February 24

 As I have written in previous columns, my late father was a tobacco man. If he were not working on his current crop he was thinking about next year’s. For my father and our family, February 24 held significant meaning. First, it is my older brother Tom’s birthday, and second, it was the target date every year for my father to sow his tobacco plant beds. I like to think he chose that day in recognition of the birth of his first son, but I suspect he also used it as a reason to get started a week before March arrived. This year’s soggy weather would have had him is a “tizzy.”

Come the first warm day of February, my father would begin preparing his tobacco beds. In some of the earliest years I recall, I can remember his burning off the plant beds to kill last year’s weed seeds. In later years, he gassed the beds under heavy plastic. Whatever his secrets were to starting healthy, thriving tobacco plants, or slips,  largely remained his secrets. There were some jobs he seemed to enjoy doing alone. Preparing plant beds was one of them. By the time he was ready to sow the tobacco seeds, he had worked the soil until it was as soft and supple as powdered sugar. If by chance there were any small clods of dirt left, he would remove them with a hand rake.

When the seed bed was prepared to his satisfaction, he worked on getting the seed ready for sowing. He took ashes from the fireplace and wood stove that he had saved in various containers over the winter and began the process of sifting them, much like you would sift flour. When he had sifted out enough to fill a two-and-a-half bushel galvanized wash tub, he was ready for the envelope of tobacco seed. He would add the seeds and mix them thoroughly with the ashes by hand until he was satisfied the seeds had separated themselves sufficiently. Then, he would fill a five-gallon bucket with his mixture and, to use his word, “broadcast” the seeds on the plant bed. Back and forth he would go, seeding and over-seeding until all the seeds were sown. I can see him now in my mind’s eye, carefully walking down the middle of the plant bed sowing seeds and ashes from side to side. The grayish-white dust from the ashes would rise steadily from the ground like smoke from a slow burning fire.

When the seeds were sown, he tramped (some people called it “tromped”) the entire plant bed. Tramping a plant bed involved putting your shoe sole down on every single inch of the plant bed. Tramping accomplished two things. First, it forced the tobacco seeds into the soil and second, it compressed the soil so it would hold moisture better. My father tramped the bed from end to end and from side to side. I have vivid memories of seeing the first plants coming up inside a shoe print. After the bed was tramped, he called in help to set the plant bed poles.

My brothers and I have picked up the small end of many a plant bed pole in our time. They could always be found nearby lying in the tall weeds from last year. When the poles were in place down both sides of the plant bed and across the ends, we were ready for the plant bed canvas, a pocket full of small-headed nails and claw hammers.

Working in unison, we would drive nails in the plant bed poles, carefully lining them up with the eyelets in the border of the plant bed canvas, as we pulled the canvas taut across the plant bed. Greater care had to be taken if the canvas was old, as it tended to tear if pulled too tightly. Finally, everything was in order. My father smiled with satisfaction as we surveyed the finished work. But all was not finished.

In a few days he would begin to watch those plant beds like a hawk. After the first tiny tobacco plants began to make a showing, he would monitor the evening weather forecasts, observe the sun each day, and watch over those plant beds like a setting hen fussing over a netting of eggs. On sunny days he would pull back the canvas and let the sun warm the earth. If the weatherman spoke of a hint of frost, he would double the canvas to protect the plants from the cold.

In the days that followed he would bring daily progress reports to the house. “I’ve got plants coming through the ground,” he would beam. Speaking of the size of the leaf pairs, he would report later, “I’ve got plants the size of a thumb tack.” Then later, “I’ve got plants as big as a dime!” he would declare.

He especially loved to report to the farmers who gathered at Dewey Manning’s General Merchandise every spring. “Boys,” he would say, “I’ve got tobacco plants as big as a quarter!” He would be the first to make that brag every year. It had something to do with February 24.

My father sowed tobacco plant beds every spring for over fifty years. Every single one of those years he produced plant beds teeming with strong, vigorous tobacco plants.

Every year he had plants to give away. He was a tobacco man.

On February 24 I will celebrate my brother’s birthday. And I will find reason, again, to celebrate my father’s life.

I was down on the old home place a while back. I strolled out in the back yard and looked down on the field where we once raised tobacco. A west wind was stirring gently. My gaze was drawn to the western edge of the tobacco patch, just inside the tree line, where a plant bed once lay.

