A Feeling of Worth

“Granpa said if a hound or anybody else has got no feeling of worth, then it’s a bad thing.”
The Education of Little Tree by Forrest Carter


When I was a little girl, I pretty much lived in my Peppaw’s shadow. As far as I was concerned, the sun rose and set wherever he was. I think he felt the same about me. Now, I couldn’t tell that by the words he spoke because he was a man of few words. But, his actions pretty much gave him away.

Year round my Peppaw worked in his shop. (Well, that really isn’t the truth – he really just “messed around” in his shop… most days just to hide out from Granny.) The summer I was probably seven or eight years old, I spent a lot of time with Peppaw in that shop, too.

Every morning, by the time I finished with my breakfast,got my play clothes on and made my way down the road to his house, he was already in that shop. And I wanted to help him with whatever he was “working” on each day.

His shop had some sort of machine it – I don’t know what it was – and I remember one day he told me that he needed spark plugs to make it work. He said that he thought he saw a couple of spark plugs out in the yard just the other day, and if I found three spark plugs, he would give me a penny for each one.

Well, it took me quite a while, but I found those spark plugs. I was so excited because I found what Peppaw needed. We were going to be able to “fix” whatever he was working on, and I was even going to get some money.

The very next day, the same exact thing happened… and the day after that… and the day after that. It never dawned on me to question the number of spark plugs that machine used – or how many spark plugs Peppaw and Granny had in their yard. I just loved being included in a project with the most important person in my life that summer.

I know now that Peppaw could’ve bored pretty quickly with having a snotty-nosed kid hanging around day after day. He could’ve sent me right back home and spent the day in peace. But what did he do? He gave me a very important "job" that I could do to help him with his "work". He gave me a feeling of worth.

Peppaw was a poor man, but he filled my life with riches beyond measure.