Yevet Tenney

The sultry August day my grandfather passed away, I walked up the path under the willow trees. I noticed the group gathered around my grandfather’s lawn chair. I knew he was there. Tears stung my eyes. I couldn’t join the group.

Pain: What a terrible curse. Men under the threat of pain have revealed national secrets and abandoned family, country and religion. The cupboards of many Americans are filled with painkillers, and pharmacies do a booming pain-relieving business.

Recently, I have been recording family histories, and I found three stories I heard as a child that I thought my readers would like. Looking back to the past, there are stories that reveal the character and desires of our ancestors and shed light our own traditions and desires.

I had a conversation with a fellow student when we were in college, back in the Dark Ages. He said, “How are we different from the caveman? Do you know how to make a computer? Do you know how to do build a car?”

Before the invention of the compass, navigators looked up into the vast blackness of the sky and charted their course by the shimmering stars. During the day, the sun pointed the way.

My grandfather, Claude Despain, was considered one of the best dryland farmers in the White Mountains. He always had a good crop of beans and corn, though he depended mainly on rainfall during the monsoon seasons of Arizona, which at times were more abundant than others.