Suddenly, I was caught up in a dreamy fog. For a few fleeting seconds, I am almost sure I saw the dust from ashes rising slowly from the ground.

Copyright 2024 by Jack McCall

A Meat and Three

I suppose anyone who has eaten at a country style restaurant knows what a “meat and three” is.  It, of course, refers to a meat entree and three vegetable selections. There are still a few places where you can get real country cooking, but they are few and far between. Cooking is sadly becoming a lost art.

A generation ago it was not uncommon for someone to walk into the house and ask, “What’s cookin’?” Those days are long gone, it seems, because nothin’s cookin’ in most homes today. It’s thawing, or being tossed in the microwave, or being delivered, or waiting at a fast food restaurant to be picked up, but it’s not “cookin’.”

Some health advocates asserted in years past that “you are what you eat.” If that is true, those following the baby boomer generation will be largely made up of pizza, chicken strips and ranch dressing.

I contend that those women of the World War II generation and before were great cooks because they “cooked”…a lot…everyday. Repetition is the mother of skill.

Of course a few women never mastered the art of cooking…even back then. My mother’s great-aunt, Martha Brim Bowman, was the least talented of five daughters when it came to the kitchen. Once, her brother - my great-grandfather, Richard Jackson Brim - visited his sister Martha’s home for a meal. As she put the food on the table, she declared, “Eat it as you love it.”

Her brother would later comment, “You had to love it to eat it!”

In the house where I grew up we usually enjoyed a meat and three at least once a day, usually at dinner (that’s what we called the noon meal).

My mother always considered her mother to be a great cook, but was less complimentary of her own ability. But she would often say, “I can keep plenty of good ‘grub’ on the table.” And she did.

I often think back to the days when we had hired hands join us for “dinner.” On those days we usually had “two and eight - or nine or ten.”

By that I mean two meats and a table filled with vegetable plates. The meats could be roast beef, fried chicken, meat loaf, fried tenderloin, pork backbone, pork roast, or fried country ham. The vegetables included, but were not limited to, green beans, pinto beans, pork n’ beans, butter beans, field peas, fried squash, okra (boiled or fried), mashed potatoes, stewed potatoes, fried corn, corn on the cob, boiled cabbage, coleslaw, candied sweet potatoes, and cucumbers in vinegar.

Finally, my mother would open two cans of Franco-American spaghetti to make sure there was, what my father called, “planty” (plenty).

Then she would top that off with two skillets of cornbread and a sheet of biscuits.

Of course, we drank enough sweet iced tea to float a boat.

I often speculated that the high school boys and men who helped us at tobacco cutting and hay hauling time would have worked simply for the chance to eat at our table. Spirits were high, the conversation was lively, and the “grub” was always good.

My great-grandmother Ida Bradford, who raised her family in New Middleton, had four sons and three daughters. She said, “To be a good cook, you had to stay in the kitchen.”

Her boys were constantly bringing their friends home after school and after ball games. Toward the end of her life Ida Bradford was heard to say one day, “I hope when I get to heaven to have a good cook stove and a bunch of hungry boys to feed.”

Great cooks of the past put more than their talent and energy into their cooking. They put their hearts into it. Because cooking consumed so much of their time, it gave them time…time to work out problems…time to lovingly think about those for whom they cooked…time to meditate and pray….time to be thankful.

Speaking of being thankful, as I considered all the great cooking I have enjoyed over the years, it dawned on me. In all my years, I have never…once…gone to bed hungry…not one time. Millions upon millions have lived and died who could not say the same.

That alone should give one pause to have a grateful heart.

Copyright 2024 by Jack McCall

A Mouse in the House

When I was a boy spending carefree days in the Brim Hollow, I use to lie wide-eyed at night in the safety and security of a feather bed; and listen to mice racing up-and-down inside the walls of the house, and then hear them scurry across the attic floor. My grandmother had her ways of “mouse proofing” her kitchen to keep the food supplies safe. So, I have never been threatened by the tiny creatures.

My wife, Kathy, on the other hand, is very mouse averse.

