Dad had a big peach packinghouse across from the house on Sandefur Road it ran parallel to the road and back beyond the house.
Neighbor’s fence is about the middle of the packinghouse. The packinghouse was a busy place, my dad not only took care of his own peaches, they would buy the peach crop of other growers (on the trees) and hope no hailstorms ruined them and hope he would get a big price for them in New York, Philadelphia, Chicago and Cleveland, Ohio where he shipped most of them. They were picked by men and brought to the packinghouse in wagons unloaded and packed in little wooden baskets, which we called them “cups.” They were then packed 8 cups on the bottom layer of the wooden box and then a wooden divider with 8 additional cups on top the men would nail and wooden top on the box loaded it on a 1922 ford truck and take it to the refrigerated boxcar on a railroad sidecar in Kathleen. The packers at the packinghouse were female schoolteachers who were out of school for the summer.
My dad was not a gambler but then he was the biggest gambler I ever knew. Buying peaches on the trees in April when they would not ripen until June or July; not knowing the market price they would sell for, or whether they be damaged or destroyed by a storm or hail, had to make him a big gambler.
None of the roads in Houston County were paved in 1920 or 1925 except Route 41 and 129 and some of the streets in Perry. The Perry sidewalks were hard dirt but good for walking, bicycle riding and goat cart riding.
About 1923, Eunice and Bob were in a farm wagon which was stored for the winter in one of the driveways under the packinghouse Mamt saw them playing and thought how cute and safe what she did not know was dad had changed a flat tire the night before and had lost his box of matches. Bob and Eunice had found them and was having a great time playing with them in the wagon. Later when Nanny saw Eunice and Bob’s arms trying to beat something she checked and found Eunice on fire and Bob and she were trying to beat the fire out. It was wintertime and Eunice had on woven underwear, which held the heat in. As a result she was critically burned and taken to the Macon Hospital where she stayed for months. Every church in Perry prayed for her, she is now the mother of four and grandmother of many and great grandmother of one.
About this time dad made his usual purchase of peaches on the trees and it looked like a good year we were with him on a trip to Byron, Georgia to inspect and make an offer on two or three orchards. We were flagged down by a resident who told us our big colonial house which my great grandfather had built was burning up and to get home at once. It was about 15 or 20 miles away and when we arrived the house had burned as well as the pump house and the barn was burning beyond help. One horse burned up but the other horses, mules, hogs and chickens escaped.
Will Calhoun and his wife Annie, worked for us fulltime. Will was a good mechanic and all round worker and Annie was busy in the house cooking, cleaning, washing and ironing. When mama and dad were married in 1915 they first lived in Bonaire where dad had a furniture store (even sold caskets and would lend you a horse and horse drawn hearse) He also sold wooden shingles which most, houses had on these days. He and mom decided to remodel the "Stripling Place" house they built a pump house installed a Delco system which was a gasoline engine which would pump the water and make enough electricity to furnish one light in each room. This was considered really modern to have electricity and running water in a farmhouse. Little did my parents realize that the pump house and Delco System would cause “The Big Fire" when Will started the engine that morning he went down to one of the steps to do some work on our chandler automobile he heard a loud noise and looked around to find the Delco Engine exploded and the pump house was in flames with no water available there was no way to stop the fire and they knew the house would go next. The neighbors and firemen from Perry moved all the furniture out of the house finally, moving it a total of three times because of the heat, It was even moved the third time behind the cemetery. The tool-work house and the packinghouse did not burn.
Dad was interesting in the Florida boom and his brother, George had decided to sell his Ford Agency and move to Miami. Instead of building back a big house dad built a small frame house which we lived in until we moved to Hialeah in October 1925. Back to the peaches, dad's father had died when he was 12 so dad stayed on the farm until his mother died. He had been successful with his big gamble in buying unpicked peaches crops. In the spring he often went to N.Y., Philadelphia, Chicago, Ect. To meet the wholesale produce dealers trying to make sure he gave his business to the honest ones as many of them were not honest. In 1923 he was getting ready for a big season the peaches were big, beautiful and delicious. He shipped two refrigerated boxcars of peaches to NY> and the day they arrived he had a call from the produce company that the peaches were rotten and asking what to do with them. Dad told them he would let them know the next day. He left Macon by train and arrived in New York the next day. When he went to the produce dealer who opened various boxes which showed as the peaches ripen they would get brown rotten spots which spread to others in the box. The Georgia peaches had experience "Brown Rot". Dad lost $30,000 in one month (which would be like $250,00 now). He did not even pick his own peaches or the crops he had bought. This was the beginning of our family going broke.
Ann Boyd Aka: Ann Louise Stripling Boyd