Old Pa

I suppose in everyone’s life there are those people we have met in our childhood, who stand out in our minds. Such is the person, lovingly known to me as “Old Pa”, who I think of, when I remember my childhood.
I grew up on the beaches of Florida, and my family was what people would consider today as “poor folk”. My dad worked very hard to eek out a living for my family. He spent most of his working years as a contractor. Yet, he did provide for us and I can’t ever remember going without food or clothes. We lived in a little four room house up Cave Holler Road in Bartow County.
A little ways up the road lived “Old Pa”. I remember him as wearing baggy pants held up by suspenders, and some type of old worn out brown leather jacket. His hair wa...