Of course ya'll know that i dont remember those events, but was told of them later. However i do remember that in 1953 social programs had not worked themselves into the fabric of the old south. If you were handicapped, disabled, or down on your luck you had to depend on the kindness of strangers and family and or friends. Such was the case of "Crip" Walker, a crippled old black man that was in this rural community. I say old, he could have been in his thirties, because when you are three anyone over seven looks very old.

My grandfathers tenant house was small and decrepit. You could stand at the back door and look through the cracks of the walls and see who was standing on the front door. My mother had to go to work to help out, so my grandfather and father made a small room on the back porch for Ole Crip to sleep in. In return for this room and board he would cook and tend to us three boys. Later i will tell you of the delicious black eye peas that he could cook. But now I would like for you to take a look at the pen and ink drawings and paintings on turkey feathers that I did. If you are interested in purchasing these contact me at persimmondog@graceba.net for availability and prices,

Hey ya'll, let me tell you a story about black and white in the south. On the cold pitch black night of Monday March 13, 1950 the wind was blowing hard on my father as he hurried to get Dr. Coe from his home office in Midland City. By the time he and Dr. Coe got back to the tenant house on my grandfather's farm, my mother was well into a hard and dangerous labor.

We were a poor white sharecropping family living on my grandfather's farm, until my parents could get on their feet. So going to the hospital to have a child was out of the question. When the Dr. arrived he began to help my mother and soon I was born. Ah, the umbilical cord was wrapped around my neck and I was born black. After working most of the night to keep me alive, the doc finially got me to my right color which was white. That was good news because it meant that I was alive. Times were hard in those days. I had 2 older brothers and 2 that miscarried.