We called him Lidgie which is short for Elijah. Everyone knew that Lidgie was a Melungeon from off Newmans Ridge because his last name was Collins and he had many of the Melungeon physical features including coal black hair, blue eyes and olive skin. Lidgie came into my life when my Uncle Rector hired him to help with farm work; later my father hired him to help on our farm as well. Lidgie and wife Liddie were always a part of my growing up years.
During the 1950-60's Melungeons were considered by the US census as 'freed people of color' which meant that they were not African Americans, but in a category of their own. However the only part of that definition that ever seemed to matter where I lived was the words, "of color". Melungeons were treated as negros in that they were socially shunned; got little to no education; were bribed for their votes; were paid low wages, and lived on poor land on Newmans Ridge. They survived by hard work and truck farming.
Uncle Rector returned to Hancock County following WWII with an honorable discharge after his aircraft bomber was shot down in enemy territory in Yugoslavia. He survived with the help of local peasants and eventually found his way back to the Allies and his platoon. When he returned to Hancock County he went to work as a high school math teacher. A few years later he was made principal of the high school, then he ran for county superintendent of schools. It didn't take him long to decide that he didn't care for politics. He never ran for public office again. Instead he took up farming and became a rural mail carrier. Lidgie was hired to help with the chores that Uncle Rec could not manage with his other jobs. Lidgie was also hired to help with our farm work when my father became disabled following a severe heart attack.
I don't know if it was his war experiences or whether it was just who he was, but when Uncle Rec hired Lidgie the social rules changed with regard to how Lidgie would be treated. He paid him a very good salary; provided him with health and dental care and the transportation to get it; had him sign up for Social Security; encouraged him to vote for who he wanted; and built a new house for him on the farm complete with running water, electricity, and an indoor bathroom with flush toilet and a bathtub. When he worked for us we paid his social security and the same wages he was paid by Uncle Rec. He always ate at our table and attended our Christmas and other social functions.
Lidge loved the apple trees on our farm. He was especially fond of the red delicious apple tree in the pasture field across from the kitchen window. The whole community loved these apples and, like Lidgie, looked forward to them each fall. During the summer one year the red delicious apple tree blew down. It was a sad sight for Lidgie to see the roots of his favorite tree all exposed. He was given the job of chopping up the tree for wood. Two years after the tree blew down Lidgie was still talking about how he missed that red delicious apple tree.
Somewhere between Thanksgiving and Christmas on the second year after the tree blew down Lidgie paid us a visit and he brought with him two new brooms and two new jar mops. This was a surprise because Lidgie had never given Christmas gifts, but he said these were gifts for us and for Aunt Fay and Uncle Rector. He said, "I want you to look at them handles on the brooms and the mops; they's not a knot or splinter on 'em." "Now, rub your hands over 'em and feel how smooth they are!" Then without much pause, he said, "I just couldn't let that apple tree wood be burned up in the stove so I saved some of it and used it to make the handles on the brooms and the jar mops." There was a longer pause and he continued, "I saved back some of the wood from that apple tree and let it dry out real good." "This year I made the broom and jar mop handles from that wood so that the tree could live on in a new way."
Uncle Rector had the vision that Lidgie's life could be better if he saw that he had access to the things others had. Lidgie had a vision that an apple tree that he loved could live on in a new way if it could be transformed into four useful handles for brooms and jar mops. What I learned from each of these two men was that the visions they had for themselves and others can live on long after their passing.
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