I had to go out to Fair Meadow Farm (a.k.a. Nash Farm) a couple of weeks ago. The visit was to check on some old farm equipment that was moved out there when the Agricultural Museum in Heritage Park was shut down. The old show cattle barn where it was stored is about to be torn down to make room for progress. So, we had to find a more suitable home for the antique equipment that had been entrusted to us.

The old barn brought back memories of a time when I worked on the farm. The oak fences are all gone and nothing much looks the same. This is where I learned to do work. In many cases a lost art. I helped build many of the oak board fences. This is where I learned to drive a nail through an oak plank. To do this you had to hit the nail hard to start it and then bring the hammer back above your head and hit the nail squarely and forcefully to drive it through the plank. The hammer had to be held by the end of the handle. If you choked up on the handle and tapped on the nail, the oak board would win and the nail would not go in.

Mr. Brannan and Mr. Bradshaw were the men giving the instructions and they never stopped moving forward. All they would ever say to us was get a drink of water and don’t get too hot. I was always amazed by how much fence we would build each day while not getting hot and drinking water.

When I went inside the barn, the chutes coming out of the ceiling reminded me of when the barn was filled with show cattle. Above the chutes were three bins; one for corn, one for wheat and one for barley. Mr. Bradshaw was in charge of feeding the cattle and we were in charge of keeping the bins full. It was a dusty job, especially when the corn bin was being filled. We had to get into the bin on the end of the auger and shovel the corn evenly into the bin.

Once I was wearing my soon-to-be wife’s class ring on my little finger. After about thirty minutes of shoveling I looked down and the ring was gone. There was no way to find it in all that corn. I worked on my explanation for the rest of the day and then broke the news to Bobbie. She forgave me, as she has done many times since for my various blunders, and we moved on.

About a month later I got a call from Mr. Bradshaw and he reported that he had found the ring while feeding the cattle. This put a happy ending to an embarrassing situation. I guess the good news is that this will not happen to anyone else because the barn is being torn down. From a memory perspective, however, the bad news is the barn is being torn down.

Frank Hancock has worked as a Farm Manager, Vocational Agriculture Teacher, Vice President at Snapper and currently serves as the University of Georgia Agricultural Extension Agent in Henry County. He is a also a member of the Heritage Writers Group.