Here is a guy over 80 years old still being productive every day. Raised nine children and married 60 years.
I sure hope they followed this fellow around for weeks and recorded everything he said. Just the way he speaks is a treasure - reminds me of many an older man I knew as a child, most of whom worked, like this guy, with skill and pride.
Via Gorges' Grouse, and Talk From the Timber.
Wasn't he amazing? Most of those skills are lost now...sigh
ReplyDeleteJust wonderful. He reminds me of Mr. Bowen.
ReplyDeleteMy neighbor across the road, Mr. Bowen, http://s1.postimage.org/1Olkzi-6cf96198e17603593f3fa29a1e8a213b.jpg was in his seventies when he found me crying at his fence behind his house after the older boys had left me in their dust, and he became my best friend until he died. I don't remember how old I was, but probably about six. I loved going to visit him, where he would always give me my choice of a piece of candy, and then regale me with stories of the Confederacy, as he spit into his spittoon. He would tie chickens on his clothes line by their legs, and then go down the row slitting their necks with his handy Barlow knife, as he chawed' on a plug of Brown Mule, which was my Christmas present to him each year. One year my mother asked if I didn't want to get him something different, and I was dumbfounded, as I told her, but that's what he likes! Every time my mother would bake loaves of bread, I would take one to him steaming hot. There isn't much better than this smothered in butter. He taught me how to make my first slingshot among many, many other things. I really miss him.
http://www.namsouth.com/viewtopic.php?t=2211&highlight=bowen
Mr. Stewart and Mr. Bowen - examples of the type of men who made America great. Will we ever see their equal?
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