Servinemup

The Beloved Warrior

Thanksgiving Day, 1945


L.T. Washington was working at the saw mill (yeah..they made the n’gaz work ON Thanksgiving day!) in Calion, Arkansas. Being a newlywedded young man (he married his wife, Gladys Hall of El Dorado earlier that year), he came home for lunch to eat his Thansgiving dinner. Country folks call lunch-dinner and they call dinner-supper. His mother-in-law was over from El Dorado, visiting her pregnant daughter and cooking a hen and some cornbread dressing.

When he left for work early that morning, at the crack of dawn, he could tell his wife was acting a bit funnier than usual. But he didn’t think too much of it, because of all his time of being married, his wife had been cranky and irritable for most of it. And when Gladys Hall (now Washington) wants to clown and act a fool, EVERYBODY flees the premises, like roaches scattering when the lights come on.

He was glad that his mother-in-law was there, to help ease the burden on his wife and also give her somebody else to fuss at besides him. "L.T., where ya been?? L.T. where you going?? L.T.! L.T.! L.T.!!!" She was constantly screaming his name in an irritated voice whenever she saw him. It was almost as if the SIGHT of him made her sick and upset. Pregnancy does that to women sometimes.

So as he walked onto his front porch and took off his hat before he opened the door to go inside the house, he took a deep breath and prepared himself for the worst. Sometimes he could just walk through the door to a barrage of questions, accusations and cussings, hopefully his mother-in-law would have calmed his wife down. Or better yet, she’d be asleep.

But when L.T. opened that door and walked into the house, he saw a sight that made him stop dead in his tracks in incredulous amazement. His wife was sitting up in her sitting chair and she was smiling and even more than that, she was quiet. She looked at him with a smile on her face and didn’t say one word. That in itself was a miracle, but the cause of that smile this Thanksgiving didn’t have anything to do with a turkey. His wife was smiling, because right there in her hands, was a big fat baby boy, sucking greedily and holding a tit with one hand and holding a drumstick with the other!

L.T. Washington’s first born son had arrived!

He instantly knew what his name would have to be. L.T.’s grandfather was a Baptist preacher and he made sure that they all were in church and knew about what thus saith the LORD every Sunday when they was growing up. And L.T.’s favorite Bible story was the one of David and Goliath. David was just a young boy when he slew Goliath, but he was destined to be a man after God’s own heart. A man through who’s bloodline the promised Messiah would generate from. David was a warrior. David was a king.

So he named his son David and when it came to a middle name, he thought about that too. A lot of black men from the country don’t have a middle name, but his son would. Because L.T. knew what it meant to grow up without a name. He was born L.T. Washington. People ask him what the L and the T stands for and he tells them, "It don't..that’s just my name..L.T.” He even tried to tell those white folks that when he went to sign on with Calion lumber company, but they wouldn’t go for that. The white man at the counter even told him, “Yer name cain’t just be L.T.?? You gotta put something down for first and middle name..whatcho name boy???”

It was a time when he knew he needed this job for his family to survive. So he had to swallow his pride and acquiesce to the white man’s demands, so he made up a name. Louis Thomas. The L.T. stands for Louis Thomas. That’s just the first names that popped into his mind. Joe Louis. Thomas Jefferson..he wasn’t the most learned man in the world, but he knew those names.

With a first name like David, you gotta have a strong name to go beside it. Something that flowed. A lot of men would have gone for the plain L.T. Washington Jr…but that wasn’t a good enough name for his first born son. David is a king's name, for royalty, like those Kings and Queens, and Dukes and Earls over in the British kingdom. That’s it!! Earl!! It also happened to rhyme with his wife’s middle name, Erdelle. But you can't say that name out too loud, cuz Gladys always kept her middle name a secret from most folks, cuz she didn’t like her middle name. L.T didn’t even know what her middle name was until they had to get their marriage license!

David is a Hebrew name which translates to ‘Beloved’.

Earl is an Old Englishe name which translates to 'Warrior'.

David Earl.

The Beloved Warrior.



Happy Birthday Dad!!! 60 Years???!!!! WOWW!!!! That's a BIG one!!! :)