BEFORE GOOGLE

Lordy, How Did We Make It?

The birds are singing this morning and some I recognize and some I don’t. My IPhone has an app called Merlin. Just click on the ap and it listens to the birds and identifies each one and even brings up a picture on the phone of each bird. The list remains so I can keep the information. This Merlin app can identify over 10,000 birds. Another app will identify trees, plants and flowers and there is Google and other search engines on the internet to get answers for about anything we are curious enough to ask it.

This Merlin app brought back fond memories of how I heard birds identified back in the 1930’s and 40’s. I spent many hours and days outside on the farm with my father. I liked being outside. I loved my mother and she was the best and smartest person I ever knew but she ran a tight ship and would keep me busy doing things like dusting, sweeping, washing windows, pulling weeds, and cleaning anything in her sight. I ran from these chores as often as I could. I am afraid I still do. Sometimes I look back and think that I really should have hung out with my mother more because she was well read and I could have learned so much that I missed. Both my parents were fun, well read and wise. I loved the outside so I followed daddy. From the time I was three years old I remember following him to the fields running behind him as he held onto the plow pulled by a tall black mule named Molly. I still remember how the freshly turned dirt felt cool to my feet. When I got tired he would pick me up and put me in Molly’s back. I held onto her collar and listened as daddy told me about the sights. He picked up arrowheads and told me what kind of rock they were and how the Indians used them for hunting. The smaller ones were for birds, rabbits and small game and the larger spearheads were for hunting deer and larger animals. He explained how they traded different types of rock from other areas.

Daddy identified trees and plants. He showed me trees and plants that were edible if I got stranded and needed food. He said if I got a scratch or cut there were trees that I could use leaves or bark to put on the wound as medicine. He showed me plants and berries that were safe to eat and ones that were poison. He told me about the wildlife and animals and about how to protect them and their role in the ecosystem. He said it was acceptable to kill animals only if they were dangerous to us or for food. He was a quail hunter and he enjoyed training and his English Setter bird dogs. The dogs were loved and cared for as part of our family. The first dog I claimed as my own was one of his English Setters named Venus. He said it was wrong to hunt and kill for sport and you should never kill except for food. We had quail often during quail season.

I believe his love of nature rubbed off on me because of those days spent listening to him.

As I sat on Molly’s back listening to the birds, he would identify each one by their song and tell me something about them. I feel sure he couldn’t match the Merlin ap and identify 10,000 different birds by their song but he could identify most that we heard.

I do remember him saying to me that he felt closer to God through nature when he planted his crops and reaped the harvest. He said he planted corn and produced more corn and the same with wheat, beans, peas, potatoes, tobacco, pumpkins, watermelon. squash, tomatoes and that list goes on. At that time he didn’t go to church often but he read the Bible and read about other religions. Later in his life he taught Sunday School for about 30 years. He taught the Adult class and those who were in his class said it was a history lesson every Sunday and I heard how much they loved him and his lessons.

I do remember him saying that we didn’t have to go to church to be a Christian and he could feel close to God without a middle man. He said you go to church because you are a Christian and for the fellowship.

My father was also a talented artist and he produced some beautiful pieces. I remember when I was in grammar school and had some assignment that required drawing something. I would ask him to draw it for me because I couldn’t. His answer was “sure you can draw it. If you can picture it in your mind you can draw it on paper.” I did not get that gene. My sister, Cindy, got that gene.

In the 1980’s the game Trivial Pursuit was popular and other than some card games, it was about the only game I really enjoyed. My children and some friends liked the game. We had Trivial Pursuit tournaments at my house and made it a party. We had fun and maybe learned a bit of trivia. My dad was in his 70’s and 80’s during this time and he enjoyed these games. Everyone wanted him on their team because it was hard to come up with a question he didn’t know. The category didn’t matter. He knew the answers to Geography, Literature, Science and Nature, History and the only one that stumped him was Modern Entertainment. The team he was on usually won.

As I sit here with my IPhone and have access to answers to millions of questions at my fingertips I think about my father and how he may feel about this. I do remember when I got my first GPS. It was a Garmin and I loved it. I was taking daddy to Columbia on a day trip and showed him my new gadget and how it worked. I set the destination and we both marveled at how this small gadget could know where we were and that we needed to “turn left onto 64 East in a half mile,” or “turn right in 15 miles.” We traveled and followed the verbal instructions given by this invisible woman speaking to us through the small black box. My father was playful. He got quiet for a few minutes and then he said, “turn up ahead to the right and then there is a dead end road. Let’s see if we can lose her.” I made the turns like he said and he was waiting to see what happened. The woman’s voice immediately said, “turn around. Make a U turn.”

Daddy smiled and just said “Well, I will be damned.”

We didn’t lose the GPS woman in the box. She/it directed us back to the right road.

I am reminded of one day I took him to an appointment in Rocky Mount and when we started home (before GPS) I missed a turn and I said “Rocky Mount has so many one way streets I have no idea how to get back on the right road.” He said, “Well, just keep the sun just about even with your left shoulder and make turns to keep it there and we will end up at home.” I did just that and it felt like we were lost on roads I never saw before but I just kept making turns and looking at the sun. We got home on a different route but we ended up at home just like he said.

My daddy lived close to nature for all of his 101 years on this earth and he must have had some kind of intelligence or natural GPS. He lived all those years and I never heard him curse in anger, raise his voice or say something negative about anyone. I don’t believe he ever lost his way. He was my Merlin, GPS and Google.

Montress Greene

Email montressg@gmail.com