The Life I Have Lived

I am honored to write about my heritage and my upbringing in this little book of mine. The share-cropper, the farmer, and the mill workers who paved the road of life I have traveled on are worth remembering. The school teachers who taught in a true village school deserve to be remembered as well. And they will all be remembered—every time someone reads this book.

I am probably of the last generation of kids who could walk the river alone all day and fish to their hearts’ delight. My, how I recall dressing and cooking fresh-caught catfish and washing it down with spring water brought home from Granny White Springs. It just doesn’t get any better than that.

We, as well as our church family, went to special places like Sharpe's Lake and Ripville for picnicking, swimming, or cookouts. My heart aches for just one more visit to either place. Alas, it is not to be. But they live on in this little book of mine.

You will see me and my sister—Southern Baptist to the core—experience our first gospel singing at a Pentecostal church where my dad agreed to sing when we were children. It was a night to remember. Meet the precious people of Midway Baptist Church, the little church we were raised in. They shaped a lot of our thinking, influencing us with the way they lived as much as with the Sunday school lessons they taught us.

This will be quite the journey, neighbor. Won't you join me?