Colonel Jim Copelands Memoirs

Chapter 1

Early years living on the farm

The year was 1944 and Jimmy was three years old. The Pete Copeland family lived on their 200-acre farm two miles South of Blountsville, Alabama. Jimmy saw his father Pete driving up to the fence on an old John Deere tractor with steel cleats where most tractors had large rubber tires. It was early April, and the weather was clear and warm. The tractor was pulling a disk which had been used to prepare one of the fields for corn planting later. The farm house set back from the barn about 100 yards on a hill and a barbed wire fence ran around the barn and back toward the main farm land which allowed a small slice of land for cattle to have access to the barn but not be allowed too near the house and for damn sure not in the family garden. Two fence gates had been installed across the narrow-fenced area. One was only 40 yards from the house and the second lay just south of the barn to allow vehicles and horse drawn wagons access to the Highway 231 just West of the barn. HW 231 was a major highway running from the northern area of the US to the Gulf of Mexico and had light traffic. When Jimmy heard the “putt, putt, putt” of the old John Deere tractor, he ran toward the first fence gate hoping his father (Pete) would let him ride with him on the tractor. Reaching the gate his father said “Hi son want to help me get the tractor thru the gate? Jimmy yelled “Yes sir I help you Dad”. Pete set the three-year-old on the tractor and told him to push the long vertical hand cultch lever forward after he took down the fence gap and drive the tractor thru the gate; then pull back on the cultch lever and the tractor would stop. Little Jimmy waited for his father to open the fence gate and then he slowly pushed the hand cultch forward and the tractor started forward and when it had gotten thru the gate, he pulled back on the cultch lever and the tractor stopped. Jimmy let out a big “YEA, YEA” being happy to complete his first solo tractor movement. His father closed the gate and jumped on the tractor and helped Jimmy drive it to the second gate and stopped and told Jimmy we need to do that one more time. Pete jumps off and opens the fence gate this time Jimmy is noticeably confident and pushes the cultch lever forward as hard as he can and the tractor jumps forward, goes thru the fence gate and then Jimmy using one hand pulls back on the vertical hand cultch, but it will not come back! The tractor is only 100 feet from highway 231 and is heading straight for it. Jimmy takes both hands and pulls with all his might to disengage the cultch, but it is stuck, and the tractor is now only 50 feet from the highway edge. Little Jimmy then attempts to turn the steering wheel to the right away from the highway, but he is only able to move it slightly and the tractor is now only 25 feet from the highway. Then a big strong arm comes from behind him and jerks the cultch lever back and the tractor stops 15 feet from the highway just as a big truck goes by making over 50 mph. Pete gives little Jimmy a big hug and Jimmy hugged his father harder than he had ever before. Pete then places Jimmy in his lap and makes a hard-right turn away from the highway and drives the tractor pulling the disk toward the house. But before getting to the tractor parking place Pete stops the tractor and says to Jimmy “Let’s work on that cultch movement until you get it right. Jimmy was still shaking from nearly running onto the highway but said “I will try it again if you will stay on the tractor with me.” Pete laughed and said he would. Little Jimmy gently pushed the cutch lever forward and the tractor pulled up a few feet then Jimmy pulled back on the lever and the tractor stopped. Pete then told Jimmy that was the right way to pull thru fence gaps with the tractor but let’s see if you can release the cultch if its fully engaged and the trick to that is push the lever as far forward as it will go and then jerk the hell out of it backward and it will disengage. Pete then showed Jimmy what he was talking about and then asked Jimmy to give it a try. Little Jimmy pushes the cutch forward hard and the cutch fully engages, and the tractor jumps forward, and little Jimmy then pushes the lever forward and jerks the lever back with one hand, but it does not disengage! Jimmy then again pushes the lever forward and then with both hands jerks the hell out of the lever and the tractor stops. Jimmy looks up as his father smiles and says, “Dad it works only when I jerk the hell out of the cultch lever.” Pete laughed and said, “You got it little man jerk the hell out of it.” The next day was Saturday and Jimmy was playing in the front yard with his best friend Boyd Little who was also age three. Boyd and his family lived in the Copeland rental house across the highway. Edna, Jimmy’s Mother, called out to the boys and asked them if they wanted to carry Pete his lunch. Pete had started early disking the big field across the creek and had not waited for Edna to pack his lunch. Edna told the boys she had packed them a sandwich and piece of chocolate each in the small paper bag and Pete’s lunch was in the big paper bag. She gave the two paper bags to Boyd and gave Jimmy the paper bag containing a quart of sweet, iced tea. Edna told the boys to be careful and stay away from the bull in the pasture and do not fall into the creek when crossing. Boyd and Jimmy were off and first went down to the barbed wire fence and crawled under and got on the dirt farm road leading down the hill and toward the creek. It was a clear hot day, and the sky was light blue without a cloud. Boyd and Jimmy were both bare footed and worn tee shirts and overalls. Reaching the creek, we picked out some flat rocks we could step on to keep our feet dry and crossed the creek and headed for the big field to the far right. We could hear the old John Deere tractor going putt, putt, putt, and cut across the pasture toward the noise from the tractor. When we got to the field Pete saw us boys and pulls the tractor up near and parks under a tree for shade. Pete comes up, takes one of the paper bags and sits down with us boys under the shade of the tree. Boyd and Jimmy ate their peanut butter and jelly sandwiches first and then went after the chocolate fudge getting fudge on the sides of their faces, giggling, and talking with each other and with Pete. After lunch Pete returned to disking and the two boys started back to the house cutting across the pasture. Boyd spotted the bull first and yelled “Here comes the bull” and it was only about 75 yards away and running hard at the boys. Both boys ran for the nearest fence, but the bull was gaining on them. The boys rolled under the fence just before the Big Jersey Bull came up to the fence and stopped. The Bull pawed the ground and bellowed but the boys were safe and after a few minutes the bull headed back toward the other cows. Jimmy and Boyd crawled back under the fence into the pasture and headed toward the creek but stayed close to the fence just in case the bull returned.

