Friday Faces from the Past - My Daddy

 

Gilbert Earl Tapley
b. 19 June 1928 in Johnson County, Georgia, USA
d. 15 December 2008 in Augusta, Richmond, Georgia, USA

    There are no baby photos of my father.  His father died when he was 7 years old, his mother was raising six children on her own and working as many jobs as she could to feed them all; there was no extra money for photographs. 

    This picture is from about 1942-43, when Daddy was 14 years old.  It was taken at the boys' home, or as it is called today, the Youth Detention Center, in Milledgeville, Georgia. 

    What crime did he commit? Well, he TRIED to siphon gas out of a truck. He didn't get any gas, but Grandma (Nealie Drake Tapley 1895-1970) turned him in.  I think she was overwhelmed.  He was the youngest and he was giving her fits. So she tried tough love. 

    Daddy spent 16 months or so in the boys' home.  He often said he spent his 15th birthday there.  They taught him to cut hair there.  He ran away once and managed to hitchhike all the way to Jacksonville, Florida.  He got a job and was doing quite well.  Until Grandma's sister saw him and turned him in.  Even after that adventure, he got out of the boys' home before he turned 16. 

    His time there shaped the rest of his life. He was a law abiding citizen from then on. He hated ground beef because evidently ground meat was frequently served in the boys' home. He didn't like to be cooped up or told what to do. Those months made the deepest impact on his soul of anything else he went through in his life.