidewalk. A few hours later, the woman, Sara, was in the hospital with a broken leg and a concussion, and Derek was filling in as personal assistant for Darla Johnson, one of New York's most famous eccentrics, for the day.
By Ginger Worthington Casebeer5 years ago in Families
