More and more today, people

are interested in their roots. With everyone being labeled in some way,

Asian-American, Native-American, African-American (I guess if I had a

dog it would be canine-American), I just feel a little left out only being

American-American. So, I did some research to discover my heritage.

On my father's side I am obviously

Irish. I recently learned that Murphy is the most popular Irish name that

doesn't start with a "Mc." Murphy is actually a very popular

name no matter where you are. In the movies there has been "Murphy's

Romance," "Murphy's Law" and "Murphy's War."

On TV you had "Murphy Brown." A little-know fact: The Beatle

drummer before Pete Best, who was before Ringo Starr, was Elmer "Fish

and Sticks" Murphy.

Great-grandfather Fricassee

Murphy came over after the "Great Potato War" of 1903. It seems

Ireland was split over whether potatoes should be prepared au gratin or

scalloped. My great-grandfather was muscled from his homeland because

he liked his spuds with cheese. On departure, my great-grandmother uttered

the now famous phrase, "Give me limburger or give me death."

After making a home in the

swamps (called "wetlands" in Fayette County) of South Carolina,

my grandfather Mildew Murphy was born. It's been said, "When he was

born they broke the mold. But, it grew back."

After spending the better part

of 30 years building a house on stilts, my granddad and his sister Musty

went into business selling apple fritters to starving shrimp boat pilots.

After 10 years of hard work and producing the fattest shellfish netters

east of the Mississippi, the Murphy clan was rich. They could now afford

a two-story trailer.

Then my dad was born. At 19

he, with his four younger brothers, formed the first all-white Globetrotters

basketball team but had little success, because they couldn't find another

of race of people who played basketball worse than Caucasians. There were

no Jewish people in South Carolina.

Soon after, my dad joined the

Air Force and flew off to World War II. After getting engaged to an English

girl, he was stationed in Germany, where he met my mom. He never talked

very much about the British girl, just something about bad teeth. He met

my mom after "The Big One" and they were married in some German

town where Hitler had built factories for manufacturing mustache combs.

After the war, my mom and dad

moved