A Few Small Candles by Larry Gara Lenna Mae Gara

Author:Larry Gara, Lenna Mae Gara [Larry Gara, Lenna Mae Gara]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Nonfiction, History
ISBN: 9781612772004
Publisher: The Kent State University Press
Published: 2013-03-17T04:00:00+00:00

I did not tell my father how different and profound the instruction was to open the hymnal. Nor did I share with him that I also knew then that I would not register under any imaginable circumstance. I felt then that I was at the place of personal commitment Gandhi asked of his followers, “When using non-violent resistance, state the minimum objective of your resistance and be prepared to die for it.”

The experience at Junaluska would have to be considered a Christ-centered experience. In honesty, I should record here that since that time my religious thought has shifted from being Christ-centered Methodist to Quaker Universalist. The subtleties of the differences between these two are far beyond the scope of this paper. While I now think the Junaluska experience would have been different for a Quaker Universalist, I acknowledge that the Junaluska experience, whatever the explanation, completely resolved any doubts that I had about what I was supposed to do.

The second experience of note during the time between my arrest and being sentenced has to do with my relationship with my closest high school friends. According to my diary, on August 16, 1942, my younger brother, Bill, and I decided to visit our friends in Easley, South Carolina (115 miles from Columbia). We had moved to Easley when I was in the seventh grade. I had remained there to finish high school with my friends even though my family moved to Lancaster, South Carolina, midway through my senior year. During several months of this time, I lived with one of my best friends, Dupree Sitton.

When I arrived at the house where six of my friends, including Dupree, were sitting on the porch, I went over to shake hands with Dupree. Without a word, he got up and left, obviously angry and indignant. No one said a word about why Dupree had acted this way. According to my diary, only one of my six friends seemed to be relaxed in my presence. The other four, after Dupree left, were civil, but I had the feeling that they were noticeably reserved. Perhaps they were startled by Dupree’s behavior. Perhaps each of them wondered if any of the others felt like Dupree. I noted in my diary that even though they tried to act as if they were glad to see me, “it was that certain artificial gladness that I am becoming used to.” I had planned to stay in Easley overnight to visit with my friends, but after a short time with them I decided to spend the night with relatives in Greenville. I was very disappointed.

The third experience relates to my relationship with Emily Hinnant, a young girl in our church. We both thought we were very much in love. As soon as I was arrested, Emily’s parents angrily told her never to date me again. We did manage to see each other at church youth functions, but dates were almost out of the question. On one occasion when Emily was returning from an evening church program, Emily’s stepmother thought she had secretly dated me.

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