Abandoned
Along The Grand Canyon
by
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Young Grayson was approached by the town marshal, “Grayson, you are going to be eighteen soon. You gotta sign up for the draft.”
“What’s a draft?”
“The government has you sign a paper and they call you into the Army when they need you. You can do it over at the General Store. The Post Office is inside now. The old building sprung a leak and the owner is going to tear it down. Widow King has the papers and she is running the Post Office now. Her oldest son used to run it, but he was drafted and she runs it and the store too.”
Grayson didn’t know that he could be exempted as the sole provider for his siblings and that farming and ranching was vital to the war effort. Of course they had told no one that their mom and dad were both dead. He was sure the Parsons knew and he thought the Pattersons did. They had not said a thing.
Grayson filled in the draft forms at the Post Office counter. Mrs. King, said, “I won’t send this in until after New Years. The government don’t do anything around Christmas no how. The date will be right and my stamp will have the right date. Nobody down in Phoenix at the state office will pay any attention. How’s that?” She rolled the date back to October on the rubber stamp.
“Fine, I wasn’t coming back into town until January anyhow. It’s ten days until my eighteenth birthday.” He was back at the ranch by nightfall.
He gathered his sister and two brothers around him in the kitchen, “I had to sign a draft paper today. If I get called to the Army, you will have to run the ranch. I’ll be gone off to war.”
Jimmy spoke up first, “I’m only a year younger than you were when mom died. I guess I can handle it.”
“I reckon so. It won’t be for a while yet. I just signed the papers and it will take a while to process. Mrs. King said she wouldn’t be mailing them out until sometime in January or maybe even February.”
Mrs. King laid the papers inside her desk drawer. The next day a yellow writing tablet slipped in on top of the completed forms. She forgot all about them.
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About the Book
The Great Depression was at its peak. The rancher, his wife, and four children just barely eked out a living. This story takes the reader from almost the start of the Great Depression to a couple of years after World War Two—the hard times, the good times, the sadness, and the happiness. This story is based on true events. The author knew the main character personally. The names, locality, and dates were all changed—of course.
About the Author
F. Eugene Barber was born on a sharecrop farm in the Midwest at the start of the Great Depression and attended a rural school with ten other students ranging from the first to the eighth grades. He worked on farms and ranches until joining the Air Force just after graduating from high school. Mr. Barber has worked and traveled all over the world; North and South America, Europe, the UK, Scandinavia, Turkey, Arabia, Russia, Russian Siberia, South Africa, Polynesia, China, Korea, Japan, and Australia. He and his wife, Yvonne, now reside in
Mr. Barber’s most recent project was for two years at the Birk Flight Test Center on Edwards AFB. He also holds a Nevada Real Estate License. He and his wife reside in Nevada.