Life’s Tapestry
If life’s a tapestry, my stitches were placed strong and tight, in parallel fashion, beside my cousin Artie’s. They weren’t fancy because that isn’t our people, but they were sewn with a lasting, quality thread. Whatever the final product may have been lacking in trend and style was squared up with durability and creative function. That tapestry multi-tasked. It could be used as rug, blanket, wall hanging, tarp, rain slicker, most anything, because that’s who we were, who we are, who we will always be.
It started with our Grandaddies, Clyde Evelyn Barber and Arthur Calton Barber being born brothers. This relation made Artie’s dad, Arthur, and my mom, Jean, first cousins. Artie’s daddy was named after my grandaddy, creating two Arthur Barbers – one uncle and one nephew, in our small community. Grandaddy went by Arthur, Calton, Calt, AC, and Mr. Barber. He was called Grandpa, Paw Paw, and Grandaddy by us grandkids. My grandaddy was not a man of many words so the fact that he had this many name references is a bit baffling, yet it wouldn’t have been his nature to expend energy on others to straighten things out. While we are a simple kind of folks, it's complicated. It’s who we were, are, and always will be.