Fred Craddock tells of vacationing in the Smoky Mountains. One evening he and his wife had gone to Black Bear Inn for dinner They were looking over the menu when an old man came over to the table and greeted them and began asking: if on vacation, good time, where from, and what did for living. When Fred said that he was a preacher, the old man pulled up chair and said, “Let me tell you about a preacher.”

“I was born back in these hills, my mother wasn’t married, and in those days you didn’t get over a thing like that. When go into town, people stare at her and me trying to guess who my father was. And the shame and reproach that was on her feel on me. And it hurt me so bad that I didn’t want to go anywhere with her. At school, I’d eat lunch behind tree…at recess I hid in weeds because kid…