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Coalminer,family man |
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This Swing holds so many memories. |
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Dock Sloan was born March 15,1893 in Pike
Co. KY,he was the son of Franklin Slone and
Lenoria Belle Brown, at the age of 20 he
married Pittie Blankenship on August 22,1913
in Sprigg, West Virginia, unto this marriage
was born 11 children.
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Dock lived his live as a coal miner .He was
a tall thin man standing 6ft. With big hands
and a big heart, he was soft spoken for a
man of his size ,standing tall with head
held erect he walked thru his 74 years of
life a happy man .He loved his wife Pittie
and was not ashamed to show it to the world
,not afraid to show affection as so many
men in that day did.
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There was a game Dock would play out with
his grandchildren, each summer all of Docks
children and grandchildren would go and spend
a week over the 4 the of July, sometime within
that week Dock would come to me and whisper
softly to come with him we were going to
sneak off all by ourselves .My grandfather
would take my hand and we would walk down
the hill to the country store where he would
buy me a ice cream cone or sometimes we would
walk to the tasty freeze where we would get
our favorite ,vanilla soft serve dipped in
chocolate we would eat our cones and talk
,then we would head back up the hill ,granddad
said not to tell the other children ,that
it was our secret , I never did tell.
This went on every year until my 12th birthday,
one day Dock called all his grandchildren
together and told my grandmother ,"Pittie
I am getting to old to be making all those
trips up and down that hill from now on I
am taking all the children at one time."
It was then that I realized this special
man play the same game with each and everyone
of his grandchildren , it was his way to
make each of us feel so important to him
and had us believing we were his favorite
Yes Dock was special ,this is my favorite
memory of the man I called my grandfather,
I'm sharing it with you so that you will
know what a great man he was He didn't build
bridges, nor was he famous, his greatest
accomplishment was that he worked hard to
provide a living to raise his children ,to
see that each of his grandchildren were made
to feel important , he gave love ,to his
God , his wife , his children and to his
grandchildren ......That was more then enough....
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One day Pittie went to school for a teachers
conference, and the teacher had ask Pittie,"
Mrs. Sloan please tell me what your name
is ".When Pittie told her ,she ask why.
the teacher replied that she had asked each
one of the children to stand and tell the
class what their parents names were and where
they lived ,when it came time for your son
Willie to stand he proudly stood and said
your name was Honey, I said no Willie I want
your mother's first name ,and again Willie
replied its Honey!!,I tried to explain to
him that Honey was not your real name ,but
your son Willie put his hands on his hips
and angry stated that yes your name was Honey
.I had to finally give up thanking that maybe
Honey really was your given name ...
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Used with the permission of the Artist
' Garden "
Bruce De Boer
@2001
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