This article by Ray Spitzenberger first appeared in IMAGES for Jan. 27, 2022, East Bernard Express, East Bernard, TX.
I keep telling my friends that, at my age, and after writing close to 2,000 columns in about thirty years, I am thinking the well has run dry. This may be the last column I am able to grow out of this now arid soil, . . . and then out pops yet one more column. Though I must admit my articles sometimes seem to be getting shorter.
I guess my old cultivator has gotten too rusty to break up the big clods adequately, and the fertilizer has lost its oomph!, lol. But my wife says, “You can do it,” and I give it yet another try.
As I look at the metaphors I just used, I am reminded that I wrote at least one column about my Wendish grandfather’s old-work-horse-drawn cultivator as well as his old-fashioned plow. In fact, it’s amazing how many times I wrote about Grandpa, chopping and picking cotton for him, harvesting watermelons, etc. Not to mention his corn crop, his cows, ducks, turkeys, — the list gets longer.
So I’m thinking, maybe today I can write just one more column about him and his old-timey farming ways, or maybe some other side of him I haven’t touched on before. I wish there were more men like him in today’s world!
He was a big, tall man, over six feet, but not fat. As a child, I was amazed at the huge size of the chamber pot in his bedroom, lol.
Yet, even though he was a large, strong man, used to the most strenuous farm work, he had a kind, gentle, contemplative, caring side I have never written about before.
The kind, gentle, contemplative, caring side no doubt grew out of his very devout Christian beliefs. His love for reading came from his father. Very active in his church, he served as a Church Elder for many years. More important, he read the Bible every night, both the English and German versions, as he was fluent in both languages. His father was fluent in English, German, and Wendish, but his mother was not Wendish, so I don’t think they spoke that language in the home very much.
Because his father loved books, and sold them to earn extra money, he grew up in a home full of books, — his parents’ home was said to be the only home in Fedor, Texas, with a library. This bookish side of him gave him a keen mind and a very thoughtful, contemplative nature, just and honest, never rushing to judgment. He was someone to go to for advice and counseling. He had a profound influence on everyone in the family!
Grandpa barely made a living farming cotton, but he was very generous and giving, and, no doubt, at times, too trusting. Though he had little, he was always helping others who had greater needs than he. He and my grandmother had the gift of hospitality, and frequently there were guests eating at their table with them. Their pastor found himself eating with them just about every other Sunday.
Grandpa loved people, and he took joy in helping them. He lived by the Ten Commandments and the Words of Jesus. And, of course, by the Old Farmers’ Almanac, lol. I needed to finally tell this side of him.
-o-
Ray Spitzenberger is a retired WCJC teacher, a retired LCMS pastor, and author of three books, It Must Be the Noodles, Open Prairies, and Tanka Schoen.