Every Sunday afternoon, my family gathers at my grandparents’ house to have lunch and catch up on each others lives. Today, we’re sitting around the table and my brother and his fiancé are laughing. Someone has just made a joke about naming one of their future children “Corn Fleming.” This would sound odd to anyone else, but it’s become a running joke considering it actually is a family name. My 4th great grandaddy John Corn Fleming, a man I never knew, but with a name like that, he’s one I’ll never forget. I’m not 100% sure of the origins of his name. We’re an old farming family, so he might have just been named after one of the crops, or his parents may have just been feeling extra hateful the day he was born. Either way, my ancestor is still able to provide us with some good comic relief even though he was born over 150 years ago.
Growing up I never knew much about where my dad’s family was from originally. My family has been rooted in the same location for over 100 years, so I never had any questions past that time. My granddaddy’s grandfather moved to the area we now call home in the early 1900s. In a recent conversation I had with my granddaddy he was telling me about how he remembered having to go and work with his own grandfather when he was younger. He told me about how he and his two brothers used to go and plow the land for him.
I remember working on a project in 7th grade about family histories. I figured if I was going to get some answers I should ask the oldest people I know: my grandparents. One afternoon after Sunday lunch, I pop the question. Where did we come from? When they answer Scotland, every question as to why I can never get a tan is answered. I have been cursed with my dad’s Scottish complexion.
In the 1750’s, seven Fleming brothers arrived in Virginia from Scotland. They settled in North Carolina and into a life of farming that has continued to be tradition on down to my grandaddy, father and now my brother. The men in my family don’t get days off. They work everyday, and at any hour. Every Sunday afternoon though, you can find them sitting around the table with the rest of us.
When I think about Sundays, I think about family and laughter. I can see my grandaddy sitting at the head of the table reminding us all about how he had to walk uphill both ways to school everyday when he was my age. I hear my Memaw asking if we’re sure we had enough to eat, and I watch as my dad goes in for that second helping of banana pudding. People always say that the kitchen is the heart of the home, and my grandparents are the heart of this family.
The first memory that I have is one that took place in my grandparent’s kitchen. We had all just finished eating and I’m looking up from my seat on the floor towards my grandaddy in his rocking chair. My mom starts talking to me and she tells me that once Christmas arrives that Santa is going to come and take my pacifier away. As a little bit of background for this story, I admit that I was that child that had a pacifier at all times. When I heard the news I did the thing that two year olds do best, I threw a tantrum. As devastated as I was, my grandaddy was able to scoop me up and rock me until all was right with the world again (or at least until that time when Santa stole my paci).
There was no place on earth that I would rather be than my grandparent’s house when I was a child. Their kitchen was my ice cream shop, their living room was the home to my blanket forts, and their yard was my ultimate playground. Every Easter was spent searching their front yard for eggs with my cousins. Their screened-in porch has heard the conversations of every family gathering. The barn beside their house suffered through the experiments my brother and I could cook up inspired by the old cartoon “Dexter’s Laboratory.” The only thing that separated their house from my parents was a small field. When my brother and I were little the worst fight we ever got into was over who would get to build a house in that field one day. We both wanted to live as close as possible to the people that meant the most to us.
When my brother and I weren’t fighting, we were having fun on the farm. Growing up as a farm kid definitely had its perks. We had hundreds of acres to explore and get lost in. Every summer we were able to spend riding around the farm with our grandaddy. He’d let us sit on his lap as he drove the tractor around a pasture getting up hay. He’d let us go with him to help feed the cows. If we were really lucky though, he’d let us go and play in the cottonseed. Under one of the barns there used to always be a giant pile of fluffy, white cottonseed that never seemed to be depleted. If we were lucky enough to convince him to take us there, we would climb up on the closest object and then dive in as if it were a pool. I guess you could describe it as the farm kid’s ball pit, but way cooler than Chuck E. Cheese’s.
My grandfather, William Thomas Fleming, was born in 1945. Affectionately referred to as Tommy, he grew up with brothers David and Johnny. Together they formed Fleming Brothers Farm, which they still run today with the help of their sons and grandsons. Farming isn’t work for them, it’s a lifestyle. In 1982, the Flemings were recognized as Oglethorpe County Farm Family of the Year. They were described as being “steeped in the tradition of farming” in the newspaper article written about this accomplishment. My goal is to discover how far back that tradition goes.
I plan to interview my grandaddy in order to find out more about how farming has shaped his life and our family’s over time.
Interview Questions:
- What is your earliest memory?
- How different is life now, compared to when you were my age?
- Are you glad that you became a farmer?
- Do you ever wish you would’ve gone into a different profession?
- How do you think that farming has shaped you?
- How do you think that farming has shaped this family?
- Where is your favorite place in the world?
- What is your favorite tradition of our family?
- What do you miss most about your childhood?
- Do you remember your grandparents and what they were like?
- Are you glad your sons followed in your footsteps?
- Is there anything you would change about your life?
- If you could relive any memory in your life, what would you choose?
- If you could forget any memory in your life, what would you choose?
- How did you fall in love with your wife?
- What is your favorite thing to do?
- Do you think the tradition of farming will continue to be passed on through the future generations?
