My Clock Takes Me Back In Time
And what Coker Pedigreed Seed Company has to do with it…
It wasn’t until recently that I begin to recall more vividly memories of working the fields for Coker Pedigreed Seed Company. Our summer work sometimes would take us to farms in Society Hill and other areas near Hartsville.
My memories of this period of life were awakened when I stumbled upon a treasure on an outing with my wife one afternoon, a vintage “Coker Seed” clock. While it is weathered and worn, that is no concern. To me the value is the memories of time past, and having it is just cool.
As a teenager working for “Coker Seed”, the necessity of having a good work ethic had already been instilled into my brother and I by our parents, something that they practiced and modeled daily. I’ve read that Major James Lide Coker said “The day’s work of necessity had to be sufficient unto each day so that the next day could be met”. While not those exact words, my parents made sure we understood this.
My summer at “Coker Seed” was hard work, and hot. I remember my first day I darted from the house in shorts with my Mom suggesting I wear long pants… that afternoon I arrived home with legs painfully scratched from working in the field. Of course, the next day I wore long pants. I was young and so having spending money from this summer job was nice, but my Dad would often remind me of the importance of “putting some back”. That brings to mind another saying by the “Major”, “…put aside the balance for those emergencies which the future is almost sure to bring forth…”. And come forth they do! My time at Coker’s would help to grow my understanding of hard work, and it was the perfect practice of what my parents were teaching us.
In relation to the Coker family, an adventure that I am involved in led me to a good book, “The Cokers Of Carolina”. This book would come to me by way of a new friend, who happens to be a part of the Coker family, and to whom I was introduced by a mutual friend. Having made it so far to page 200 of this 307-page read, I can see why the family has found much success in life.
“my clock takes me back in time…”
Back to the clock.
My clock, the “Coker Seed” clock, sits in a corner in my office. When I glance at it, I’m taken back in time. Back to a period of life that I was very fortunate to experience. The memories from then and memories moving forward really make me appreciate the work ethic my parents instilled into my brother and me, it is a tool that has sustained us, and one my wife & I tried to model for our children, now adults.
By the way, the book, The Cokers of Carolinas, is available on Amazon… definitely worth the read. Don’t forget to like/follow us at https://www.facebook.com/countydotcool And visit our sponsor, Treely – a land, farm, country home, and commercial real estate brokerage serving Chesterfield, Marlboro, and Darlington County. www.treely.com
By Rodney
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