Now & Then

Skills & occupations that have fired my interests

Several years ago I heard someone say, “I’m a jack of all trades, and a master of none!” I have appreciation for that saying; it fits my picture of me. On the one hand, I strongly believe in having many interests in life, in having an appreciation for different trades and professions that contribute to the lives of people, and in the personal value of cultivating several useful skills. On the other hand, when a person is too much a generalist, and too little a specialist, he may end up dabbling at this and that, but never do anything really well.

Growing up on a farm contributes to becoming a jack-of-all-trades. Just as being a homemaker calls for a variety of skills and knowledge, like cooking, management, psychology and finance, farming draws on many fields of knowledge and requires a variety of skills. The first thing I started to learn about as a farmer was the care of animals, feeding and watering them, protecting them from hawks and foxes, treating and preventing their diseases.

A farmer handling cows and chickens and hogs is a bit of a nutritionist, a bit of a doctor, a bit of a manager and a bit of a businessman.That applies to sheep and goats, too, but we never had sheep or goats on our farm.

Being a farmer also calls for carpentry skills. One of my earliest memories was of Dad finishing several structures on our farm. I don’t remember the logging aspects of his projects, but he later told of cutting the oak logs in the woods, loading them onto the wooden-wheeled wagon, and hauling them with horses to Lewis and Ray Patterson’s sawmill.

His efforts produced enough oak lumber to build the big barn, a house for laying hens and a brooder house for baby chicks. I was too little to help with those projects, but a few years later, Dad had Ran Roller saw up some large sycamore trees that grew up near the creek, and with that lumber we doubled the size of the hen house and added a large shed on the south end of the barn. By that time I was big enough to drive lots of the nails and saw lots of boards, and I thought that was cool.

Then in 1953, we built the new house on the farm.

Dad hired Cecil Lawson as the lead carpenter, and we boys became his helpers.

I learned quite a bit about carpentry from Cecil and gained some good experience. Before the lumber part of the project, I had worked with Mr. Orville Walcott of Mountain, Mo., laying the concrete blocks for the foundation and basement walls. So, for thesummer of 1953, I was a mortar mixer, block carrier and block layer, as well as a carpenter.

The following year, Dad determined to become what was called a Grade A dairyman, to sell milk for drinking. Previously our milk had been used for cheese-making. Producing Grade A milk meant building a new milk barn, installing a mechanical milk cooler and milking machine, and meeting standards of cleanliness that would have been impossible in the old barn. I started drawing up floor plans, figuring how many concrete blocks would be needed, how many bundles of roof shingles, and other expenses for new building. I think I could have enjoyed being an architect. We went around to dozens of farms to see their milking parlors andwhat equipment they were using. We visited milking equipment suppliers like Heunefield’s in north Rogers and became familiar with makers like Surge, DeLaval and McCormick.

By 1956, I was becoming interested in cars, especially engineering ideas for building cars. My cousin Bill Sisk and I used to talk about how we would build a car. We were going to make an electric car, with six or more car batteries to run on. We would make it such that it could be charged at home, but it would also have a 5 horsepower gasoline motor to charge the batteries onthe go. We didn’t think to call it a hybrid. I guess we missed out on making our million dollars when we let that idea go.

From 1959 into 1962 I worked as an automobile mechanic for Burger Chevrolet on Southwest A Street in Bentonville.

Running the tractor on the farm had aroused in me an interest in mechanical work. Farm work presents lots of repair jobs, all the way from changing plow points, to installing new cutter sections on the field mower, removing broken parts to be welded or replaced, changing spark plugs, clearing clogged fuel lines, changing motor oil, metering antifreeze or repairing tires. I enjoyed repairing cars, aligning front ends, tuning engines, fixing brakes, generators and voltage regulators, rebuilding engines andsuspensions. Probably the least enjoyable task was finding and fixing rattles.

I enjoyed car work, and didn’t leave it for not liking it. But I felt that the Lord was calling me to work with people as a minister of the gospel. That became my work, and the other things became hobby interests.

◊◊◊

Editor’s note: Jerry Nichols, a native of Pea Ridge, is a retired Methodist minister with a passion for history.

He is vice president of the Pea Ridge Historical Society. He can be contacted by e-mail at [email protected], or call 621-1621.

Community, Pages 5 on 09/28/2011