FARMERS: POST #55, JAUNARY 31, 2009

I am thankful that I grew up on a farm at Herman Junction. No, I didn't like the work in those days but now I look back with fondness and even to some extent long for a return to some of those days. I have known a lot of great people who chose farming for a vocation. Our country around Herman Junction was full of fine men who farmed for a living. They never got rich but they worked hard against bad weather, boll weevils, weeds and grass, and a lot of other things and provided for their families well.

I've talked about Booie Woods. What a farmer he was. He had a 'B' Farmall tractor that had the seat over on one side and the front wheels spread far apart. He kept two things on that tractor at all times. (1) A box of snuff. (2) A box of Arm and Hammer baking soda. The snuff gave him heart burn and the baking soda relieved it. I can see him today as he drove that tractor through the field or pulled a wagon load of cotton off to the gin and would flip me a dime or quarter to open the gate for him. His philosophy differed sharply from the other farmers. As I mentioned earlier, he would turn out the cows, pigs, geese, and everything to eat the grass out of the cotton. I didn't know anyone else who did that. But, he made a very good crop every year and was more well off than we there with his chrome dinette set and new TV. He also had a new Ford truck that I admired a lot.

Jim Norwood, Clarence Rodgers, Opp Rodgers, the Faulkenberry men, and the Furnish's all farmed near our home. Now, the houses are all gone. I remember also the Spencer boys and their farming. Some of them still farm at Bay and it seemed that every year one of the Spencer boys would bring in the first bale of cotton and they probably still do. Cecil Ashlock was a prominent farmer that we worked for some. Later his son, Ernie (Buck) took over the operation and farmed until he died far too young.

Today one of my favorite people is Carrol Wayne Morris and he has farmed big-time for many years in Mississippi. His wife Myra taught school until she retired. It has amazed me to hear Carroll talk about how many bales of cotton that they pick nowadays in just one day. Our whole family worked really hard to pick one bale a day and sometimes we failed. Farming sure has changed. Carroll took me out to a farm one day and showed me a cotton picker that costs $450,000! I thought, "Man if I had $450,000 I wouldn't buy a cotton picker with it" but that just show how little I know about farming.

I wish that I could literally go back to Herman Junction for just one day and see all those farmers in the field making their crops. BUT, I DON'T WANT TO CHOP NOR PICK ANY OF IT!