| This wonderful story was on this site once before in 2002 and I want to thank John Messer for letting me post it again. Thank you. |
Earth, Sweat, Blood and Tears
INTRODUCTION
TO THE MESSERS
I invite all the people who have a genetic link to the Messers, all who have ever loved a Messer, and those who just love great family stories, to read these simple essays. I have tried to tell these events as I saw them, from the perspective of the age I was when they occurred. I have tried to keep the language as it was spoken at that time, and how I understood it. My desire is that you who live in the future will read these essays and see our humble beginnings on our road to becoming a great people. I hope you can feel the pride My Daddy felt when he told of my granddad riding the Great Black Stallion. I want you to feel our hostility to the North that was still prevalent in the days of my boyhood. When your faith is weak, remember the General, and how she never refused a good set of marching orders from the Lord. I will be laughing with you as we travel through my childhood. I feel that someday we will sit with Granny Poe and the General, and they will tell you how hard they worked to help me get this story right. Someone could have done a better job, but it was I that was commissioned to do this very wonderful task.
John D. Messer
Messer1506@aol.com
CONTENTS
Earth,
Sweat, Blood and Tears Video
This is
a Video of all of the people in the book, it's well worth watching.
1. My Introduction To Deductive Thinking
2. The General
3. My Daddy
6. Strong Men and Great Horses
9. The Long Journey and the Short One
10. The Bear Is Trying To Hurt My Daddy
11. Cotton Country
12. Remembering The Civil War With Uncle Floyd
13. Them Old Mules Has Run Away With My Daddy
15. Understanding The Eighth Commandment
16. Where Hath Thy Gone My Noble Friend
18. The Little Green Christmas Tree
20. Old Goat is Down
23. The Company Farm
24. Beyond the Veil
25. The Father, Son and The Holy Ghost
27. Bone of My Bone, Flesh of My Flesh
28. Uncle Tom Will Be Here Saturday
29. What Evil Hath Consumed My Child
30. The Picking and Ginning of Cotton
31. Everything is Made Easier with Laughter
32. In Sorrow Shalt Thou Bring Forth Children
33. The Flood Gates Opened and The Rain Fell
34. The Final Link Closes the Circle
35. Where Art Thou, Ogh My Brother
36. Stretching the Invisible Umbilical