In Honor of Father's Day 2022

His life example taught me to never hold a grudge and that you never get too old for adventure. Maybe the first made the second possible? My dad, R.C. Mathis, lived open heartedly. I want to pay tribute this year by sharing a collective story my brothers put together and that my sister-in-law , MaryAnn Mathis, captured.

Picking up rocks

Today’s field is only 20 acres of organic corn.

We are in the Ranger taking 12 rows at a time to look for rock.

Jim points out broken field tiles.

His father had every tile line memorized. RC never wrote them down.

May 6, 1935 FDR created the WPA, Works Progress Administration, putting millions of people back to work.

One of the projects was hand digging the tile ditches for the farms!

Jim told me some of those ditches were so deep the man at the bottom couldn’t lift the dirt out by himself! He’d need a man above him to help!

RC, Jim’s dad, sold rolling cultivators. Jim and RC’s hired farm worker would go to the farms and adjust the cultivator for the farmer. Jim remembers being at Merlin Harris’ farm adjusting the cultivator. Inez Harris, Merlin’s wife, would catch anyone stepping on a corn plant!!!

I was stepping more carefully after that story!!

Way before Jim’s time, RC told him, sometimes they would find a rock so big they would have to take dynamite to break it up!!!!!

Picking up rock today, picking up memories!!!! by MaryAnn Mathis

Then my brother Chip added this:

I got to hear and see when the rock guys used 13 sticks of dynamite and then 10 more sticks North East of seed house for 1 rock leaving a hole big enough for Jim's VW car and a lot of pieces !!

One of the "rock guys" put 1/2 stick covered with some mud on top of rock, and was standing on top when fuse was lit. Just a little rumble and rock popped out of ground without hurting the rock guy.