07-23-2021, 09:11 AM
I have no particular reason to argue with Wikipedia's description of Romanichals. It's not my ethnic identity, but folks on my Dad's side of the family lived on the fringes of Romanichal society and married into it some. We have a very large number of relatives hanging out around Drumright, OK. You won't learn much about that from what you can find online, but among my Romanichal relatives, that's the state "tribal HQ." And just so you'll know, they call themselves "Romachill" in those parts.
That heavy influence shows itself in many ways. When my Mom took me to register for sixth grade in Anchorage, AK, that was school number 12 for me. The list of places I lived as a child is long and highly varied, ranging from as far west as Four Corners, and as far east as somewhere out in rural eastern Oklahoma; it runs as far south as Texas and as far north as Alaska. I could easily live in an RV if I had one, simply because I got used to scaling down to that as a child. And we were dirt poor at times, sleeping in a broken down car for a few weeks, and in a relative's front room quite often. We went places on a shoestring all the time.
Here in Oklahoma, the Romanichal were more often oil field workers than they were agricultural. My kin have a strong affinity for that entire industry, and lots of us have owned or worked in petroleum retail, along with auto repair and anything normally associated with that. I suppose being some kind of mechanic comes from being so poor and never affording new vehicles. We never starved, of course. We always found some way of feeding ourselves, even if we slept in our vehicles. Our folks knew how to hustle and make just enough to stay alive. Some of my relatives are as crooked as any "Gypsy" can be, but most of us went to church enough to avoid those bad habits.
This is partly why I reject the label "Boomer." Despite growing up in that generation, I never was a part of the culture. For a few brief years, my Dad tried to be American middle-class while we were in Alaska. We bought a house and went to a suburban Baptist church. But the insiders rejected us as not a part of their kind. This happened in my formative years, and it stuck with me for the rest of my life. It helped to make me anti-materialistic, far more interested in experiences than property. Those people had the property, but they had a mean streak hidden behind their smooth social habits. I came to hate them. It was the time in my life when I knew God was calling me to serve Him, and I wanted nothing to do with their ideas about that.
I remember how much of an outsider I was from all their kids. I had no real friends in that church. Oh, and that was where I first encountered folks who loved and served the federal government system, and first became aware the bizarre world of deep state secrecy culture.
Just a little story about me to amuse you today...
That heavy influence shows itself in many ways. When my Mom took me to register for sixth grade in Anchorage, AK, that was school number 12 for me. The list of places I lived as a child is long and highly varied, ranging from as far west as Four Corners, and as far east as somewhere out in rural eastern Oklahoma; it runs as far south as Texas and as far north as Alaska. I could easily live in an RV if I had one, simply because I got used to scaling down to that as a child. And we were dirt poor at times, sleeping in a broken down car for a few weeks, and in a relative's front room quite often. We went places on a shoestring all the time.
Here in Oklahoma, the Romanichal were more often oil field workers than they were agricultural. My kin have a strong affinity for that entire industry, and lots of us have owned or worked in petroleum retail, along with auto repair and anything normally associated with that. I suppose being some kind of mechanic comes from being so poor and never affording new vehicles. We never starved, of course. We always found some way of feeding ourselves, even if we slept in our vehicles. Our folks knew how to hustle and make just enough to stay alive. Some of my relatives are as crooked as any "Gypsy" can be, but most of us went to church enough to avoid those bad habits.
This is partly why I reject the label "Boomer." Despite growing up in that generation, I never was a part of the culture. For a few brief years, my Dad tried to be American middle-class while we were in Alaska. We bought a house and went to a suburban Baptist church. But the insiders rejected us as not a part of their kind. This happened in my formative years, and it stuck with me for the rest of my life. It helped to make me anti-materialistic, far more interested in experiences than property. Those people had the property, but they had a mean streak hidden behind their smooth social habits. I came to hate them. It was the time in my life when I knew God was calling me to serve Him, and I wanted nothing to do with their ideas about that.
I remember how much of an outsider I was from all their kids. I had no real friends in that church. Oh, and that was where I first encountered folks who loved and served the federal government system, and first became aware the bizarre world of deep state secrecy culture.
Just a little story about me to amuse you today...