Weather forecast for today is sunny, northerly wind 10 to 13 mph, with gusts as high as 20 mph, clear tonight with temps in low 40s. Monday, sunny, high in the low 70s and then the temp begins to move up. From Tuesday thru Saturday, mostly sunny with highs in the low to mid 80s. It’s a most wonderful time of the year.
Remember springtime as a youngster. Sundays were fun, go to church, come home and enjoy a country lunch (fried chicken dinner), and spend most of the afternoon playing baseball in the cow pasture. The large dark spots were not the bases, remember, we were sharing space with the cows, many times only 4 or 5 players on a team.
No TV, mostly AM radio and the nearest stations were WTSB in Lumberton and WFNC in Fayetteville, later WENC in Whiteville. That varied depending on location. WRRZ in Clinton for those to the north, and for those in eastern Bladen, the Wilmington stations. Later, WTAB in Tabor City, featuring Troy McPherson, and in the mid 50s, WBLA Elizabethtown and WFMO in Fairmont. I may have missed one or two.
Then came TV, WECT was one of the few that could be seen with ‘rabbit ears’, looked like a huge snow storm in July.
Mostly, farmers tilled the soil with mules or horses, tractors were being introduced. Ford, Farmall, Massy Ferguson, Allis Chalmers, a putt-putt John Deere & International. Probably forgetting others, but change was on the way for farmers.
Tobacco plants grown in a bed and transplanted by hand, weeding peanuts and corn, on foot, following a horse or mule with the dust so thick you could barely see or be seen. Cropping tobacco, stacking peanuts, picking cotton by hand, those were the days my friend, I thought they would never end. Life was good, but not easy, actually looked better in the rear-view mirror of life.
Sorry, realize that many cannot relate, but such was the life of a sharecropper’s son or daughter in rural Bladen in the 40s and 50s.
Don’t judge those that made the journey by where they are today, without comparing where their journey began, and there were many who traveled a similar path. A good life, a tough road, but a great place to begin. Few regrets.
Sorry, knee deep in memories as warmer weather returns.
Farmers don’t just work ’til the sun goes down … they work ’til the job gets done.
In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt. Margaret Atwood
Life is either a daring adventure or it is nothing. Helen Keller
In winter’s chill or summer heat … A farmer works so we can eat. Thank you farmers.
robert g hester
rgh4612@gmail.com
910-876-2322
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