Tom, I have not been on your thread since I saw the first post about the conversation with your mother, and I just brushed it off as a typical family negative comment. I didn't realize you took it so hard. But I see you have now come to terms with it. All I can say is that I sympathize with you. I never cared much for hunting, fishing, or football (or other team sports) as a kid, but my family did. Later in life, my mother never liked my head shaved, and told me so. She never said much about my beard but I could tell she did not like it - she must have given up when the comments on my shaved head did not get the intended result. I think it is a generational thing with beards. Beards were nowhere to be seen in our parents generation, and were generally thought of as unclean, thus the term clean shaven. But when I see those really old family photos, all the men had beards of some fashion or another. My mother has since passed away, as has many in that generation. And beards are now all over the South now. Nothing against the northwest, but I am sorry that you had to leave the south to feel like you could fit in.

My Beard Journey:  http://jefffsbeardboard.yuku.com/topic/25137/Finally-I-have-a-Beard
Beard and Bald Thread:  http://jefffsbeardboard.yuku.com/topic/27831/Beard-bald-head-shaved-head-or-buzzcut
Patchy Beard Success Stories:  http://jefffsbeardboard.yuku.com/topic/33742/Patchy-Beard-success-stories-Before-and-After-photos#.ViujbH7nuM8
Taming the Wild Mustache:  http://jefffsbeardboard.yuku.com/topic/30822/Taming-the-Wild-Stache#.Vj_Mh7erTIU