Grandma's Story #1: Pages 6-10

Grandma Dovie Walker

About a year ago I discovered some old handwritten stories my Grandmother Walker wrote back sometime before the Great Depression. It was a real treasure find for me, especially since I had never gotten the chance to meet her - she passed away just a few years after my father was born. You can read the story behind the story here: Grandma's Story #1.


I decided to compile the first 5 pages into one to make it easier to read. In the future I'll keep with this format, transcribing 5 pages at a time until I have the entire story transcribed..


If you see any errors or have comments about my interpertations or transcriptions please pass them along in the comment section below.


THANKS!






[PAGES 1-5]


…Irene and I to the field to hoe, but she would lay in the shade while I hoed and if she saw father coming she would go begging me to help her so he wouldn’t know she had been laying in the shade. So I would help her. Some have said that I wouldn’t have done it, but I knowed better to. Anyone would have to save their back from a beating.

In the fall we would go to school. We had a large hill to climb, and on our way back from school she would cry for me to carry her up that hill when she was 9 years old. She was always a fleshy girl and I was small and slender, for I always had to work hard.

I would tell father but he wouldn’t believe me, for she would deny it. So, one morning I told mother I wasn’t going to school anymore if I had to carry Irene up that hill every night, but she made me go and said they would see was telling the truth. She begged father to go down to the foot of the hill and hide and see who was to blame.

A Fight for Honor

Honor doesn’t seem to carry the same weight nowadays as it did in history’s past. Honor was so sacred, so precious, that there were rules set in place when honor was broken, bruised, or challenged, especially when it came to restoring the honor of a woman. Gentlemen would gather in open fields in secluded and isolated places with swords and dueling pistols to settle debts of honor. If honor was grossly maligned, only the act of all out war would be sufficient enough to sate the restoration of one’s honor.

In contrast, honor seems to be sorely lacking in today’s society. We only need to look at our leaders, politicians, and most recently, coaches to see that. These men and woman are supposed to set moral examples and be individuals that ourselves and our children can look up to and strive to be like. Instead, far too often, we are gravely disappointed in their actions, words, and lack of honor. That’s not to say that honor is lost in them all. There are many that do strive and are successful at upholding honor and inspire many others to do the same. Unfortunately, with the advent of instant and worldwide communication, our hearts and minds are constantly being tainted with the foul acts of individuals that not only disgrace the meaning of honor but violate it until it’s beyond repair.

My delve into the topic on honor stems from an event that happened to me more than 15 years ago where I found myself in a situation where the honor of a loved one was desecrated and I was faced with the choice to either stand by and do nothing, or spring into action so that justice and honor could be served.