Good Name - More Desirable than Riches

Well, how are you adjusting to the first Monday of fall without Daylight Savings Time?  Last night I wasn't at all sleepy at 11:00, probably due to the fact that I napped almost all Sunday afternoon.  This morning I'm awake and up before daylight, as usual.  I would venture to say that my Grandpa Gaddis would have rebelled against Daylight Savings time and refused to change his clocks with the seasons!  He would have thought it was ridiculous, since he also refused to turn on a light in the house until it was dark-thirty. 

I definitely come from frugal stock on my mother's side of the family.  To my knowledge, my grandparents (father or mother's) never even owned a car.  Wow, that's amazing, isn't it!  We can't even imagine going a day without one, much less a lifetime. 

I always thought my Grandpa Gaddis was a very tall man until I found his height listed on Ancestry.com.  According to his WWI draft registration, he was 5'11" tall.  He always wore a hat, and by comparison, my grandmother was only 4'11" tall.  The contrast between the two made him seem very tall, indeed.  Grandma Gaddis was a tiny, feisty woman with extremely long, white hair worn coiled up into a bun.  I loved to brush out her long hair when they would come to our house for an extended visit.  My mother, the eighth of nine children,  couldn't remember her mother without white hair.  Birthing nine children (at home) probably drove the color right out!

In his lifetime, my grandfather farmed and worked in the copper mines of Tennessee.  They later moved to Clover, South Carolina, where they sharecropped on Duke Power land.  As Grandpa got older I imagine farming alone became too difficult, so they moved to North Belmont, North Carolina, where he worked for a time at the Firestone Mill.  By the time I came along (the last of bookoodles of grandchildren), he had most likely retired.

My grandfather was a true gentleman who treated my grandmother like a queen.  In my entire life, I can't recall ever hearing him raise his voice to anyone.  Although he was economical with regard to material possessions, he saved in order to leave a little something behind for each of his children.  However, the greatest inheritance he bestowed upon all of us is a life lived well, a Christian heritage, a good name, one that each of his descendants can be proud to share.

Proverbs 22:1:  "A good name is more desirable than great riches; to be esteemed is better than silver or gold." - NIV

Copyright 2011 Laney's Musings