Of Harvest and Home

Alice had wasted no time in getting Ruby and Willie enrolled in school.  She had been pleased to learn that Baconton had a very good school system and had built a new school just over ten years earlier. 

This was Baconton's second school and it was a two-story white frame building located on North Church Street, valued at $300.00.  There were two large classrooms downstairs and an upstairs auditorium.  The tuition was set at $1.50 monthly for each child with the state paying $1.00 per child. 

Alice hoped that they would be able to afford an additional $2.50 monthly fee for Ruby to take piano lessons beginning with the next school term.  Knowing that her husband had more pressing matters on his mind, Alice was wise enough not to approach Ben about unnecessary expenses just yet.  She would wait patiently for the right time.

Alice was a strong, shrewd Southern woman with quiet charm and a disarming smile. 

As a woman of  true substance and a deep, abiding faith -- the kind depicted in most  hymns -- she handled adversity with grace and dignity.  As a dutiful wife who recognized her husband's good judgment as well as his fairness and generosity, she yielded to his final word in such decisions, thus giving him his rightful place at the head of their home.

Alice also knew that Ben loved music and that he wanted the best education for each of their five children -- in the arts as well as in practical knowledge.  She knew what his decision would be.  After all, this was the Twentieth Century.

Post-Civil War Southerners had learned to embrace progress while clinging tightly to tradition.  Certain beliefs and habits were ingrained into their very being, as tightly woven as the varied threads of a beautiful tapestry handed down from mother to daughter to granddaughter -- a beautiful heirloom to cherish and protect.

Love of family and pride in heritage certainly topped that list of traditions.  Also included, was (and still is) obsession with the past, empathy for all people, and a captivating love of the land.

Benjamin (Boo) Brown had fallen in love with this Southwest Georgia land -- the piney woods and fields of wiregrass interrupted by sloughs; the stately live oaks, and acres of pecan groves beginning to put on tiny leaves of bright green, which (he had been told) would soon be followed by draping blossoms and then those wonderful nuts.

Ben composed a poem for Alice to describe how he felt.

Here, Dear Alice, our future lies
'Neath golden sunsets in Georgia skies.
This now is ours, our family share --
Vast carpets of grass and sweet scented air,
Near swift flowing river and pine trees so tall,
With doves softly cooing 'midst mockingbird calls,
Blankets of clover in fields painted red
And pillows of lillies -- to cushion our heads.

Then Ben said to her, "I had almost forgotten my homeland, Alice -- this sweet fertile earth under Georgia skies."

*

As Ben met and talked with the citizens of Baconton and Camilla, he soon realized that the leaders of the county were men much like himself.  They were family men of faith and vision.  Evidence of this was seen in their current fascination with the modern driving machine.  More and more automobiles seemed to be arriving in the county each week, and bringing with them a new set of problems.

Camilla citizens were soon complaining about the reckless driving of many automobile owners.  It seemed that almost every week someone was being run down by an out-of-control driver.  Of course, sometimes a horse and buggy driver would lose control and hit an unwary child in the street, also. The problem was thought to be serious enough, that in

May of 1910, the speed limit was set in Camilla at seven miles an hour -- for all vehicles.