I received an email from a reader of my blog, who asked me why I seldom used names of many persons that I wrote about. To answer his question, I could write a long lists of reasons, but, instead I will use an illustration that will explain it a lot better.
When I was 7 years old, I was spending my summer vacation with my maternal grandparents in South Fork, Pennsylvania. One Sunday morning I went to church and Sunday school with my grandmother. During Sunday school classes, a girl tried to kiss me. I told her to get away from me. And I told her she was ugly. The girl began to cry and went and told the teacher what I had said. As we walked home from church my grandmother did not say anything.
Later that day when I was sitting on the front porch with my grandfather, he said "I heard you said something to a little girl today that made her cry". I immediately protested "But, grandpa, I'm telling the truth. I didn't tell a lie. She is ugly". He sat there, looking at me for a short time and said: " I believe you, that you are telling me the truth, but, we can't go around hitting people on the head with the truth".
Its been over 65 years since that wise man (Andrew Boyle) said those words to me. I have always remembered to do that as much as possible.
CLYDE
