It was called Truck Farming
It was a treat for me to visit with my great aunt Gladys. Her children were older than me and all of them had moved away from the farm except the two youngest who were girls. Her boys had all joined the military. Nancy and Little Gladys were still living at home. I loved visiting them because they went to town every Saturday.
Aunt Gladys and Uncle John had a small farm but they worked it in a profitable manner. They had a small tobacco allotment and that should have been their money crop. They planted all kinds of vegetables and had something blooming and ready for harvest and sell all summer and winter. They picked and washed beans, peas, corn, beets, potatoes, turnips, collards, turnip greens, and mustard greens.
They also raised chickens. They had their laying chickens that were kept separately. The eggs were picked from the nests every day. There was a larger pen and chicken house that they raised chickens to eat and to dress and sell in Rocky Mount.
On Saturday mornings Aunt Gladys and Uncle John packed up these items to take to Rocky Mount where they had regular customers waiting for the vegetables, dressed chickens and fresh country eggs. I’m not sure who else they sold to but I remember they delivered their produce, eggs and dressed chickens to grocery stores.
My aunt would put her girls and me out downtown Rocky Mount near the movie theater for us to see a movie while she delivered the farm raised goods. My cousins, Nancy and Little Gladys were older than me and the movies they liked were just not what Janice and I saw at the Carolina Theater in Wilson. We watched Westerns with Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, Lash Larue, Hop Along Cassidy, The Lone Ranger and other western stars.
On those Saturdays in Rocky Mount with Nancy and Little Gladys the movies they chose were far removed from the westerns. Their choice of movies were heart wrenching love stories with a lot of crying, and love story drama and emotions. I loved going to town but those movies were almost torture for me. I remember leaving the auditorium several times during the movie and just go to the lobby to kill time until that tearjerker movie was over. When the screen showed THE END I was happy because we left the theater and walked to the Dime Store. My older cousins looked at lipstick, nail polish and earrings. I looked at movie magazines with pictures of Roy Rogers and Trigger. We went to several stores and it was an experience for me.
Downtown Rocky Mount was different from Wilson. Rocky Mount had a railroad track that went right through the middle of downtown and to go to a store across the street, we had to walk across the railroad track. I remember that the Rocky Mount track felt big and intimidating as we walked across.
There are things that happened some 80 years ago that I just can’t unsee. On our way home on one of these trips to Rocky Mount, we stopped by to see one of Uncle John’s relatives. I do not remember the names but I do remember the house was a big white house with a porch with columns. The older man in the house had been sick and the talk was about his swollen feet and legs. I remember the term “weeping” was used to describe his legs. We went inside the house and the patient was in his bedroom sitting on the side of the bed with his feet in a large pan. They had a branch from a Holly Tree. They talked about switching his legs with the prickly Holly branch to help relieve some of the swelling. They must have been desperate and were trying to help him. I just remember getting a sick feeling and went outside and sat on the porch until we left for home.
My aunt and cousins made the stay at their house so much fun. They had a record player and they played records that we danced to. We would sing along with the records. My older cousins painted my nails and curled my hair. Nail polish and hair curlers were not often on my agenda at Pender’s Crossroads. We had fun and it was a different kind of adventure.
Aunt Gladys was always in motion gathering eggs from her hen house, harvesting turnips and greens or packing up vegetables to take to Rocky Mount to sell. Her Collie dog named Rex was constantly at her side. I miss Aunt Gladys. Her house and the chicken houses are no longer standing, but I can close my eyes and see exactly what it looked like eighty plus years ago.
Montress Greene
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