1910 come by so durned fast, I don't know where the last few years went! Suddenly it were almost Christmas and Eldon come home from Sacramento, the State Senate were out for the holidays. He were tellin' us that the state were going to take over the highways. That were what they was callin' them and they was to pave them with some kind of oil tar. The road from Sacramento to Redding were to be a test, it would get the oil tar next spring. Sounds like a durn fool expense we don't need, but it ain't theys own money them fools in Sacramento was spending!
Jimmy come home with a picture of a thing theys was calling a motor car. The picture claimed it would go 10 miles an hour! What fool wants to go that fast for, won't be nobody there when theys get there, theys all scared off by the noise the contraption makes.
Christmas were quiet this year, theys no little ones to run around all excited. The boys talked me into buyin' one of them motor cars, it were a Packard Phaeton. Monstrous big ugly thing, it don't go nowhere except when Eldon is home. I's still like my little surrey, but the horses don't much like all them motor cars goin' by honkin' theys horns.
I don't get out much anyways, what don't work no more, hurts. Dr. Felton keeps after me to not over do things, but that don't mean I got to do nothing. The newspaper says there going to be war soon in Europe, that ain't none of our business, let them fight theys own differences! We are farming 62,000 acres, that be all a man can worry about.
We decided to replace the old store building in Redding Town, the old one were getting mighty rundown. We built a special building for the ice machine and got the smelly contraption out of the store. Folks don't buy much ice no more, a company called General Electric is selling an ice box machine what don't use no ice to keep things cold. The railroad and the packet boats still use lots of ice
The county wanted us to tear down the old Blount House, but we's decided to fix it up. No tellin' when there be childrens needing a place to live. Our whole area is on the county map as "Blount's Bluff", theys even wanted to put a sign out on the county road sayin Blount's Bluff. I never went out to see if they did, don't matter none, I knows where I live.
Summer come early and all of a sudden, the wheat were ready to cut. That new tractor what Jimmie had us buy, the ones those two brothers down in Stockton Town were sellin' surely did a job on the winter wheat and it didn't have no steam valve to scare half the hens in the county! It only takes two men to run it instead of six. Some of the hands is getting creaky like me, but theys old friends, I ain't gonna put a friend out on the road.
Billy and Ella Jane Denton's little boy is turning 10 this summer, he the only small child around and he gets lonely at times, so's Jenny Baxter, the woman what helps clean the house, brings her grandson every time she comes. The two boys is thick as thieves, they don't get in no trouble, but theys a passel of energy! Makes me tired just watching them.
Old Jules Vance come by, he just travels with his son now, the son is the buyer now for Anchor Steam Beer in San Francisco. While him and Steven dicker about the price of rice, Jules and I remember old times. Anchor still buys out our entire crop, nobody even comes around no more askin' to buy our rice.
The dairy is a big operation now, Carter Evans' boy, John, manages all the dairy and cattle operations. Poor Carter had a stroke a year ago and passed, it were an awful shock. Doctor Felton said his war injuries what did him. John were beside himself when his Daddy went, there weren't no way we was gonna let him go off on his own. He were one of us! Last I heard, they was milking 400 cows and running 1500 beefs.
A blight hit the olive trees and we had to yank them all out and plant a different variety, theys just now coming back into production. Rockville Canners set up a cannery right near the railroad siding and theys take all of the peach orchard, theys load the canned peaches on rail cars and sells them in Chicago. They ship 20 cars at a time! A couple of years ago, the railroad come in and expanded our siding to double tracks, they can park 40 cars there now.
Despite the troubles of the year, 1911were pretty good for us Blounts, Jeff reported that the after expenses profits were $2,916,250. We was plowing some of that back into a new store building in Redding Town and two new tractors. Those brothers down in Stockton Town was marketing theys Earthworm Tractor. It had an engine in it 'stead of a boiler and it didn't fright every hen in the county with its blowing steam valve! Sometimes, I get to missin' my old Percherones, but I keep tellin' myself that be progress.
Joe and I gived out the year end bonus' to all the hands and foremens, theys all seemed pretty pleasured about the amount. Wes decided to have a contractor come in and work over Blount House. Maggie wants to make it a guest house, but I's feel it oughta stay ready for abandoned children again. Ain't no tellin' when times gets hard again.
Mr. Isaac Nelson Blount passed away in his sleep on January 26 of this year. He was 70 years old and was a pioneer farmer. He came to Redding and Marysville as a boy and farmed at Blount's Bluff. Mr. Blount was a philanthropist of the first order, many area boys and girls were raised at Blount's Farm, most of them were orphans. He adopted six boys and raised them as his own, they remain part of the Family Corporation today. His natural son, Steven Isaac Blount succeeds Mr. Blount as President of Blount, Incorporated and had this to say about his Father, "My Dad was the kindest, most open hearted man I have ever known, his generosity has made our county better for him having been among us." This writer knows for a fact that Mr. Isaac Blount carried many local families, my own included, through hard times, out of his own pocket. He founded and operated Blount House, where many of our fathers stayed as boys during hard times and he fed many local children from Blount stores in Redding and Marysville, again, from his own pocket. As we say good bye to this wonderful man, let us all give thanks that he had lived among us. Chester Waldrup, editor |
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I hope you liked this story and would enjoy it into the next generations of Blounts, the sequel will be titled, BLOUNT'S BLUFF
Charles Bird