Because I was so young when Crip stayed with us I did not know much about him other than he was a kind and gentle man. Except for the day we were sitting on the front porch and I called him an ugly word. When he tapped me pretty hard on the head with one of his walking sticks, I began to learn respect for people older and different than I. I feel bad about that incident to this day. My brother Wayne aka Paul told me the other day that Crip's father was a slave. When he was a young lad he was in the barn loft and saw a white man raping his young sister. He was so upset about that and trying to get down to stop it he fell and broke both legs. Being a poor black kid he had to heal the best that he could and that was why he was a cripple. He stayed with us for a season and then he was gone to help someone else. I saw him for a brief time when I was 6 or 7 and I remember him picking me up and holding me for a while. I don't know what ever happened to him, but I know that it was good.