I have observed through the years how mice usually seek shelter in the fall by attempting to come indoors. Regardless of where we have lived, every year I have had to deal with a mouse…or two. In the house where we now reside, the mouse’s favor abode was a vanity in a half-bath. Fortunately, the vanity doors remained shut, and when mouse “evidence” was discovered, a trap would close the deal. I finally resorted to steel wool which eliminated the annual invader.

In the past two-or-three years, mice seem attracted to our bedroom. (We discovered why this past fall.) I am usually alerted to the intruder’s presence each year when Kathy cries out from the bedroom, “Jack, a mouse just ran under the bed!” This signals a call to action. Since I am not threatened by a mouse, I will admit getting rid of a mouse is not high on my priority list. If Kathy sees the mouse a second time, it is best I make haste.

And so, it was this past fall when Kathy saw a mouse run under the bed. I responded in a day-or-two with a standard mouse trap baited with chunky peanut butter. The first night he “stole” the bait. I countered by forcing a piece of peanut inside the metal curl where the bait goes. The next night he got that, too. I came to realize I had a formidable foe. The third night I got him! (One down.) And all was right with the world.

Two nights later, I heard the call again. “J-a-c-k! A mouse just ran under the bed!” This was getting serious. I set extra traps. Two mornings later I was awakened to the sound of “clic..clic…clic.” Experience had taught me that was the sound of a mouse caught, but not caught. I arrived at the scene to find a country mouse (big eyes and ears) caught by his tail. At the sight of me, his adrenalin kicked in, and with a herculean effort, he pulled his long, sharp tail free, and scampered to the safety of a closet.

Desperate situations call for desperate measures. I knew this mouse would never go near a mouse trap again. My next move would be mouse “sticky pads.”

To make a long story short, the mouse situation was only intensified on the next morning when Kathy went to her closet to retrieve a favorite pair of shoes only to find one shoe filled with dog food. (The mouse had moved in and was storing up for the winter.) That did it!

The next night I strategically placed sticky pads on every possible mouse run. The following morning I was again awakened to the sound of “clic..clic…clic.” (That’s the sound of a mouse trying to free itself from a sticky pad.” (Two Down.)

Two nights later, I heard this sound coming from the bedroom, “EEEEEEEEECH!” It was not a mouse. It was Kathy! I raced to the bedroom.

“What?” I asked.

“Another one!” she cried.

“Where did he go? I asked. She pointed.

“Under that bureau?’ I asked. She nodded.

He was found stuck securely to a well-placed sticky pad. (Three down.)

I hate to admit it, but one week later I found a cup of dog food in one of my dress shoes in a nearby hall closet. I carefully surveyed the situation and brought in more sticky pads. Two days later, I got my mouse. (Four down.)

I am pleased to report that we have not seen “hide nor hair” of a mouse in our house for the past two months. But Kathy and I, both, remain on guard.

Copyright 2024 by Jack McCall

Hot Tea and Fried Fish

I’m not a big coffee drinker. A half-cup will usually do me. Sometimes I make coffee at home, but not very often. So, I was not surprised when I found the coffee canister empty a few days back. What to do on a frosty morning when I needed a warmup? I opted for hot tea.   

I tracked down a family-size tea bag and set a pot of water on to boil. Soon I had a strong cup of tea. A long-forgotten pleasure had me adding sugar and what my mother use to call “sweet milk.” Why? Memory is a funny thing.

My father took special pleasure in taking my brothers and me fishing. His favorite fishing spot was found on Indian Creek at Center Hill Lake. In the spring when crappies were biting, he would be there. He loved to fish the treetops and would occasionally sink a square bale of red clover hay to attract the fish. We used cane poles cut off the riverbank and “pencil” floats. Today, I think they call it “straight lining.” My brother and I called it heaven on earth. There is hardly a more beautiful sight to me than a big “slab” crappie lying on its side after being brought to the water’s surface.

Among the classic lines my father uttered over the years of our fishing excursions are these:

As we were departing for the lake, he would tell my mother to “get the skillet hot!” We rarely came back home emptyhanded.

If someone asked him where we were catching fish, he would smile and say, “In the mouth!”  Then, he would chuckle.

When fish weren’t biting, he would accuse us of “not holding our mouths right.” I tried all kinds of facial expressions to get my mouth right so the fish would bite.

