First, Susan and I want to express our heartfelt condolences to the people of Japan. No one can know what they are enduring unless they themselves have experienced it.
I had an uncle on my father's side who was kicked in the head by a mule when he was only a little fellow and they called him peanut cause when that mule kicked him in the head it rearranged his head so it looked like a peanut. His head was so swollen after that kick he had to wear two hats for a while.1 When the swelling went down and he did not die, his head, did I tell you already, it looked exactly like a perfect little two pod peanut, large in the front and the back and narrow in the center.
Uncle Peanut never was right in the head. He finished school, but was mostly passed along on social promotions to keep him in with his age group. The teachers back then knew it wernt no use to try to teach Peanut anything. He wassant any trouble at school, he would just sit and look at a snow scene in a glass ball and occasionally squeal with delight as he shook it up and watch the snow in the ball swirl around. Rarely spoke and never cursed.
His mother had a collection of the glass snow balls she got in Memphis when she was a little girl. Peanut loved them all and always brought one with him to school. He was able to master the toilet and kept himself clean and therefore was not a great bother as retards go and was pretty much the school mascot. He got to stand out with the cheerleaders and could direct the marching band, generally had the run of the school.
His daddy got him a job at a machine shop where they made parts for cars. He was handy making parts, but it had to be the same part day in and day out. He could only make one part.
His family took care of him and seen to it that his taxes was paid up, but when his old maid sister died, he was left on his own and he was unable to pay the bills and stopped paying his taxes.
He ignored all the letters he got in the mail from the IRS and finally they say a revenue agent came out to see Uncle Peanut and filed a lien on every thing he had. The day came for the moving trucks to take all of Peanut's possessions and he just sat on the front porch and gazed into one of his snow scene glass balls. The fellows from the IRS even took his porch swing so he moved over to the steps.
The next week his house was auctioned off by the IRS. The community banded together and all agreed not to bid but a few pennies on the house. When the bidding was over, the house had been bought by my cousin Ocie Pentecost for $1.48, and he thought that was too high. He paid the IRS man and then handed the deed back to my Uncle Peanut, and cousin Pentecost got a widow woman with three kids to move in with Uncle Peanut to care for him and keep his house clean.
He lived out his days going to work and paying his taxes and living his life gazing into that glass orb with the snow flakes and the winter scene. He died peacefully at age 67 and was buried with his favorite glass orb. It haddent snowed here in Cedar Grove for 20 yrs but that April day when Uncle Peanut was buried, it snowed hard for about 15 minutes as they lowered his coffin into the ground over at the New Liberty Church for Christ's Sake. Some at the service swear they heard his distinct squeal off in the distance as the snow was blowing around the cemetery,
but it was probably just in their imaginations. People like a good story.
Anyway, the Japanese people have been kicked in the head by a mule, and it looks like they will survive, just as Uncle Peanut. The human spirit is greatly underestimated. Godspeed to the Japanese, they are on a difficult path. We at the Urban Poverty Law Center wish them well.
We can house a few refugees if more space is needed, we took in about 200 of New Orleans' residents when Katrina came roaring through. Our doors are always open.
Jack Delano Maybolt, President Urban Poverty Law Center
Anyway, the Japanese people have been kicked in the head by a mule, and it looks like they will survive, just as Uncle Peanut. The human spirit is greatly underestimated. Godspeed to the Japanese, they are on a difficult path. We at the Urban Poverty Law Center wish them well.
We can house a few refugees if more space is needed, we took in about 200 of New Orleans' residents when Katrina came roaring through. Our doors are always open.
Jack Delano Maybolt, President Urban Poverty Law Center
"Pearl Harbor? Well, everybody is entitled to one mistake. How do you think this president got elected?" Mother Maybolt, 1921-2008
1. Mark Twain Autobiography
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