Homer carried a burden on his head of five generations of Smithfields that went back to the Civil war. One night--or maybe many, no one really knew but let imaginations draw the most romantic scandal--two lovers slept together by the river that wound its way through Smithfield land.
What is scandal lest it fingerprint the future?
Children were born. They grew up and married and had children. Who grew up and had children. And so it went through Homer and Addie and their own.