I wanted to document three stories handed down to me from my father from Samual Roberts. One of them I know is written here. They represent the oldest living oral history on my father’s side. First is the story where he was in his house as a child and watched a mule get struck by lightning out in the field. It was raining and he just happened to be looking at the mule when it happened. When the mule was struck it instantly dropped dead. It was core memory for him and stayed with him the remainder of his life. If I had to guess on a year, I’m guessing 1894 because I believe he was under 10 years old. He would have been around 8 years old.
The second story is regarding a man driving a car down the street and crashing into the ditch. Samual was a child. Imagine the old buggy type cars that had no steering wheel. Like an 1896 Ford Quadricycle. The man crashed into the ditch and as he crashed he pulled back on the steering assembly and yelled at his car like it was a horse. He screamed “Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!” Samual thought this was hilarious and told his kids the story many years later. One of those children, Jimmy Dale, remembered it and told it to me.
The third story was detailed in my dad’s own words when he wrote a biography of Samual. It is documented in this blog. It is the story where Samual attended a public hanging. I will insert the link to it below.
What is the future, if in the present, we never examine the past? 