3 dimes worth of Peanuts

-My daddy told me he was sending me off to Martha Berry School, up in Rome, GA. He told me square in the eyes, “If you can’t make it up there, just don’t bother coming back.” So I pretty well took him to heart . . . -Papa (Vernon Tuten) on his dad's words when sending him to Berry School

A.V. Teuten [sic] in 1951 just before his graduation as a member of the second class in the College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Georgia. It's a little bit more recent picture than this story dictates, but it's the closest one to which I currently have access.

I earlier promised a second story regarding my grandfather’s time at the Berry School in Rome, GA, when it was a boarding school. I suppose I should preface it by noting that the story likely was one handed down through the student population while Papa was there and could likely have taken place before he was in school as he graduated (at least his class ring says such) in 1936, just six years before Berry died. However, the story (as best I can remember it and please forgive the fact that the details are a bit fuzzy) usually went like this . . .

. . . Now, Martha Berry started that school on her own, as a Sunday school. And she got to adding to it as more people came along, sent their children along, you know. So, she had to have someway eventually to support the school so she went looking for outside help—donations.

And one of the folks she went to was Henry Ford, and of course, you’ve heard of Mr. Ford. Well, she told him about the school and everything that they did at the school, and because times were hard he said he couldn’t help but just a little and sent her away with 3 dimes [as he held up his gnarled hand to signify 3]. 3 dimes! I’m sure I would have been discouraged or just tossed it into the next thing that cost 3 dimes for the school, but not Martha Berry.

She went out and bought peanuts [may have been cotton or another crop, but peanuts stick out in my mind] enough to plant with those 3 dimes, and she saw to it that the children at the school helped with the crop, and continued to plant for several years [I think it was 3-5 years, but again, the details . . .].

Then after that 5 years was up she went back to Henry Ford and said, “Mr. Ford, this is what I did with the 3 dimes you gave me!” And she put down three thousand dollars in front of him! Now, after that Mr. Ford, as she called him, was impressed and donated quite a bit of money to the school for its uses . . .

Somehow these stories always seemed longer & more involved when he told them, but like I said . . . to the best of my memory.

In terms of the veracity of the story, I don’t know one way or the other, except that it was one that I always loved to hear Papa tell, and at least according to wikipedia’s (taken always with a grain of salt) article on Martha Berry, the two large ‘castle-like’ dorms on the Berry College campus are named for Ford’s mother & daughter.

What I remember, as I said, I have reproduced and will reproduce here. Most of the ‘stories’ on this blog will come from Papa as he had a propensity for telling them, whether true or not. They certainly inform a strong elemental story of his life and the culture in which he grew up.

In terms of the “next steps” for Vernon (i.e. Papa), I really don’t know much until WWII. I know that he worked with a couple WPA projects and attended UGA and I believe South Georgia College in Douglas, GA (whatever its name may have been at the time). I’ll have more on the war and post-war years up until my mother’s birth later as I have multiple letters that he wrote from various stations in the US & in England during the war as well as a war/mission journal that one of his crewmates kept during their 35 missions.

Merry Christmas!
AFN
DCC
24 December 2008

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