His eyes dart from side to side as if this is a means of going back in memory and deep within to seek the wisdom I ask him to share with you.

“I would tell them, you’re never too big to go to school.”

My father’s father was a sharecropper. Actually, if the man of the house was a sharecropper, then so were his offspring. The oldest children, Ella Jane, Buster (Samuel, Jr. ) and Pete (a.k.a U.T.) worked the fields.

Sharecropping was a plan devised by plantation owners to swindle the people they could no longer own as slaves. Typically, a family would arrive at a cotton or tobacco plantation looking for work.

“Tell you what,” the boss would drawl, “You can live and work here for now, and I’ll cover your expenses. I will pay you to work the farm and you will be paid at the end of harvest time. At that time, I will deduct your rent and expenses from your pay.

After harvesting, my grandfather would go to collect his pay. After expenses the pay would not be enough to get the family through the winter. Sometimes, the sharecropper would end up owing the plantation owner. Then the indebted family would sneak out and look for another plantation that would allow them to stay for the winter and work off the money owed after planting and harvesting. This is in every sense a vicious cycle. Daddy tells me that he felt angry at his father, felt that his father was too stupid to do better and that he would someday do better than his father.

Peter Singletary, Sr. rarely got to attend school for more than a few months at a time. A time came when the family settled near a city and Pete was finally able to attend school again.

A playful and curious child, Pete is thrilled. He is happy to be freed from the harsh hard labor and excited about learning. He is 10, old enough to be in the 5th or 6th grade, however is placed in the third grade.

His teacher, Mrs. Jackson (he remembered her name all his life) asks him to spell a word. He can’t spell the word so the teacher picks up a switch and whacks him three times on his open palm). The stinging pain spreads quickly to wound his pride. He is the biggest student and feels like the dumbest kid. He feels ashamed.

His glance escapes to the window and out of it, he sees his oldest sister, Ella Jane, walking home. He jumps out the window and goes home with his sister. Pete is a third grade school dropout . . .

After he shares this story, we sing,

“Oft our cherished plans have failed,
Disappointments have prevailed,
and we’ve wandered in the darkness
Heavy-hearted and alone.
But we’re trusting in the Lord
And according to His Word
we will understand it better by and by.”

“I think she’s dead now,” Daddy says about the teacher that delivered the life-changing wound. “Maybe she understands better now.”