03/28/2024
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Woke up early this AM and for some reason, my thoughts related to changes in how we do things on a daily basis … in rural Bladen County.

Ever wonder why some of our roads are built the way they are and where they are? Younger folks never knew Gov. Kerr Scott. As a youngster, I remember hearing the grown-ups talking about ‘farm to market’ roads … roads that many times looked like a child with a crayon and a plain sheet of paper, may have done the planning…

Farm to market roads accommodate the most people, mostly farmers. They are crooked, bending right and left, going near many rural homes … and that was by design. … Gov. Scott attempted, so I am told, to make it easier for farmers to get their farm products to market. … May not make a lot sense today, but they were built for a purpose … and that was good, many years ago.

Thought also about how many farmers, including sharecroppers, had much smaller acreage than today. … A few acres of tobacco (the #1 money crop at that time), peanuts, cotton, corn and beans, many times 5 acres or less per crop back then, compared to hundreds of acres farmed today by a very few…

Many who lived in the country had swine (hogs), but in a fence, most raised to provide food on the table, today thousands of hogs in large buildings, all raised for national conglomerates that help feed folks all around the world. In the 50s and 60s, most families had a cow or two that provided milk daily. … Several dairies in the county during that time … none today, that I am aware of…

Very few blueberries in the early days … today, massive farms of berries that are shipped out fresh daily (springtime) all across the US.

As I reflect, those farm to market roads, a top priority for a governor who served this great state in the mid to late 50s, continues to make life better for us all. … He was known as the “The Squire of Haw River” and his supporters were popularly know as “Branchhead Boys.”

Your history lesson for today…

Stock market down, politic rhetoric at a fever pitch in DC…

Good weather forecast. … High in the 50s, sunny with wind…

You never know what makes some people tick until they begin to unwind.

People may doubt what you say, but they will always believe what you do.

A day hemmed in prayer is less likely to unwind.

robert g hester
rgh4612@gmail.com
910-876-2322

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