Sometimes he would ask, “Are you boys spittin’ on the hook?” I have spit on many a hook.

When we were fishing for bass and casting into the bank, an errant cast would often send our fishing lure into a tree.

“Are you boys fishin’ or squirrel huntin?” he would chide. My father was a man of unlimited patience, but if the miscues continued, he would say, “do it again and you are putting your rod and reel in the boat!” We learned to cast side-arm.

We were never very successful at fishing for bass, but we caught our share of crappie. Which brings be back to the cup of hot tea.

When I made that cup of hot tea with sugar and sweet milk, I was suddenly taken back to my boyhood days. We never drank hot tea at our table except when we ate the fish we had just caught. So, I recalled the “sweet” taste of fried crappie. And bones? Our father didn’t fillet the fish, so we had to be careful about bones. As I recall, our meal consisted of fish, mashed potatoes, and light bread.

At every meal our mother would caution, “If you get a bone in your throat eat a big wad of light bread. It will take the bone down.” No one at her table ever choked on a fish bone.

I think I will go crappie fishing this spring. And I think I will start drinking more hot tea.

Copyright 2024 by Jack McCall      

An Unexpected Visitor

My wife, Kathy, and I had planned to spend New Year’s Day and the weekend leading up to the beginning of the new year with friends in Myrtle Beach. Our plans were to fly out of Nashville on Friday morning. But on Thursday evening I had an unexpected visitor. At first, I referred to my uninvited guest as “Mr. Virus,” but later I settled on the name, “Ms. Virus.” This turned out to be the “Mother” of all viruses I have encountered in my many years.

I should have seen it (her) coming. On Thursday morning I awoke with a slight headache, and then, experienced minor body aches throughout the day. By Thursday afternoon I knew something wasn’t “right.” The first hint of things to come presented itself as rumbling in my gut in the early evening. At precisely 10:00 PM, CDT my guest announced its arrival.

If I had fully realized what was coming, I would have acquired one of those backless hospital gowns and donned a pair of running shoes.

I kid you not. From 10:00PM until 5:00AM I was up and down (mostly down) every 10 to 15 minutes. It became a 7-hour marathon. When morning came, I was tempted to call my doctor and schedule my next colonoscopy - might as well kill two birds with one stone.

Needless-to-say, I took a break somewhere in the night and cancelled our flight to Myrtle Beach. I was in no “shape” to travel.

By mid-day Friday, I wrestled with the question of when and what should I try to eat. The rumbling in my gastrointestinal tract reminded me of summer storms I encountered in the Brim Hollow as a boy – times when the thunder would roll from one end of the hollow to the other, and then echo on and on among the hills.

Oh, and just in case you might wonder. Did I try Imodium? This virus laughed at Imodium.

I have always enjoyed good chicken soup, so I began with chicken broth – a lot of chicken broth, skipping the noodles. By day three I was sick of chicken soup. I may never eat chicken soup again. And my Lazy Boy recliner? I got sick of sitting in it, too. For three days I didn’t leave the house.

Stuck in my recliner, I watched endless, pointless college football bowl games. I mean, really, when will the madness end? How about these names for bowl games? – The Duke Mayonnaise Bowl, the Real Idaho Potato Bowl, and get this, The Pop Tart Bowl. While I was confined to the house and my recliner, I had time to think of possible names for future bowl games. How about the Tidy Bowl Bowl? or the Pepto Bismol Bowl, or the Charmin’ Bowl? Sorry! You can tell where my mind has been.

I must confess. By the time my favorite college football team, The University of Tennessee Volunteers, played on New Year’s Day, I was tired of football. But I made the best of the situation. Go Vols!

I have some dear friends who are facing much more serious health issues than my bout with a hot virus. So, I am not complaining. I am finding, as I grow older, that I don’t recover from health setbacks as quickly as I once did. I do, however, find I make a faster comeback when I can laugh about my situation.

As my old friend Zig Ziglar use to say, “He who laughs, lasts!”

Copyright 2024 by Jack McCall

Welcome to 2024

Well, here we are in the Year of our Lord, 2024.

As I write this blog, the old year (2023) is not quite done, but I have already determined I will not stay up to see the ball drop at the stroke of midnight in New York City’s Time Square. I will be much more interested in a good night’s sleep.

