Sweet Home Alabama:
A Journey Through the Daily Trials and Tribulations of a Farmer
“Stories are for eternity, when memory is erased, when there is nothing to remember except the story.”
-Tim O’Brien, The Things They Carried
“Lift me higher!” I say as my grandfather swings me up into the air onto his broad shoulders. He smiles but shushes me and gestures past the crowds who litter the streets like sardines. I glance at the dancers twirling in colorful whirls and the musicians belting out gleeful tunes and the ginormous balloons bursting with air, ready to pop at any second. It is Thanksgiving week and my grandparents came to visit for the Macy’s Day Parade. I am in kindergarten and I am too short to view anything on my own, but I am filled with excitement because my grandfather lifts me up and helps me see everything.
To this day, he still helps me see everything. His knowledge of past, present, and future never ceases to amaze me. Pawpaw graduated from Berry College in the fields of physics and mathematics, making grand strides in the family as the first to receive a degree. He served as president for the Clan Keith Society, and in doing so, began extensive research on our family tree, greatly benefiting everyone by uncovering more history. He also spends many hours a week with his church, giving back in any way he can, from helping with the prayer board to serving as a deacon. This involvement led me towards the strong Christian beliefs I have today. He passed down this faith, teaching everyone to be prepared for the day when Jesus returns. Henceforth, he has taught me about all time periods in life- past to future.
“Ew! I am not touching that worm!” I squeal. My grandfather chuckles at my girlish remarks. It is a few years prior to the Macy’s Day Parade, and this time I am visiting my grandparents. We crouch on a worn-out dock by crystal clear Lake Guntersville in Huntsville, Alabama, still attempting to stab a squirming worm onto my fishing hook. Pawpaw’s patience throughout the whole scene still makes me smile when I think back to my first time fishing. Since that day, my family had fished many times on a dock near our home in New Jersey. Previously, I even caught a two-foot-long American eel. However, had I never ventured out of my comfort zone with my grandfather, I never would have learned how to fish. He always loves teaching me new things, yet, he never boasts about his teaching abilities when I accomplish the task. He merely supports me in everything I do, making my life important to him. My grandfather puts emphasis on family unity.
My Pawpaw reminisces on childhood in northern Alabama as we bask in the sun on the dock after that long morning of failed attempts at fishing. He shares vivid moments of his own childhood that I will never forget. He recalls sitting in a cotton sack, watching the snow white tufts pile up around his body. He remembers throwing corn husks in fights with his cousins, leaving behind the scars that remind him of rough-play and clean air. Running through the veins of our ancestors is the blood of hard-working, sweat-drenched, Jesus-loving farmers.
After rummaging through ancestry.com and looking back at the eighteenth century, I located a Daniel Keith, the very man who brought my lineage to the states. He lived in Ireland before moving to Pennsylvania after the Battle of Culloden in 1745. This battle was the final confrontation of the Jacobite rising in England and Ireland. The Jacobite's wanted to restore the Roman Catholic Stuart King James II of England and his heirs to the thrones of England, Scotland, and Ireland. Between 1,500 and 2,000 Jacobite’s died during this battle, ending their strive for a political movement. With this unrest in Great Britain and Ireland, Daniel Keith migrated to America. Shortly after arriving to the states, he traveled to Jackson County, Alabama, where many generations would continue to live. This county in Northern Alabama is famous for the Scottsboro Trial, a case in which nine African American men were falsely accused for rape in the year of 1931. Jackson County also started a long line of farmers in my family, with an inclusion of two soldiers, a John Holder who fought in the War of 1812, and a Daniel Crawford Keith, a Confederate soldier who died of pneumonia during the Civil War.
These roots left a great footprint on my grandfather. He still remembers his mother, Berith Wallace, dancing the Charleston in her flapper dress, cooking big breakfasts on the weekends, praising Jesus on Sundays, all the while, living as a farmer’s wife during the Great Depression. She tended the home, took care of her beloved children, and worked numerous hours in the fields right alongside Matthew James Keith. Each morning, even to her death at 98 years old, she woke early, opened the blinds, and turned on country music. I still remember my brother dancing around the room with her to her new favorite song, “Little Bitty” by Alan Jackson. They spun round and round until my grandmother broke into a fit of giggles. Her sweetness was comparable to honeysuckle and her optimism like a naïve child. The energy and life she gave every single day made her a wonderful role model to my grandfather, my mother, and myself alike.
Although my ancestors made life as enjoyable as possible with their situation at hand, they still missed out on many opportunities. Some of the women became teachers, but even those members did not receive a full education themselves. The fight to break through the grips of a low-class job rested in my grandfather’s hands. My Pawpaw made a new way for my family through his schooling and career path, allowing brilliant opportunities with education and economic status for the next generations. However, he will never forget the past life as a southern farmer, laboring in the blazing sun.
I plan to interview my grandfather in order to better understand where my family came from and to hear about all of the struggles and trials they endured living in the Deep South in near poverty. I hope to take this opportunity to gain a new perspective, discover more about the past, and compare various lives based on the unfolding of novel history events.
Interview Questions:
1.What was life like as a child?
2.How close were you and your sister?
3.What was school like for you growing up?
4.When did you accept Christ?
5.How did you meet your wife?
6.What stories did your parents tell you about your ancestors?
7.Did you travel much growing up, and if so, where?
8.What jobs have you worked?
9.Which was your favorite job and why?
10.What is your favorite food and why?
11.What is your favorite memory with your parents?
12.What is your favorite thing about Alabama?
13.What comes to mind when you hear the word family?
14.When did you decide to help with the Clan Keith Society?
Bibliography:
Related to Jackson County, Alabama
Jackson, Harvey. Inside Alabama: A Personal History of My State. Tuscaloosa: The University of Alabama Press, 2004. Print
Miller, James. Remembering Scottsboro: The Legacy of an Infamous Trial. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2009. Print.
Vaughn, Susan. Life in Alabama. Montgomery: Dixie Book Company, Inc., 1937. Print.
Related to War
Campbell, Edward and Kym Rice. A Woman’s War: Southern Women, Civil War, and the Confederate Legacy. Richmond: The Museum of the Confederacy, 1996. Print.
Davis, William. Battle at Bull Run: A History of the First Major Campaign of the Civil War. Garden City: Doubleday and Company, Inc., 1977. Print.
Hart, Sideny and Rachael Penman. 1812: A Nation Emerges. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press, 2012. Print.
Related to Family Origins
Ancestry. n.p., n.d. Web. 14 Sept. 2015.
Thernstrom, Stephan. Harvard Encyclopedia of American Ethnic Groups. Cambridge: Belknap of Harvard University, 1980. Print.
Related to Historical Events
Bindas, Kenneth. Remembering the Great Depression In the Rural South. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2007. Print.
