2021/2022
Collection 17

Whipped

c. 1955; Montgomery, Alabama, USA

It was summer in the mid-1950s in Montgomery, Alabama, and my great-grandma Lucille Bender was thirty-six years old. She was driving on a dusty country road with her two daughters, Sharon and Beverly. While they were riding on the dirt road, they saw a commotion in the pasture of the farm just off the side of the road. The pasture fences looked as old as their house, which dated back to around the late 1800s. There was a tall man wearing denim overalls with faded spots at the knees. He wore a short-sleeved white-and-red-plaid shirt. There was also a beautiful white horse that had brown spots on it. The horse was lying on the grass in the pasture, making a whimpering sound. The man was hunched over the horse and whipping it with a leather whip. The horse looked fully grown, but it looked pained as it received repeated blows.

My great-grandma, who had a serious love for animals, was horrified by the scene. She pulled over, got out of her car, and angrily marched over to the man while her daughters stared out the windows in awe. Sharon and Beverly were surprised that their mom would ever consider confronting a man, but they knew her reason was important. Animal rights wasn’t a big issue at the time, but they took after their mother and felt that the horse should be treated humanely. They cared for animals as they cared for each other.

Lucille started yelling at the man. She was rolling on about how rude it was to hurt any animal, and that the man should care for animals as he would care for himself. He had a bald head and an angry face. His tight grip on the whip and his angered face showed that he was considering whipping Lucille. She was a very observant person. But she didn’t back down.

Lucille and the man argued for a good ten minutes before the man agreed to stop whipping the horse and Lucille agreed not to call the police. She stormed back into the car. Her daughters were sitting in silence as their mom angrily drove the rest of the way down the narrow country road, but their mom was smiling with a little bit of pride. The dust was rolling from the tires as they drove toward the sunset.

Auden McElwain; Missouri, USA

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