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There was the time, when she was 7, that she had to bleach her dark hair blond.

And at a potluck dinner, someone referred to the dish her mother prepared as "lesbian" food.

That was Elmaz Abinader's Fayette County, her youth, her America. A place where her Lebanese roots often were misunderstood, where a sense of community was best found in the family.

Reflections of that time have been captured in Abinader's writing and acted out on stages worldwide. Within months, her family's tale of immigration, prejudice and acceptance will be on display at the Arab-American National Museum in Dearborn, Mich., the first museum committed solely to showcasing Arab-American history.

"I was a little shy about it at first," said Abinader, who spent her youngest years in Masontown but now lives in Oakland, Calif., where she is the head of Mills College's English department. "I think of all the Arab-American families and all the Arab-American celebrities. We're just another story."

Museum officials didn't see it that way. That story, the basis of Abinader's three-act play "Country of Origin," chronicled not only the experience of assimilating into American culture, but also the struggles of doing so as a woman.

It's a story about Abinader's grandmother Marwa arriving at Ellis Island from Lebanon in 1921 and making her way to Uniontown. Her husband, Shebl, owned a gas station and candy store there. Marwa ran the business while Shebl went on the road peddling everything from pots and pans to perfume.

Their daughter, Abinader's mother, Elizabeth, had to quit high school to drive her father's truck when he became ill.

Abinader's father, Jean, came to America after Elizabeth traveled to Lebanon to marry him. He started a peddling business of his own and turned it into a shop.

In 1954 the two had a daughter. They named her Elmaz after Jean's mother.

Abinader realized the significance of her name. When registering at All Saints School in Masontown meant changing it by one letter, she was crushed.

She became Elma. The head nun wanted it that way.

"I hated it," Abinader said. "As soon as I went to register for college, I changed it back."

Other kids called her things like "darkie" and "ape."

But home was a place where she heard Arabic language, smelled Arabic cooking, celebrated to music with her family dancing in a line.

Abinader said she dealt constantly with the pressures of two worlds that did not connect.

"I think people, at the time, were uncomfortable with us," she said. "There was a lot of friction some of us felt socially."

Even for a cousin's wedding, Abinader had to rinse her hair with hydrogen peroxide before she walked down the aisle as the flower girl.

She was 7 then. Her family requested the lightening. The concern, she recalls, was her appearance.

"The desire to assimilate, or at least not draw negative attention to ourselves, was strong," Abinader said. "So seeing how 'Arab' I looked with my dark hair and dark arms alarmed my family a little."

It was a different time with different perceptions of Arab-American culture, decades before Sept. 11 and American combat operations in Iraq.

Abinader said she believes a museum devoted to the history, contributions and plight of Arab-Americans will help people better understand a culture that often has faced prejudice.

The display highlighting her story is one of several that originated in Pennsylvania, said museum curator Sarah Blannett, a native of the Keystone State herself. Blannett grew up in Kingston, a suburb of Wilkes-Barre in Luzerne County.

Also being prepared for the museum's May 5 opening are exhibits about Arab-Americans who worked in Pennsylvania steel mills, the large Arab-American community in Philadelphia, and media critic Dr. Jack Shaheen, a Pittsburgh native. Blannett said a display about the Arab-Americans who worked in northeastern Pennsylvania's coal mines is being researched.

The Dearborn-based Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services, or ACCESS, began collecting Arab-American artifacts in the 1980s, the curator said. Although the idea of opening a museum arose years ago, the events of Sept. 11, 2001, sent organizers into overdrive.

"It was really that push to say we really need this," Blannett said. "It's something that's long overdue."

Meetings were held all over the United States that were attended by prominent members of the Arab-American community.

According to Blannett, Abinader showed up at a session but said nothing of her own work. Another person at the meeting brought up her play, sparking the interest of museum officials.

Abinader remained humble.

"It was very hard to accept that my family's story should have such attention," she said. "We are not geniuses or celebrities."

"I think that it's very significant that there's someone from this small town being recognized," said the Rev. Joseph David, pastor of St. George Maronite Church in Uniontown.

Religion is rooted in the Lebanese culture, he said. The church was what Lebanese people looked for when they arrived in America.

Each weekend, about 200 people, most of Lebanese descent, attend St. George's three services.

"Most of the old-timers, they're gone," David said. "But their grandchildren, they're still coming."

St. George remains a center of Lebanese culture in Fayette County, as it was 30 years ago when Abinader's great uncle, Elias, was pastor there.

Abinader moved from Masontown to the Greene County borough of Carmichaels when she was 12. Her father had set up a new shop there.

She left for the University of Pittsburgh in 1971. In one of her essays, she described it as having a population 100 times larger than that of her hometown, a place her family since has left.

Growing up an outsider helped her to become a writer, she said. And it's her writing that has carried the story of three Lebanese women from southwestern Pennsylvania to Michigan, to help people of all backgrounds understand a culture often misunderstood.

"Our identities are embattled by some, demonized by others and interpreted by experts," Abinader said. "This museum gives us a foundation in this country, proves we have an important history and unites us as a people."

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