Bertha Farmer Bowman

Bertha Farmer Bowman

Recorded and composed in 1988 by Helen Caroline Wellhoner Farmer, wife of Ernest Farmer, and read at Berthas' eightieth birthday celebration held at Georgia Baptist Conference Center in Toccoa.

BERTHA BOWMAN, THIS IS YOUR LIFE!!
OCTOBER 9, 1988

Bertha Bowman, this is your life! You were born early Thursday morning, on October 15, 1908, in a small house in the Mountain Grove Community. You were the first daughter, and second child of Ben and Beulah Farmer.

You were born the same year Henry Ford introduced the Model-T Ford. Also, the year General Motors was organized. A new Ford sold for $850, eggs were 30c a dozen, and bread was selling for 5c a loaf; but Country folks didn't buy loaf bread -- they made their own cornbread from corn they grew in the field. Milk was selling for 32c a quart -- but Country folks milked their own cows. At the time of your birth, Theodore Roosevelt was President of the United States.

Your parents paid Dr. Lothridge, our old Country Doctor, $10.00, on credit, for bringing you into the world. Dr. Lothridge always drove a good horse and a rubber-tired buggy, as he made his rounds through the countryside. He also delivered your sister and brothers for the whole amount of $60.00.

As a young child, you and your friends and cousins played and worked up and down the hills and hollows of the Mountain Grove Community. Your house was just a "skip and a hop" down the road from the Mountain Grove Church, where you went to Church, Sunday School and to school. When your older brother, Burch, started to school, you were about 4 years old, and would slip away and go to school with him. That's why you decided you were as smart as Burch, and started to school when he did.

When your brother, Hubert, was a baby, your Pop and Mom loaded you and all the family on the train and moved to Eastman, Georgia. Your Daddy thought there was money to be made in growing cotton, but the flat farming land of South Georgia was an entirely new experience for these North Georgia folks. While there, you, along with your sister and brother, attended the Crossroads School. After about two years, with sickness in the family and the death of Uncle Jewel, and with thoughts of how far it was to the Currahee Mountain, the family came back home to stay. Your parents later moved from Mountain Grove to the Cannon Community, where they were to live for the rest of their lives. You attended the Cannon School, where some of our community leaders taught at one time or another -- Ty Cobb's father, Grandpa Seward Cash, Dub Andrews, his nephew, Jack Acree, - also Joe Jolly and others.

When it was time for high school, bus transportation had not yet come to Stephens County, so boarding school was the only solution for the young people who wanted an education. Bertha, it was a great day when you and your sister (Bea), your two cousins (Agnes and Thelma), and your aunt (Sula Cash) went off to Rabun Gap with your Daddy and Uncle George, in Uncle George's Model- T Ford. At Rabun Gap, the students were required to work half a day. Bertha, you and Thelma had an interesting experience in your work at the school dairy, where it was your duty to milk the cows. You two were not Vets, but you were always interested in the health and welfare of your cows. When one milk cow seemed listless and not up to par, you reported it to the authorities. When they made no effort to correct the problem, you and Thelma decided to take matters into your own hands. You administered an old time farm remedy -- you gathered up all the old glass jars and bottles you could find and beat them up into fine pieces and fed them to the cow. You fully expected to find her dead the next morning, but, to your surprise, she was better -- and eventually made a full recovery. You were glad when Christmas time came that first year away from home at school. You all were happy "young-uns" when you finally caught the Tallulah Falls train and started for home.

The second year at Rabun Gap, a fire destroyed the girls' dorm and you all had to leave. You enrolled at Tallulah Falls School, but within a week, all five of you "graduated" yourselves and came home. It was about this time that your parents decided to make a trip to Florida. They hired Homer Smith to drive you all to Miami in his Taxi -- a Model-T Ford. Your dad paid him $10.00 a day to make the trip. You stayed at Boarding Houses at night and ate at Cafes along the way. A special thrill was when you saw the full moon rise over Miami. For the trip back home, your Daddy filled the floor in the back of the car with oranges. Your mother, you, and Bea sat in the back seat with your feet on the oranges, and ate oranges all the way home.

