Carolina Sugar Cane: "It Takes a Lot of Heat to Make a Little Sweetness"

The Luton family of Sound Neck had very little in the way of material possessions, but what they did have -- was worth more than any precious silver or gold. They had a love for each other that was "sweeter than molasses" and warmer than the hickory-scented flame that burned brightly in the fireplace of the front room of their old house in northeastern North Carolina. Bill and Emma Luton and their four children, Myrtie, Willie, Beadie, and little Roosevelt lived by the adage: "It takes a lot of heat to produce a little bit of sweetness." This applied equally to making molasses out of sugar cane as well as to life in general. What the Lutons learned in that little house in lower Weeksville was too valuable to keep to themselves, so they passed it on down through the generations. Their legacy continues to inspire and shape the lives of many grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

In Carolina Sugar Cane, one of our characters, Reuben James stands by the graveside of a dear friend and says, "I just hope they won't forget us." The fruit of this hope is an assured legacy, one born of a grandmother's love for her grandchildren and her desire for them to know about the people who shaped her life and still lived in her soul. Now, through a grandmother's stories, connections can be made with amazing people who once lived and breathed and laughed and cried, hoped and despaired—dear family members who participated in the whole gamut of the human life experience. People who will never be forgotten.