Talk:Al Parker (artist)

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A Letter from Al Parker's Great Granddaughter
I am the great grand daughter of Al Parker, my grandmother is Susan Parker, and I want to share with the world my thoughts on his legacy.

I never met him or Evelyn, my great grandmother. They both passed away before I was born. I spent much of my childhood with their only daughter, Susan. I will share what I observed and learned from her.

Susan, by the time that I was born, was a retired former hippie, and so was her brother, Daniel. (Daniel changed his name legally, but I don't recall his given name). She spoke often of talent, and dismissed hard work.

She often referenced the polite, quiet nature of her upbringing. According to her, her parents were so good at solving disputes and conflicts, that she never learned the skills herself. They both knew how to put on a brave face and wait for the kids to go to bed before they dealt with whatever was bothering them. She was quite resentful of the subjects of Al Parker's work. She would describe the perfect families he would draw, and how she couldn't quite relate to it. See, despite the calm nature of her childhood, she was a woman of much turmoil. She was in the closet for a good 40 years, and she spent that time in and out of marriages, chasing a dream of becoming an actress in LA, and struggling with alcoholism. She never saw anything like what her life was going to actually be like in her father's drawings.

Al Parker was the king of illustrating the very subjects that would lead people like his children into the hippie movement and away from tradition entirely. My own family legacy reels from the trauma of my grandmother having to pretend to be something that she never was, and never learning conflict skills.

I have never heard anyone in my life say a bad thing about Al or Evelyn Parker. According my aunts, uncles, cousins, etc, they were absolutely wonderful people. I want this letter to serve as a warning to anyone who feels they have it figured out - make sure your kids do too. They don't need you to be perfect, they need you to be real.

-Cassandra Marie Kdoghbic97 (talk) 17:11, 20 February 2021 (UTC)