Besides, I determined a long time ago there is nothing magical about the coming of midnight at year’s end (or year’s beginning.)

As the sages once said, “Time marches on, waits for no one, and will tell.”

Much is ushered in with the coming of a new year – hope mingled with apprehension. What will the new year bring? Will life on our planet be better in 2024? Will moral decline continue? Will war continue to escalate in Israel and Ukraine? Will our federal government finally get its act together? Who, in heaven’s name, will be our next president? Will climate change continue to work against us? Will artificial intelligence gain more control over our lives? Big questions.

And to the big questions there are no easy answers – if any answers at all. As John Powell wrote, “New rhythms, no rhyme.”

And, yet, with all that is wrong with the world, hope springs eternal. It is easy to get caught up in all over which we, as individuals have little, or no control. Speaking of control, I learned very quickly when we were attempting to raise our three boys, that “control” is an illusion.

I often recall a quote I saw on a bulletin board in a livestock market many years ago – “Stormy weather is sent our way from time to time to let us know we aren’t in control of anything!”

The words of the Serenity Pray come to mind:

“God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change. The courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”

So, as we go into 2024, what are some of the things we can change (or things over which we have some control?)

I think I’ll start with me. I promise you, I’ve tried changing other people. I haven’t had much luck.

Business motivational speaker Jim Rohm once said, “I put together a staff a few years ago, and said to myself, ‘I’m going to make these people great if it kills me.’ I almost died!”

I’m going to work on my attitude in 2024. I am especially going to work on how I start each day. David Hartman, who once hosted the morning show, Good Morning, America, would close the show with the challenge, “Go out and make it a great day!” I have found more great days are made than found.

Many years ago, I was speaking for an electrical cooperative in LA (lower Alabama.) I told of how my grandmother purchased flour in 10 lb. sacks made of cloth, and of how she patterned shirts for me out of “sack cloth.” I further told of how, sometimes, the flour sacks would come with colorful hand towels sewn in the top of the sack as a promotion.

When the speech was over, two petite, black women (one young, one old) approached me and had nice things to say. “We remember those hand towels sewn in the flours sacks,” the younger one said. “We looked forward to getting’ ‘em!”

The older woman, referring back to the comments I had made on attitude that day, offered, “Our preacher says, ‘Before you meet the day, you should meet with the Master.’”

I was reminded of the words of an old spiritual. “It’s not my mother nor my father, nor my brother nor my sister. It’s me, O’ Lord, standin’ in the need of prayer.”

Blessings on you in 2024.

Copyright 2023 by Jack McCall

Christmas 2023 New Year's Day 2024

By the time you read this column Christmas Day 2023 will have passed and the New Year will be upon us. I’ve seen many Christmases come and go in my time. And I must confess I’ve enjoyed them all. But it seems, with the passing of each year, I have to expend more energy and effort to ensure my Christmas experience is one of “good tidings and great joy.”

The good tidings are a given, but sustaining great joy throughout the Holidays takes some work. It seems there are mounting forces bent on “taking the wind out of your sails.”

In his marvelous book titled A Reason to Live, A Reason to Die, John Powel wrote in 1974, “The pulse and rhythm of human life has quickened so suddenly that all those who want to keep up must run.” And run we did! And we are still running…only faster - schedules to keep, deadlines to meet.

Charles E. Hummel wrote of “The Tyranny of the Urgent” when quoting a cotton mill manager who told him, “Your greatest danger is letting the urgent things crowd out the important.” We seem to be driven by what seems urgent at the expense of focusing on that which is truly meaningful. It is a constant battle.

The phrase “speed kills” has multiple applications. As I observe the lives of our children and grandchildren, I perceive the concept of “quiet time” is only a “pipe dream” for them – not a moment for reflection.

And then there are “things.” You’ve heard it said, “The best things in life are not things.”  John Fort Newton wrote, “In this materialistic world, if we are not careful, we will be domesticated right out of eternity.”

Someone else once said, “Trying to satisfy the longings of the human soul with things, is like trying to comfort a motherless child with a beautiful doll. Temporarily, the child might be distracted, but in the night, you can hear her crying for her mother.”

