Part Six-By Any Means Necessary

As Billy Bob the Rescue Squad Chief help roll Sampson out the Lee Family home,he remark that
" everyone seems to have forgotten that Sampson was a WW2 hero with a purple heart".
He also reminded them that war was hell and that but for the grace of god there go I.
As the rescue wagon speed down highway 441 towards the hospital in Southport,the lee family piled into their 1952 chevy pickup to make the twenty mile trip to the hospital.

Part Five-By Any Means Necessary

Minny called out to Robert Lee to run across the highway to Mr.Bryant's house to have him call the rescue squad not everyone had a telephone ,Sampson was still breathing but was unresponsive.
As the rest of the clan stood and waited for the rescue squad to arrive,tears were streaming from the faces,the faint sounds of prayers could be heard "lord help us to hold out".
The wailing of the rescue siren could be heard coming down highway 441,in a small place such like Crackling,N.C. when the rescue squad is call the whole community responses
Sheriff Taylor and his deputy Wilbur were the first to arrive,neither were surprise to find Sampson in the condition he was in ,often they would bring him home from the Juke Joint on friday nights after a hard night of drinking moon shine and dancing.

Part Four-By Any Means Necessary

As Minny move about her small cramped kitchen preparing breakfast for her family the smell of country ham cooking on the wood burning stove had awaken everyone.
Clem the youngest son stood smiling in the kitchen with his mother as she hurried along making biscuits and girts for the morning meal.
This would be one of those rare but blessed morning for breakfast food,about this time of the year the meat from the curing barn was ready to be eaten,the one and only hog the family had was killed a few months earlier and now it was ready to be eaten.
All of a sudden Billy Jean the middle child came screaming into the kitchen for her mother,something had happen to Sampson!

Part Three-By Any Means Necessary

Patches the nickname the other kids had given Robert Lee because of the clothes he wore,didn't affect his spirit or drive to do better with his life.
Like clock work no matter what time of the year it was Robert Lee would be up at the crack of dawn to fed the chickens and bring in the fire wood.
He often would hear the faint prayers of his Mother asking the Lord to help her  to hold out,which he realized years later was the catalyst that motivated him to be the person he grew up to become.
One of his favorite prayers was to ask the Lord to do something about his father's condition,because his belief in God was strong,he knew from reading his worn and torned bible that Jesus had fed 5000 with two loaves of bread,surely he could save his dear father.
A belief in God was a strong reality in the Lee household,for without that belief,there would be none!

By Any Means Necessary-Part Two

Robert Atlas lee,the  towering oldest son of Sampson and Minny who stood six feet at a mire 14 years of age.,slowly arose from his pall-ate in the parlor room of the house.
The de facto man of the house Robert Lee took his role seriously,
It was his responsibility to bring in the fire wood for the wood burning heater each morning during the winter season.
Life in Crackling,N.C. could be brutal sometimes for the Lee family,with Sampson's mood swinging from happy and jovial to deep manic depression.
The family sometimes didn't know which way was up,with his swing in moods,their lives had been stolen by the bottle!
Robert Atlas often prayed and dreamed for his father to be like Uncle John who interacted with his cousins with a love he never could realize at this point in his young life.
But one lesson his young mind and spirit had learned through all of this was,you can't give what you ain't got!
After gathering the firewood and bringing the wood burning heater up to full max,Robert would go and awaken his sister Jenny Mae.
Jenny Mae was the brains of the family she would read every book that she could get her hands on,it was her relief from the demonic forces that permeated her young life.

By Any Means Necessary! Part One

I'm about to start a little mini-novel here on my blog site,I have titled it "By Any Means Necessary".
I'll try my best to base what I write on real experiences,belonging to either myself or people I know or have met,some will be  thoughts that are a little creative.
As Miss Minny move about in her small kitchen in the wee hours of this frosty December morning her six children slept snuggled and secure in their two bed room house on the outskirts of  Crackling,North Carolina.,rambling through the cabinets  which were bare and thin with things to fix for the morning meal.
Miss Minny always knew the Lord would make possible for another day!
You see Miss Minny's husband although he was alive and well and sleeping in the back room,he was dead in spirit and soul.
He couldn't keep a job for a lot of reasons,mainly because of his choice of hiding his pain in the bottle.
Sampson was a good man deep down inside,but Sampson never had any real training on how to be a father and husband,you see his own father had died when he was just a boy.
It was really hard for Sampson to give what he didn't have!
Just as Miss Minny was about to pull out the last box of grits from the cabinet a knock on the door stopped her,her brother John stop by on his way to work at the B&W factory,he had stopped at the local Piggly Wiggly and picked up a few things,for he knew the circumstances,and as Miss Minny knew the Lord would make a way some how!
Her brother John was a Pentecostal Minster and highly respected by most in this small farming community.
John had taken Sampson to the water many years ago,but backslide he did,he even got Sampson a job at the B&W,but he lost that job because of the bottle.
Yes folks was  it  was winter in Crackling,N.C. and the wind blowing off of the Atlantic Ocean five mile away was the clue.
Sampson's spirit was so broken that the fifty aces  that his mother had left him to farm for tobacco,now laid barren and unkempt.

Just What The Hell Did We Celebrate Yesterday

Ok even Skippy and Ray-Ray knew the date was July 4th yesterday,but did they know rhyme or reason why they were setting off hundreds of dollars worth of fireworks,in the middle of some of the most depressed neighborhoods here in Pittsburgh?
Just why in Jesus name would some of my co-workers who complain incessantly about not having enough money for this and that,refuse the chance to work and make double-time yesterday?
Just to party and get their head bad!
What I'm saying folks if we are going to celebrate and have parties on holidays,we must party with a purpose!
We must at least have a inkling of knowledge of what the history of the day we are celebrating connect with us culturally!
I believe if we had just that small bit of knowledge,we would re-think how we celebrate holidays!
                                                                       Big Mac!