A Story Of A Forgotten Hero - Turning Back The Pages Of Time
by Emerson Watkins

The heart of this exciting tale revolves around an 118-year- old African American, Tippy Pendarvis, who was born five years after the Civil War, during the height of the post- Reconstruction period.

Very few men can cram so much interest and excitement into118 years as does Tippy Pendarvis. He survives the cruel hardships that life deals him. Now, though, his leaves are fallen, his branches are withered, and his aged trunk will soon be planted. He is an old man now; his long and eventful life is nearing its close. He feels the weight of years, but he can look back into the far, dim past without regrets concerning any overt act done to him. His conscience is clear, and he believes that a just God has pardoned him for whatever sins he may have committed. But before he departs to meet his Maker, he asks for a little more time to finish his story.

What is important in this story is not so much the plot with its expected ending, but the absurd, brutal life Tippy is subjected to. He is a man who has run the full gamut of social hardship and experienced the complete panorama of degradation, a man whose courage and devotion under the most trying circumstances have caused mankind to wonder in silent admiration. Truly the world knows nothing of some of its greatest heroes, for there are noble men and women who die without fanfare. There are heroes without the laurels and conquerors with the triumph. So, you must judge for yourself the sum total of his life, including the nobility of his character and the strength of his accomplishments. You must place yourself as much as possible within the past, and try to imagine the conditions under which he lived and worked.