Gifts From My Grandfather

I got up early this morning, before six a.m.  I got that from my granddaddy.  He never slept late.  "Get up soon in de'morning dawthur."

He was a farmer, he had a lot to do.  Feed the chickens, hogs, the mule.  Get the day started; "Look well to your going...your going out, your coming in."

Granddaddy did not have an agenda book, or a "planner".  He had noting to remind him of his many tasks.  He got up early and brewed a strong pot of black coffee.  Fixed some griddle cakes, saturated them in butter and cane syrup.  These delicious thin crispy cakes were made of cornmeal and a little bit of flour,  fried in the renderings  of "streak a'lean".

I loved knawing on the thin strip of pork rind I peeled  from the fried fat, eating the narrow strip of bacon.  He prepared his eggs over easy.  The warm yellow yoke would spill out over his creamy grits.

Get up early, have a good breakfast.  Get down on your knees or stand and pray.  No matter what,  always pray, thank GOD for your many blessings.

While reflecting on the wonderful life I shared with my grandfather off and on for twenty-seven and one half years, I can not recall  a day when he was without a project.  He never said anything.  He never announced what he intended to do, he just did it.

One day he would re-cane the bottom of his straight back chairs.  The next day he would make lye-soap, or build a dog house, or a new chicken coop.  Never one to put his plans on paper or to brag about his intentions, he simply got up early and did them.

I watched my grandfather create a worm farm to grow red wigglers.  He had a mint julip garden, a flock of Guineas, used the "Framers Almanac" to plan his garden and crops.  He was a healer.  I stepped on some milk glass.  Cut a deep wound in my tiny foot.  He didn't panic.  He placed my foot in a basin of ice cold water.  When the profuse bleeding stopped he placed a copper penny on the cut and a piece of fat back, tied it with clean white cotton.

You may laugh but it never got infected and I didn't get lockjaw.  He "wormed" us every fall with a dose of Cod Liver oil.

No my grandfather was not college educated,  as a matter of fact he wasn't educated at all.  He said that he  attended school for a total of nine months.  Three months for three was all he was allowed.  He had to help farm.  He had to "git the 'bacca crop in."

Denied a proper education he knew too well its value.  That's all he wanted for his children and grandchildren.  Truly a self educated man I admired his ravenous reading.  If it was in print granddaddy was going to read it.   I laughed when I caught him reading my high school textbooks.

Granddaddy loved to read so I loved to read.  Granddaughter was an eloquent public speaker.  So that's what I decided to be.  Granddaddy had high morals, so that is what I wanted.

Intuitively I knew that granddaddy's southern speech, country dialect had no bearing on his intellect.  He was my Socrates, John Locke, Montesque.  Jerome Walters was a wise man born far too soon.  His wisdom was far too advanced for his generation, for his own wife and children.

I re-found this "People's Prayer" this morning in Alice Walker's Anything We Love Can Be Saved.  Zora Neale Hurston collected it, Alice reprinted it and  calls it a people's prayer.  I call it a "negro" prayer .  I love it because it proves that you don't have to be "articulate", proper or have a command of the King's English to touch GOD's heart, the heart of your fellowman.

"...You have been with me from the earliest rocking of my cradle up until this present moment.  You know our hearts, our Father, and all de range of our deceitful minds.  And if you find anything like sin lurking in and around our hearts, Ah ast you, my Father, and my wonder-workin' God, to pluck it out and cast it into the sea of fuhgitfulness, where it will never rise to harm us in dis world nor condemn us in de judgment.  You heard me when Ah laid at hell's dark door with no weapon in my hand and no God in my heart, and cried for three long days and nights.  You heard me, Lawd, and stooped so low and snatched me from the hell of eternal death and damnation. You cut loose my stammerin' tongue; You established my feet on de rock of salvation and yo' voice was heard in rumblin' judgement.  I thank Thee that my last night's sleepin' couch was not my coolin' board and my cover was not my windin' sheet.  Speak to de sinner-man and bless 'im.  Touch all those who have been down to de doors of degradation. Ketch de man dat's layin' in danger of consumin' fire:  And Lawd, when Ah kin pray no mo', when Ah done drunk down de last cup of sorrow, look on me, yo' weak servant who feels de least of all.  'Point my soul a restin' place where Ah kin set down and praise yo' name forever is my prayer for Jesus' sake Amen and thank God."  

Most of our ancestors were robbed of a refined education.  Don't you ever think or dare to believe that a country dialect or the lack of college degrees is any indication of stupidity.  My grandfather taught me by example and I learned that the love in one's heart is far more important than any regurgitated memorized "knowledge" carried in your head.

As you go about your day today reflect on the generations that prayed for you.  That sacrificed for you, that loved you before you were born.  Don't you ever forget that they loved GOD more than money or fame, more than titles and college degrees.

Be abundantly blessed today.   Stay in His WORD children.  Remember; "apart from Christ you are nothing."

May GOD's Grace, Mercy and Truth engulf you and cloak you in Perfect Peace,
Rachel Gwendolyn Doster( the exceedingly proud granddaughter of a great Patriarch, JEROME WALTERS)