Just A Small Town Boy (Part 2) | Oppressed By The Man Of God
As a child, DeLeon attended the local grade schools in Willows. Although he had a rare bone disease (Osteogenesis Imperfecta), he and his brothers where athletically built and wanted to participate in sports like football, dive swimming, weight lifting, and track & field. However, the pastor of their church denied them these privileges and made them do very laborious work mowing roughly an acre of the churches lawn with a push mower which was situated right behind their house.
Even though their pastor was a black man, DeLeon felt like he treated them as if they where his personal servants. Although their pastor harassed and ridiculed all of Alfred & Gussie sons from time to time, he specifically picked on DeLeon more than his other siblings.
He gave DeLeon the nick name George. The name George in Greek means tiller of the ground, or farmer. However, black slaves owners in America would give this name to slaves they felt had a certain kind of relationship with them more than others slaves.
In addition, to the field work their pastor demanded, only DeLeon was assigned the task of giving their pastor a pedicure. He had to clean his feet picking out all the gunk (toe jam) underneath his toe nails and then used toe nail clippers to cut his nails.
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