[RED CLAY IN MANS SOUL] DEDICATED TO MY GRANDFATHER ROBERT JOLLY SR. GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN
THE MUSIC FOR THIS ONE... IF YOU LISTEN YOU MAY OVERSTAND...
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL24cV6IIynra1y8XjrzwCsOdjUlgFZXuQ
When I was a child I lived in Florida but in the summer I was shipped off to Moultrie.
Back in then I still had a lot of uncles and aunts who lived in Moultrie and both of my grandfathers were still alive.
Today I am going to tell you about something that happened between my granddaddy Robert Jolly sr and I.
Back then the roads in Moultrie were still dirt on the black side of town and that clay seemed to get into everything. Hair, clothes and mouths.
I am telling you that cause I used to raise clouds in that clay running from a dog.
The dog lived in a house next to my granddads house and the kids who lived next door would see me an sic him on me when I walked by cause they hated my granddad.
He didn't take no mess and these kids were messy as hell.
My uncle Horace lived down the street and he was married to his first wife My aunt Carolyn and I had so many uncles and aunts and cousins that in the day I would walk from one side of Moultrie to the next. Back then a kid could do that.
My uncle Horace was my favorite uncle and I would leave my granddads porch and try to sneak by that dog to get to his house.
Sometimes I made it but sometimes that dog would see me and the chase would be on. Me hauling ass and trailing a cloud of dust with that dog straight on my heels.
This went on for a while and my granddad would sit on the porch and watch it happen time and time again.
One morning I was sitting on the porch swinging in that steel chair that he had on his porch My legs barely reached the floor and the chair creaked when it swung but all us kids loved that chair so much. My granddad was in his chair and we were talking.
We talked about a lot of things and by the time I hooked up with him he had taken his morning walk and had his stick still by his side.
Out of nowhere he said "Boy why you run from that dog?"
Now I didn't want to appear to be a punk to my granddad so I said "Grandaddy thats a big dog."
He looked at me and said you gone always run from big things you gone be running all your life.
We talked a little more and he stood up and said follow me. He led me around the house to the back yard and we went through the gate and Trixie ran up with her tail wagging and I petted her. Trixie was my granddads dog and I had a dog at home in Florida that my uncle Horace and my dad had given me named Hometown but I was still scared of that dogs next door.
When my granddad and me walked into the backyard the dog net door was on the other side of the fence lying down but when he saw my granddad he got up and moved to the side of the house.
My granddad went to the shed and opened the door and when he turned around he had a stick in his hand and it was just right for me.
Before handing it to me he showed me the 16 penny nail that he had put in the end of it.
It looked like a spear.
He said "This is your stick. I better not see you run from that dog ever again."
My heart dropped. I had never gotten a whupping from my granddad but I knew that he had raised my mom and she was one of the baddest women that I had ever saw. I don't mean bad in a evil sense but my mom still don't take no mess.
We went in and ate breakfast with my step grandmom and talked for a while.
I stayed around that house all day and finally my granddad came on the porch and said "You ain't going down to Horaces house today?"
I said I am going later.
He said here and he handed me 50 cents and he said "I need some corn meal."
He said "you can have the change.
Back then the corn meal cost about a quarter and with the other quarter I knew that I could buy about 5 push ups. I was a total push up junkie back then.
He turned and waked into the house and I began my check.
I looked for that dog real good before I left that porch with that stick in my hand. i did not know that he was still on the other side of the house and as soon as he saw me he stood up.
My first reaction was to haul ass but I remembered what my granddad had said and I stood my ground trembling all the way to my bare feet. I never wore shoes if I could help it when I was a kid.
That dog bore down on me like a hound from hell and in that instant time seemed to slow down for me.
I saw the boy sitting on the porch and how he looked with glee at the whole thing and something exploded in me as I raised that stick and started to swing it.
The dog was fast and he dodged my first swings and ripped part of my pant with his teeth.
That was when I raised the stick and plunged it into his side. I heard him yelp and I put that stick on his ass.
The dog realized that I no longer feared him and he hauled ass back into the yard and the boy came off the porch yelling at me and I threw the stick down and lit into him.
I fought him for every damn time he had sicced that dog on me and his mom ran from the house but my granddad was out there too and he said "Leave them alone."
I turned the boy red with clay as I took out my anger at the dog and the whole situation on him.
When it was over my granddad pulled me off the boy and said "You can keep the whole 50 cents and walked to the store with me.
When we got in the store he bragged to Mr Hayes about me.
I learned a valuable lesson that day.
No matter how big the person or the situation is, if you face it head on it seems to grow smaller.
Thank you Robert Jolly sr for teaching me that.
JERALD HAMZAHFARUQ MURPHY
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