The Field Hands

Ours was an operating farm with crops and beef cattle.  We usually had at least two field hands working and sometimes there would be several more.  Mamma cooked for everyone and the hands would come to "dinner" at noon and we would generally have leftovers for "supper" at around 6:00.  She would cook 4 pounds of round steak or 3 fried chickens or two big roasts and we would always have whatever vegetable was available in the garden.  We grew a lot of green beans, lima beans and field peas in those days.

The field hands were Billy, Rufus, Odell and sometimes Harold, Walt, Gus and Broadus.  I remember that Broadus was killed in a "club" in Cokesbury by a man that brought a gun to a knife fight. Walt was cut with a knife and dumped on the railroad track. It took several hundred stitches to get him back together. Billy, Rufus and Odell were either drafted or enlisted in the Army at an early age.  Gus, who was in his 50's in those days remained in the area and worked for us on and off until he was in his mid seventies.  At 72  years of age, he could shoulder a 250 pound creosote post and walk away with it.