One night, as Mama bathed me, I asked why she didnt paint her nails. Who have you seen wearing nail polish? she asked. The blond lady Daddy takes me to see on Sundays. After my parents were divorced, I overheard Grandma say, Yetta, your baggage will hamper you from finding another husband. So as Mama bathed me, she said, Dont call me Mama. Hearing this was hurtful. My father hadnt taken me with him when he left. Now, I felt Mama no longer wanted me. I was four years old. Who would take care of me? It was a desperate, sometimes devastating journey through the depths of despair I lived daily as a preschooler. Then it was a tumultuous adolescence with my malicious grandmother. How did I find the courage to survive the journey through these challenges? You will find it an exciting yet uplifting reading experience.

A long-awaited, myth-busting, and deeply affecting memoir by the daughter of legendary rock star “Mama” Cass Elliot To the rest of the world, Cass Elliot was a rock star; A charismatic, wisecracking singer from the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inducted band, The Mamas & The Papas; A legend of Laurel Canyon, decked out in her custom-made Muumuus, glittering designer jewelry, blessed with a powerful, instantly identifiable singing voice which helped define the sound of the 1960s counterculture movement. But to Owen Elliot-Kugell, she was just Mom. In the nearly 50 years since Cass Elliot’s untimely death at the age of 32, rumors and myths have swirled about, shading nearly every aspect of her life. In her long-awaited memoir, Owen Elliot-Kugell shares the groundbreaking story of her mom as only a daughter can tell it. In My Mama, Cass, Owen pulls back the curtains of her mother’s life from the sold-out theaters to behind the closed doors of her infamous California abode. Born Ellen Naomi Cohen, the woman who was known to the world as Cass Elliot was decades ahead of her time: an independently minded, outspoken woman who broke through a male-dominated business, a forward-thinking feminist, and a single parent who embraced motherhood from the moment Owen entered the world. From the closely guarded secret of Owen’s paternity to Cass’s lifelong struggles with self-esteem and weight, to rumors surrounding her mother’s death, Owen illuminates the complex truths of her mother’s life, sharing interviews with the high-profile figures who orbited Cass, as well as never-before-heard tales of her mother and this legendary period of American history. Featuring intimate family and archival photos as well as interviews and memories from famous friends, fans, and colleagues who loved and respected Cass, this book is both a love story and a mystery, a tale of self-discovery and a daughter’s devotion. At its core, My Mama, Cass is a beautifully crafted testament befitting of Cass Elliot’s enduring cultural impact and legacy, written by the person who knew and loved her best.

Great-grandmother Nell eats fish for breakfast, she doesn't hug or kiss, and she does NOT want to be called grandma. Her great-granddaughter isn't sure what to think about her. As she slowly learns more about Nell's life and experiences, the girl finds ways to connect with her prickly great-grandmother.

Edmond's Visionary Path is a book showing my life through visions that includes my past, present, and future. This book shows visions reaching into the lives of everyone on earth, and how they will influence changes in our lives if we do not make changes first. It gives us advance notice concerning change in our climate, showing the American Gulf Coast, and the South China Sea freezing in the future, the Gulf Coast by 2014. The visions speak of the three major religions, and they cover parts of the Christian Bible concerning Cain and Abel, Moses, Ezra, Daniel, and the wearer of the Star of David. They cover an event that leaves Egypt, the Israelite cities, and the Temple all in waste. In one vision, there were no people in Egypt at all, and in the Israelite cities, many dead were on the ground. It also speaks about Acts chapter 29 of the Bible. I realize our Bible only carries twenty-eight chapters, but there is one lost chapter of Acts that should be there. In addition, we must be aware of the genetic rift in our human structure which was started by mistakes from the days of Atlantis. These visions also cover US Presidents, the health care plan, and whether our health care plan will cover all of us, plus mind-control testing, and how AT&T and Bell Atlantic started school programs. They also speak directly about how we may be caught unaware, that everything will not be okay the way it is, and changes must be made for what will come.

This oral and pictorial history chronicles the lives and separate worlds of black and white communities in Jim Crow era Colorado County, TX. First settled by Stephen F. Austin’s colonists in the early nineteenth century, Colorado County has deep roots in Texas history. Mainly rural and agrarian until late in the twentieth century, it was a cotton-growing region whose population was evenly divided between blacks and whites. These life-long neighbors led separate and unequal lives, memories of which still linger today. To preserve those memories, Patsy Cravens began interviewing and photographing the older residents of Colorado County in the 1980s. In this book, Cravens presents photographs and recollections of the last generation, black and white, who grew up in the era of Jim Crow segregation. And they have engrossing stories to tell. They recall grinding poverty and rollicking fun in the Great Depression, losing crops and livestock to floods, working for the WPA, romances gone wrong and love gone right, dirty dancing, church and faith, sharecropping, quilting, raising children, racism and bigotry, and even the horrific lynching of two African American teenagers in 1935. These stories reveal an amazing resiliency and generosity of spirit, despite the hardships that have filled most of their lives. They also capture a now lost rural way of life that was once common across the South.

Memphis, Tennessee, is a major crossroads for blues musicians, songs, and styles. Memphis is where the blues first "came to town" and established itself as a cosmopolitan performance genre, and the city has long been a center of synthesis and evolution in blues recording. This volume tells the story of the blues in Memphis through previously unpublished interviews with nine performers who helped create and sustain the music from the days before its commercial success through the early 1970s. Their attitudes, experiences, and insights impart a deeper understanding of the blues aesthetic and philosophy. The performers' backgrounds range across the blues genres, from classic blues (Lillie Mae Glover) to country blues (Bukka White), from jug band blues (Laura Dukes) to tough, postwar electric blues (Joe Willie Wilkins and Houston Stackhouse). Some, like Furry Lewis and Bukka White, are known around the world. Others, like Laura Dukes, are locally popular, while Boose Taylor is virtually unknown. The range of instruments mastered by the musicians--banjo, fiddle, guitar, fife, bass, ukulele, piano, and harmonica--testifies to the many expressive voices of the blues. Some of the interviewees were singing and performing mostly for white blues/folk revivalist audiences by the 1970s; others, such as Joe Willie Wilkins and Houston Stackhouse, continued to perform mostly for black audiences in Memphis and in the small cafes that dotted the Mississippi Delta. Each interview is illustrated by noted printmaker George D. Davidson and introduced with a biographical sketch by Fred J. Hay. In addition, Hay's extensive notes identify many other blues performers--friends and music partners of the interviewees whose names come up in their many asides and allusions. Together these materials document and pay tribute to the remarkable richness of the Memphis blues scene.