| Here is this book that was old in l959. George | | | | removed to the laundry.' George describes a new |
| Washington Carver (the renowned head | | | | level of consciousness within himself, an epiphany |
| professor of the Agriculture Department at | | | | if you will. He says he sat down and really |
| Tuskegee University; researcher into, and | | | | contemplated the situation with all his might: what |
| promoter of, alternative crops to cotton in the | | | | 'clean' is. Each and every item in the cabin, and |
| Reconstruction South; a man openly praised by | | | | each and every square inch of the cabin, had to |
| President Theodore Roosevelt) was born a slave, | | | | be nothing but 'cabin.' He saw several things she |
| and was a sickly child to boot. In the book, he is | | | | had still not mentioned. |
| being interviewed as to what started him on his | | | | This time he took a long time. Hours. He was |
| path from that ghetto predicament to being the | | | | energized, he says. He was in an altered state. |
| famous scientist. | | | | And this time when he called the lady, she praised |
| He said it all started with cleaning a cabin. The | | | | his work, said it was truly clean, and gave him |
| woman who ran the place where he was a young | | | | that promotion. |
| slave told him if he got this filthy dwelling place | | | | That is where his success started, George |
| clean, he would be an indoor worker. But 'it really | | | | Washington Carver reports in this old interview. |
| has to be clean, George. Call me when you have | | | | This is the man who made it his destiny to better |
| finished, and I will inspect your work.' She was | | | | the lives of subsistence farmers in the South. He |
| favoring him. He describes being awed by her, the | | | | researched what crops would put the nitrogen |
| smell of her clothes, and really wanting to please | | | | back into the soil for them, he developed a |
| her. She was from another world to him. George | | | | training program to implement the crop rotation, |
| was born in l894, so this scene happened a little | | | | and developed peanut and sweet potato varieties |
| after 1900. He describes cleaning the place and | | | | for that purpose, then went farther to develop |
| proudly calling her. | | | | more than 300 products just for peanuts and 118 |
| 'Oh, no. This isn't clean. See over there, see that.' | | | | for sweet potatoes. He bettered the lives of |
| George describes his insight into what 'clean' was: | | | | those around him. He was so far ahead of his |
| a whole new concept. He did as she instructed, | | | | time he promoted peanut oil as a biofuel. |
| and then cleaned some more things on his own. | | | | He would probably have been a success if the |
| Surely now, he will have succeeded. | | | | lady hadn't asked him to clean the cabin, but that, |
| 'Well George, that is much better, but you forgot | | | | he says, is the way it actually did happen: That |
| the window sill, and those covers have to be | | | | was the actual turning point. |