A special inheritance Story by Steve A. Maze Photos from the author’s collection
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y grandfather’s character was one I used to size up all men. I guess that’s why a lot of them never measured up. A simple lifestyle gave Paw Paw – a name he preferred and one he cherished – the greatest pleasure. Paw Paw was a hard-work and nononsense type of man. His work clothes consisted of overalls, brogan shoes, longsleeved shirts and a broad-brimmed straw hat. He was similar to a blue collar worker who carried a lunch pail to his job. The only difference was the lack of a name patch sewn above his shirt pocket. He rose before the fields shook off the morning dew to work in the dust and buzzing insects on his little farm in northeast Cullman County. After sunset, he would milk the cow inside his barn of weathered wood turned gray by years of hot sun, rain and cold winters. Paw Paw then walked to the house he hand-built of sawmill lumber back in 1911 to enjoy Grandma’s good cooking. He was small of stature, but his muscular body looked to be put together by a welder. His face resembled a clenched fist from the long hours under the fierce sun that boiled the sweat on his leathery brow. Paw Paw’s soft and loving heart was totally different from his hard-bitten outward appearance, however. His rough, calloused hands could gently and lovingly hold one of his dozen grandchildren. And he never failed to find each of us a shiny quarter in his change purse when we sat atop his knee.
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fter a rain-shortened day in the fields, he might join us grandkids in a corncob battle behind the barn, or allow us to swim in the creek that ran through his property. Even though he believed hard work was the key to being lucky, Paw Paw indulged us while we scrambled to find four-leaf clovers hiding in his luscious green pasture. He taught us to toss horseshoes – which he had hammered into shape on his anvil – over our left shoulder in an attempt to find good fortune. 46
AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER 2021
Jay Hugh “Paw Paw” Maze photographed with his wife, the former Earlie Bannister, and daughters Fleecie and baby Lorene, circa 1913.
