Uncle George Hancock; 1913 - 2004

The class assignment was to make your family tree. Me: Mom, where were you born?Mom: Williston, South Carolina in 1911.Me: Can you tell me anything more? Mom: Go look it up in those encyclopedias your Uncle sent you. Mom, on the couch, back to the television, chillin’, dis-remembering sharecropping, brutalities, and killings suffered by her family, witnessed during her childhood. She didn’t want me climbing on those branches. Uncle George & me Uncle George sent me, for my birthday, a set of World Book encyclopedias.My grades were good enough and I got my wish.Unfortunately, Williston, South Carolina was not in the books. Uncle George; age 90 It wasn’t until 2003 that I learned what the dis-remembering was really all about.I visited Uncle George at his West Virginia home and he told me what Mom wouldn’t. Enough time had passed. We hung out for about a week.I drove his car, taking him everywhere he wanted to go.Everyone knew him and everyone knew me before the week was out. “I’m on my…