These Brothers Gee-Haw by Tracy McCoy
E
dgar James was born and raised in Scaly Mountain, North Carolina. Farming was a way of life for the James family. When Edgar’s boy Bob was born, pretty soon after or as soon as he could walk good, he was out in the fields following behind his dad. There were no tractors or big harrows or planters so everything fell on the mule. A man and a team of mules could go many miles a day. They usually stopped at noon when they heard the farm bell and returned to the farm house where the mules drank a lot of water and ate some corn and rested a while. The farmer ate dinner and usually laid down in a cool spot on the porch to rest a while. After dinner it was the same thing all over again until darkness for
a day of about 14 or so hours. Back to the house, feed and water again, and be ready for morning. When Bob was grown and had his own kids (Lynn, Dale, Sandra and Neal), he took them to the fields and taught them to work growing crops. A good set of mules was a requirement for plowing and cultivating crops. There was always a good pair of broke mules in the James boys farm. Bob also had two strong boys to help him work the fields. Dale and Neal James learned to train the team (pair of mules) and how to work them once they were well trained. “You gotta fool with them from the day they are born. Just like your dog, you gotta spend time with them and work with them. When one gets about a year old you can start putting the harness on them to get em’ used to it. Then when they get a couple years old you can hook them to something and let them start learning,” Neal told me when we spoke for this article. I actually met Neal and his brother Dale in Rabun Gap while they were plowing with Neal’s team Mattie and Mandy and Dale’s team Rhoda and Ada. I learned more in 15 minutes than I’ve known my whole life about plowing with mules. Dale is a soft spoken man and he talked to Rhoda and Ada in that fashion. As he continued talking to them they made their way down the row, circled and came back. When two mules are working together one is always walking in the furrow meaning the row they just made. That mule has it a little harder but the next time it’ll be the other one in the furrow. Kinda like life I
88 GML - May 2021
