Granddaddy Cox and Integrity

When my mom and dad were married, my grandaddy (my dad’s father) helped my dad build them a house just across the road from their farmhouse. I don’t remember that small house because by the time I was three we had moved to town. My dad had tried logging to make a living, but he figured he could do better with a job in town.

We visited the Cox farm regularly, and my earliest memories of my granddaddy were from that farm. Grandmama made me a preschool-sized cotton-picking bag. I would work hard to fill my bag with cotton, so I could drag it to the cotton shed where we would weigh my cotton and then I would climb into the shed and almost drown under the fluffy, but prickly cotton (lots of hulls, debris and even some cockleburs!)

When granddaddy was working the fields with his International Farmall Cub tractor, Grandmama would give me a quart jar of ice water and tell me to hurry down the hill from the house to take Granddaddy some water. I would run down the hill with my preschooler legs churning away and my mind racing with excitement about what was going to happen when I arrived at the field where granddaddy was working. I would get to ride on the tractor with him for a few minutes. I would stand up between his knees and he would let me put my hands on the steering wheel. I made a lot of memories with my grandaddy in that cotton field.

The International Cub Farmall tractor was designed by engineers in the years following World War II to replace a horse or mule on the small family farm. Every time I have seen a Farmall Cub, I have had instant good memories of my grandfather. Several years ago while driving back to Georgia from my parent’s home, I saw a Cub tractor for sale on the side of the road in Mathison, Mississippi. I quickly turned around and went back to look at the tractor. After a few minutes of looking it over, I asked the seller if it ran. He said, “Sure it runs. I would not be selling it if it did not run.” I bought it on the spot. I phoned my dad and asked him to go to Mathison near Starkville, Mississippi to pick up the tractor. Later I drove over to pick up the tractor and bring it to its new home.

It did run, but it needed major work, so I contracted with a guy to restore the Cub. After a few months he returned to our farm with the tractor. It looked great. After going over it with him he agreed that it needed some more work i.e. lights did not work, throttle would slip, etc. He said that he would come to our farm to do that work the next week. We agreed that I would go ahead and pay him the full cost of restoration.

The next week passed and the next, but he never came back to finish the job. He would not answer my phone calls. I dislike voicemail, but I left him messages nonetheless—all to no avail. The guy still owed me a few hundred dollars of work, but he obviously had little integrity.

The only recourse I had was to share with my hobby farmer friends not to let this guy do any work for them.

I always thought my granddaddy was a man of integrity, and I have tried to be like him all my life. He was a farmer who, like so many others in the 50s and 60s was a victim of not being able to support his family from farming 80 acres with a little 9 horsepower tractor. The big farms were already driving the agriculture industry, so Granddaddy had to sell the farm to pay off his debts. They moved to town, and he started selling candy. He would sell a box of candy to individuals, and they would sell the candy one bar at a time. It was a tough way to make a living, but he did it. Later on he began working for the city, so he had more stable employment until he retired.

Granddaddy worked hard, but I never heard him complain about not having enough money, and I never heard him say a bad word about another person. I never heard another person say an angry or negative thing about my grandfather. He was a man of integrity. The world would be a better place to live if everyone had the same integrity as my grandfather.

“The righteous man walks in his integrity; his children are blessed after him.” Proverbs 20:7.