This community he had created atop those unforgiving mountains was one of which he wanted the entire world to truly understand, yet with its unlawful nature produced trouble of its own.
While the bounty of American Ginseng was extremely profitable, the Preacher cared little of material possessions, life had taught him family is not forged only by blood. Using his interpretation of “religion” and people’s distrust, Waylin became known as the Preacher of the Trail, yet unlike the forgiving nature preached by other churches, Preacher addressed law as “sin” with Nature’s wraith. A lack of remorse and brutal exterior soon had Waylin being one of many feared and respected mountain men. At roughly seventeen, Waylin found himself atop the Appalachian Trail, a lawless land upon the mountain as the new gold rush of American Ginseng took solid footing. He spoke little and kept to himself, away from man’s judgement and laws. A son of the streets and outcast amongst men, with only a bible in hand. Be it a fear of raising yet another child himself, or the sin of adultery, Waylin soon became a vagabond.
As the “bible” spoke to him, and hallucinogenic use allowed the earth to "speak", Waylin grew to believe the story written in the good book were written by man and not as nature had intended.īy his mid-teens, Waylin’s mother found herself pregnant yet again. One to be accepted as a true son of natures law. As his mother’s acceptance was once what guided him, time soon had him find a deeper desire. A clear message of just how far from nature the world had become. There was something in vengeance and wraith that spoke to him. Although a paranoid mother would not allow the children much exposure to the outside world, Waylin found peace in an old bible within the home. We all find ways to cope with childhood trauma, and the new man of the house was no different.
Baptized by fire and earning respect, Waylin finally felt accepted. Emotion showed weakness.įor the first time in what appeared to be many years, Waylin’s mother embraced the child as they watched the remains of his father return to the earth in the flames of an old tire burn pit just south of the family home. In a quest for approval, Waylin was instructed to burn the remains of his mysteriously now deceased father and truly become the man of the home. Grey grew tired of the destructive home and, in a drug induced state, declared Waylin the man of the home. It was the 1960s, cocaine and heroin riddled the streets in his youth, and the unsolved homicide rate coined this era of Louisiana history as the “Dark Bayou”. As the eldest child, responsibility weighed heavy on the boy, frequently navigating his mother’s overdosing and his father’s abusive nature. This struggle to survive would later create the man he is today. Drug abuse and poverty lead the six siblings of the Grey home to raise themselves. Born in the bayous of Louisiana, Waylin Arthur Grey’s upbringing was not one of a standard home.
0 kommentar(er)
