Tuten, Tuten, ya Dern Tootin'

Such was my grandfather's moniker within a week at the Martha Berry Boarding School (now Berry College) when he was sent off for being a hellion in Appling County. As such it occurred to me to include a couple of his stories that he told multiple times, and which are probably some of my favorites.

The first of which says a lot about myself too, at least I've taken it on as a sort of mantra when it comes to that. To the best of my ability, I'll tell it as he would have.

. . . When I was younger and well, a little wild, my daddy, everybody called him Alex or Uncle Alex [always pronounced Ellick], thought I could use a little straight'nin' out. So, he sent me on up to the Martha Berry School in Rome, Georgia. Now when I first got up there they had us all go around and see the place and finished up lining us all up, and askin' us what we liked to do on farm.

The foreman started on one end, "Anderson, what do you like to do?"

"Milk cows, sir."

"Ok. Barber, what do you like to do?" And so he went on down the line nodding & writing down whatever they said they liked to do on a farm. 'Course he comes to me last with my last name being what it is.

"Tuten, Tuten, ya dern Tootin', now, what do you like to do?"

"Well, I don't like to do anything."

"I don't reckon we'll have a place for you here on my farm then son--"

"Now, wait a minute." I stopped him. "You asked me what I liked to do. You didn't ask me what I could do. I can do anything you've got to do on this farm, but I don't reckon I like to do any of them."

"Is that so? I reckon we've got an understanding then. You can start with cleaning out the hen houses then," he told me with a smirk.

So I cleaned hen houses for a while, but that's not the point. Point is always ask somebody what you want to know, and always answer the question that's asked. . . .

I'll add more later on, but just so I can get this up. There's another story about Martha Berry & Henry Ford, which I don't know whether it's true or not, but it'll be up here later.

AFN
DCC
18 December 2008