Kimberlee Lankford
EDUC 2120
October 11, 2015
Cultural Autobiography
When I was born on October 27th of 1995, my mother was laying in the hospital bed in Douglas, GA watching a Braves game. After my arrival, my mama and daddy decided to name me Kimberlee Michelle after much discussion, because for some odd reason my daddy wanted to name me after a car. Kimberlee was a name that my mama liked, and Michelle was kind of like my daddy’s name, Michael. If you notice, most Kimberlee’s don’t spell their name with “lee” at the end. People usually end it with a “ly”, or “ley”. “Lee” came from my mama’s side of the family. Her daddy’s name (who I call D-daddy), is Ronald Lee, her granddaddy’s name is Jesse Lee, and both of her brother’s middle names are Lee. So I think it’s safe to say I was named after all men.
Kristen Gail Lankford is my mother. She is the daughter of my Granny, Jonnie King Goodman, and my D-daddy, Ronald Lee Goodman. We’re very thankful for both my grandparents today because they’ve done so much for us in our lives in the past, and still do today. I honestly don’t know where we would be and how my whole family would’ve been able to survive our long journey if we didn’t have them to support us through it all. My mama is the oldest of four children, two boys and a younger girl. My mama was raised in church her whole life. Both, my Granny and D-daddy were church goers. My Granny’s father was a pastor at a Baptist church and my D-daddy’s family were really big attenders of church. So my mama and her siblings were raised in church, also.
Jimmy Michael Lankford is my father. He is the son of Elaine Lankford Kent and the late Jimmy Terrell Lankford. My Papa died when I was younger, so I don’t remember much of my life with him in it. My Meme is still a part of our lives today, thankfully. Many years after my Papa’s death, my Meme remarried, about eight years ago to Bill Kent, whom we call, Papa Bill. My daddy is the next to the last youngest child in his family of four kids. He is also a family of two boys and two girls, just like my mama’s. I believe my daddy was raised in church also, Baptist. I don’t think that they were big church goers like my mama’s family was, though, but still attended.
As for me and my religion, I’m a Christian. I was raised in church, also. At first we were attending a Baptist church, then when I was about five or six years old, we started attending a Pentecostal church, which is where we attend now. My mama has always been the big church goer in my family. She’s always tried getting us to church, just herself, and I look up to her for all of her hard work and care that she has for all five of us. My daddy isn’t much of a church attender. Although, I would love for him to go to church with the rest of my family, pressuring him into attending isn’t going to make him want to go. I’ve never been the one to push my religion down someone else’s throat. If people have questions about God, I’ll do my best to answer the questions that they’ve asked and if I don’t know the answer, I won’t pretend that I do. I believe that everyone needs to make their own choice if they want to live by Jesus Christ or not, and that’s what I’ve been taught in my life. You can’t force someone to live by Jesus Christ if they don’t want too, it’s got to be their decision.
When it comes to special occasions in my family, like Christmas/Christmas Eve, Easter, New Years, Fourth of July, and Thanksgiving, we always spend those times with family. We have two events each holiday, one for each side of the family. For Christmas, we gather with family and eat, open presents, and spend time together as a family. At these family events, we do talk about the real reason of Christmas. It’s not about the presents or the food, it’s about gathering with the ones you love, celebrating another person you love and their birthday, Jesus. Easter is basically the same thing as Christmas, except for a different reason. Easter is all about the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Easter Sundays always consist of going to church in the morning and then afterwards, eating lunch at a family member’s house, and then for supper going over to the other side of the families, to hunt eggs and eat supper. For New Years, we celebrate the New Year with the family, but this time, we only do something with one side of the family. Basically all we do is eat and spend time with each other. Every Fourth of July, we eat with one side of the family and then we split up to go to Paulk Park to watch fireworks. Not much family time is spent on this holiday as much as the others, but we still gather together to see each other before we separate to watch fireworks. Thanksgiving is the last family holiday gathering that I can think of that we get together for. We eat at one family member’s house for lunch, and for supper we head to another family member’s house for supper, just like Christmas. Thanksgiving has to be one of my favorite times of the year, because number one, food, and number two, family. Thanksgiving is all about giving thanks. Its thinking about every little and big thing you’ve been blessed with throughout life, and thanking God for it all.
Thoughts about race differ on both sides of my family. With me, race doesn’t really matter. However, I do have my beliefs on dating other races. I grew up to treat different races and different people the way you want to be treated, but when it comes to dating a different race, I wouldn’t. It’s not that I’m racist, that’s just how I was taught growing up. Not dating someone because of their skin doesn’t make you racist. We all have our opinions on things, even about dating. I’ve had friends of all kinds of different races and loved them all the same. Some even dated other people outside of their race, and I supported them because they were happy. Never have I ever treated one better because of what color their skin was or how they lived their life. I treat everyone the same, I just don’t date all different kinds of races and ethnicities that aren’t the same as mine, like some of my friends do. It doesn’t make anyone racist if they don’t date just everyone, it’s simply their opinion.
I guess my whole life what I was taught that was ‘right’ was if I live my life the way God would want me too, everything would fall into place, and I believe that. “Treat people the way you want to be treated”, I also believe strongly. I haven’t always lived my life as close to God as I needed to, but as soon as I got closer to Him, I felt happier, and I want to continue that life.