Reaching the shallow creek Jimmy was in front and picked out three flat rocks to step on and started across the creek. Just before stepping on the second rock Jimmy saw a snake go under the rock and yelled “Snake” and quick as a wink jumped to the third rock and crossed to the far side. Jimmy yells to Boyd “There is a snake under the second rock.” Boyd carefully comes up to the creek edge and looks hard but sees nothing and says “Ain’t no snake” Jimmy says, “Is too.” Boyd steps on the first rock and then wades over to the second rock and looks again and says “Ain’t no snake” “Is too; I seen it go under the rock.” Boyd says, “I’ll show you Ain’t no snake under that rock” and bends over lifting one side of the rock up. The snake was under the rock and when Boyd lifted the rock the snake gave a strike at Boyd’s face but Boyd spring back like a cat and the snake missed him by a whisker. Jimmy cut loose with a rock and hit extremely near the snake and the snake turned toward Jimmy. Jimmy cut loose with his second rock hitting the snake and it turned and took off down the creek. Boyd up on the far bank and Jimmy on the near side were both throwing rocks at the snake as it swam off down the creek. When the snake reached deeper water, the boys lost track of him and Boyd crossed the creek and Jimmy looked him over good to see if Boyd had any fang marks on him and was thankful to find none. The boys started back home and agreed to not tell their parents about the bull or the snake so they could do this again. It had been a fun day.

 Several days later Pete says, “Jimmy I am going to town today and if you want you can come with me. “Yes Sir Dad I go with you” Jimmy said. They jumped into the old 1940 Ford Sudan and headed toward Blountsville a small town about two miles up HW 231.

While riding Jimmy informed his Dad that the last time, they were in town at the service station and his Dad was outside getting some gas the owner Mr. Claude King had kidded him asking him if his Dad eat old dead chickens. Then he asked him how about old dead cows does he eat them too? Jimmy had told Mr. King that yes, his Dad eat chickens after they were plucked, cleaned, and fried by his Mom. They all eat beef when they had some. Mr. King said to the other men standing around now that you admitted your Dad eats old dead chicken and cows does, he eats old dead rabbits? Jimmy said “Yep, Dad shoots them, skins and guts them and Mom cooks them too. Mr. King said I do not know about you boy having a dad that eats all that dead...