Another Free Meal

I grew up on a small mountain farm about two miles south of Damascus. My parents, James and Dora Lee Blevins, had nine children.

I remember most vividly a story my dad told of an event that happened during President Hoover's administration. The greatest depression of our nation occurred during the 1930s. Many people were hungry and jobs were very scarce. It was so bad most of the nation received government subsidized food.

Dad grew most of what we ate on the farm. The main crops were beans and potatoes. Insecticides were unheard of on our farm. During the summer of 1932, we had a large bean patch and the bugs were literally destroying the crop.

Dad went to town for supplies and stopped at Vail's Mill to chat with the miller, Cleve McConnell. The subject of crops came up during their conversation. Dad told Cleve he was at the end of his rope trying to cope with the bean bugs. "Well Jim," says Cleve, "I'll tell you what to do. Get a bag of that free flour over there in the corner. Take it home and put it in one of your wife's thinnest pillow cases. Generous-ly sprinkle your bean patch. Boy, will those bugs go for the flour; they will eat and eat until it is all gone. Getting fat and lazy, they will just fall dead off the vines while waiting for you to give them another free meal."

In his later years, when the gardening was turned over to the boys of the family, we often heard Dad chuckle and say, "Boys, be sure to dust the beans."

Mrs Charles Hope, Sr.