School buses still were not in use, so for the next school year, your parents decided to move the family to Toccoa, so that you could continue your high school education there. They rented a house on Highland Avenue, and entered all of you in school. Your place was "home" to all the cousins who wanted to stay there and go to school. You returned to your home in the country on week-ends during the school year and for the summers, in order to plant and tend the crops.

After attending school in Toccoa, Bertha, you went away with your little sister, Bea, to Bryan - Hatton Business College in Atlanta, where you learned typing, shorthand, and bookkeeping. It's hard to understand why you chose to take a business course, when you had such a love for planting, hoeing, and picking vegetables -- and especially -- picking cotton!! Everyone soon knew why you took a job with Southern Railway in Atlanta - - that is where you met the man in your life -- a railroad man by the name of Bob Bowman. You and Bob were married on Christmas Day, 1946, by Rev. Holman Kelly in Toccoa, with your baby brother, Ernest, in attendance. You and Bob lived in Smyrna for many years. Several years after Bob's death, you retired from the Southern Railway and came back to the "old folks home", where you now live and it was your step-son, Bob, Jr., who suggested having this Birthday dinner today! He called Dale and she took it from there and made all the arrangements.

Bertha, you were born the year of the Model-T, but you never owned a Ford, although you wrecked one for Uncle Jake. You did, however, own several General Motors Buicks through the years. With these Buicks, you were able to kill more deer than any of your brothers ever killed with a shot gun. But, Bertha, the most fun you had was when you first got your Jeep. With the help of Agnes, you dressed like a bearded hippie and drove through the neighborhood. With dogs barking and people looking, you caused such a disturbance that one of your best friends refused to sell her house to you and closed the door in your face. And your sister-in-law even wanted your own brother to sprinkle you with bird shot, as you made the third trip around their house.

Bertha, your love for dogs goes back through the years, to the time when you first got your dog named Spot. Then came others as time went by. You loved them all and they loved you, too. Jack, the Boxer, Major, the German Shepard. Then Sheila and Lassie, and the "boss" of them all -- "Ole Flip", who ruled the roost as long as he lived. Your dogs have been your special friends, and you always treated them with special care. You built them a heated house with yard and fence, and warm covers at night. Even Tammy Faye Baker's dogs never had it so good!!

Your retirement years have been, and continue to be, a joy to you, to your family, and to your friends. Your work in Lamar Christian Church, which your grandfather, Seward Cash, helped to organize many, many years ago, occupies much of your time. You are active in the affairs of your community and County -- and are always doing for others. Bertha, you always enjoy playing a good joke on your brothers and sister, but once in a while, they turn the tables on you -- like the time, a year or so ago, when you found some unusual eggs in your refrigerator. This is the way it happened -- Bea and Joan bought a couple of artificial white eggs and put them in the egg container, along with the other eggs. The whole family was on hand the next morning to see what would happen when you started cooking breakfast. You got the eggs and started cracking them - or, trying to crack them! The more you tried and the harder you banged them - the more frustrated you were. The family kept a straight face -- and they probably never would have admitted their guilt, if you hadn't threatened to take the eggs to the Georgia Commissioner of Agriculture, Tommy Irvin, the first thing Monday morning.

Bertha, you always like to have things clean around the house -- like the time several years ago when you decided that Burch's mounted deer head needed a little cleaning up. You loaded it in the back of the Jeep and took it to town to the Beauty Shop, where Azalea gave it a good shampoo. She almost lost some regular customers that day, when they walked in the door and found a deer head sitting under the dryer. We can only guess what went through the minds of the people who saw you drive on down the road in your yellow Jeep - with a deer sitting on the back seat. And it also made the news - with a picture in the local paper. The funniest part was - -Burch had killed the deer, but the Toccoa Record gave you the credit for it. They probably thought it was one of the deer you killed with the Buick.

Each year, with the coming of spring, you are back in the garden with Howard and Barney. And, with the summer, comes the ever-increasing buckets full of beans, squash, okra, and corn, which you pick, freeze and can. Your generosity in sharing these vegetables with your family and friends is appreciated by all of us. And, Bertha - for the sake of your sister, the next time you go on a bus tour to Canada, won't you please leave your pistol at home!!!

Bertha - you've come a long way, baby, Cause this week you're goanna be 80!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

Bea
Burch
Howard
Ernest