We make a great effort to accumulate things. We surround ourselves with things. “Keeping up with the Joneses” is a powerful, driving force. I’ve often wondered who the Joneses are trying to keep up with.

And then, there is our world. Christmas 2023 happened under the dark clouds of fighting in Israel and Gaza. And the war goes on in Ukraine. And some lives were forever changed by tornadoes and other tragedies here at home. With all the good going on in our world, there is still a lot of bad. It is incredibly easy to take your eyes off the Prize.

And then, too, there are people. I learned, after many years on the professional speaking circuit, that there are in this world, some people who were never meant to laugh. Maybe God made them that way. Or maybe, they decided to be that way. I’m not sure. But they are that way. And many of them don’t particularly enjoy Christmas. And that’s ok, if it stopped with them. But it seems they are determined to spoil Christmas for everybody who surrounds them. I’m not sure they are aware of how they siphon energy from others, but they do.

So here we are. I hope you made the necessary effort to enjoy, as the Beatles sang “a wonderful Christmas time.”

2024 looms ahead. It has all the potential of being your best year, yet. May you make it so.

Remember. The best is yet to come!

Copyright 2023 by Jack McCall

Savoring the Season

In my last column I wrote of savoring the moment. In psychology, savoring the moment refers to focusing your attention on the positive aspects of an experience. Every Christmas my thoughts take me back to happy times of long ago.

My brothers, my sister, and I were the offspring of exceptional parents. I will forever be grateful for our father’s goodness, and for our mother’s wisdom and mental and physical toughness. Both experienced disappointments in their childhood years. They saw to it that their disappointments would not be visited upon their children.

Most of my contemporaries (especially baby boomers who grew up on a farm) agree that we grew up in a golden age. In some ways it was an age of innocence. Our parents wanted their children to “have it better than they did.” And most of us did.

Although farm life in no way approached opulence, it was a good life. Christmases at Frank and Mary Helen McCall’s were simple. I never knew of my parent’s exchanging presents. When it came to gift giving their entire focus was on us.

That’s not to say Santa Claus failed to drop off a couple of my father’s favorites. Every year a sack of English walnuts could be found among the treats Old St. Nick left behind - and box of chocolate covered cherries – just for our dad.

My father would spend the winter eating those English walnuts. He would hold one in the palm of his hand, and using his big, pocket-knife as a hammer, he would crack open the shell. The sound was unmistakable. I recall that sound each Christmas.

In my father’s latter years when we found “he was hard to buy for” seems each of his children gave him a box of chocolate covered cherries. One year he got 5 boxes. He never complained.

I bought a box of chocolate covered cherries last week. I decided to eat one chocolate covered cherry every day until Christmas. And each time I do, I’ll think of him. And I will recall his bashful smile, and his big, working man’s hands, and his love for his family and his Lord.

Christmases don’t come anymore without my recalling the smell of cedar. Every Christmas my brothers and I searched the hills and fence rows for the perfect tree. There’s a line in a well-known Christmas song which refers to “a tree in the Grande Hotel, one in the park as well. The sturdy kind that doesn’t mind the snow.” We never found that kind of cedar tree. I often wondered how those cedar trees held up the bubble lights. And I suppose we never found one which was perfectly symmetrical. We just turned the bad side to the corner of the room. Then, we covered the blemishes with “icicles.” I haven’t seen a box of those silvery slivers of aluminum in years.

There weren’t many rules at our house on Christmas mornings of long ago. I recall drinking a 16 oz. Pepsi and enjoying a Mar’s candy bar before breakfast on many a Christmas morning. Of course, the Pepsi was over ice, and I can’t recall if the candy bar was a Milky Way, a Snickers, or a Three Musketeers.

I have already decided on Christmas morning 2023 I will have a 16 oz. Pepsi over ice and eat all three of the afore mentioned candy bars... before breakfast – just to be 10 again.

When I was a boy, I always had “a part” in the church Christmas play. There were shepherds and wise men, and of course, Mary and Joseph and the babe wrapped in swaddling cloth. At the end of the play, we all sang “Silent Night” (without music) and quietly slipped out into the night. Though, just a boy, I sensed something sacred and holy in those moments.

Some things you never forget.

Copyright 2023 by Jack McCall