The Ol' Hoosier Farmer

  • Jim "The Ol' Hoosier Farmer" Jones 1936 - 1992 I recall many a winter's evening, not long after the dinner dishes were scrubbed and left drying in the rack, the last load of firewood for the night was carried in and stacked into the woodbox next to the old pot-belly stove, emitting it's glorious warmth, my father sitting in his old battered recliner with his slippers off and feet up and the brand new issue of The Old Farmer's Almanac open on his lap. Though his glasses were balanced on the end of his nose so he could steal a peek at whatever was on the television, "The Dukes of Hazard" or maybe "Ellery Queen", his mind was always several months ahead, when the final frost at long last surrendered and left the ground thawed and ripe for tilling. He would ponder the layout of the garden. He knew just where the beans would be planted in that year's rotation. Perhaps the corn would go along the southern edge of the field instead of the eastern, gotta have room for the punkin's. Oh, and don't forget the patch at the back for the 'taters. Always intent on putting food on the table, Dad would grow enough to feed four families and still have some left to sell down at the local grocery store. Every year it seemed the garden got just a little bit larger. But that was Dad. Always trying to out perform the previous season. Every week for nearly twenty years amidst the tilling and weed pulling, Dad managed to find time to share his quaint farming life in the columns of The Ol' Hoosier Farmer for all to enjoy. Each article offered a bit of the fresh plowed earth and the sweet tastes of the fall's bountiful harvest. Dad's gone now. So is the local paper that ran his column. The memories will never fade. Come with me and take a moment to reflect back to happier times, to days when all ones cares evolved around whether we'd get enough wood cut before the first snowfall or if the corn was going to be knee high by the forth of July. Come spend some time with an Ol' Hoosier Farmer.

February 8, 1984