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Puttin' in Backer
by Archie Rose

 
I told daddy that this was the last year that I was goin' to put in backer.  Now don’t get me wrong, I loved bein' a country boy…you know…huntin’'and fishin' down by the crick, and helping with the animals.  But, and this is a big BUT…I hated doin' anything with backer!  I hated plantin' it, suckerin' it, croppin' it… anythin' that had to do anythin' with backer…I hated it.  In fact, when I turned eighteen I went down to the Navy recruiters in Raleigh, and I signed up just to get away from farmin'.  When I told Pa that I signed up…he looked at me like I just lost my mind.  He stared at me and said "What's a dumb ole country boy goin' to do in the Navy?"  I answered "I don't know, but as far as I know…there ain't no backer fields on a ship!" Well, he informed me that the season wasn't over, and that my brother Johnny and I had to top off the remainin' fields.  Now toppin' off backer ain't no big deal, but just the idea of me goin' out in those fields one more time just gnawed at my insides.  Oh, by the way…toppin’ off just means gettin' the remainin’ leaves leftover off the plants.
          
I swear it must have been the hottest day of the year…of all days, the last day of croppin'. Johnny and I were already cussin' under our breath about how hot it was.  As Pa, Johnny, and I were walkin' away from the house, Mama and two of my sisters were sewin' dresses from patterns bought from the Woolworth store over in Goldsboro.  They took the feed bags, warshed them, and dyed them whatever color they wanted to make the dresses out of the cloth from these bags.  They were always happy sewin’ together, and Mama told us she'd have chicken pastry and collards waitin' for us at lunchtime.  I guess I better tell you how we cropped so you can understand the story I'm about to tell you.  We had two mules and three trucks.  We called them trucks, but actually they were four wheel wagons that we hitched one mule up to. 

We'd take one
truck and a mule out to the field, break the leaves from the stalk, and pile the leaves into the cart . Pa would drive the wagon to the barn, and there would be another mule and wagon left in the field for us boys to fill up again.  Pa would unhitch the mule at the barn and hitch her up to an empty wagon to take out to the field.  So it was one big circular relay pattern.  The two mules that we had were named Gertie and Ray.  Ray never liked my brother Johnny, and I think it was because Johnny would switch him for no good reason.  So needless to say, Ray wouldn't do much of what Johnny would want him to.
         
We got out to the field which was not too far from the house, and we could barely make out Mama and my sisters on the porch. Johnny drove one wagon out there followed by Pa driving his wagon.  Pa would help us fill up the first wagon, but he would spend the rest of the day driving wagons back and forth.  I couldn't believe how blessed hot it was that day, and I started whining to Johnny how much I hated doin' this.  He told me to shut my yap, or he wasn’t goin' to let me have any of what he bought out into the fields.  I asked him what it was, and he pulled out a mason jar full of shine that he had hidden in one of the wagons.  I asked him where he got it, and he told me that he got it out of Uncle Luther's barn.  I told him that Pa was goin' to skin us alive, and he said that he wouldn't skin us if he didn’t know about it.  Well, you can imagine what was goin' to happen next…no good!

Everytime Pa would leave us alone out in that field to take a wagon to the barn, we would take a drink. After  about the third or fourth wagon…I really couldn’t remember how many wagons it was…w e were feelin' good.  Pa kept on lookin' at us and wonderin' why we were so happy out there in that hundred degree heat. As Pa was getting ready to take one of the wagons to the barn, he said that he may be a little longer because they were havin' trouble with the loopin' machine.  We just smiled and said OK!  After Pa left, I told Johnny that I had had enough of the heat, and I was goin' to strip down to my underwear.  Johnny busted out laughin', and said he thought it was a good idea.  So there we were… out in the middle of a backer field in our underwear…drunk!

The mule we had hitched up to the wagon at the time was Ray.  Johnny was harassin' him all day, and I guess Ray had had enough and was not goin' to move another step.  Johnny unhitched Ray from the wagon, wrapped the reins firmly around his hand and tried pullin' Ray a little bit to get him goin'.  Ray was not budgin'!  Johnny yelled at me and told me to get the shine and throw a little on Ray's ass. Well, I did it!  Ray took off like a scalded cat and started draggin' Johnny down the tobacco rows.  I was laughin' so hard that I pissed my underwear.  About that time, Pa came drivin' up with the other wagon, jumped off the wagon and asked me what the hell was goin’ on?  I think I got a little smart with Pa, and said "well either Johnny is saying ho mule, or he's calling Ray a ho."  Pa pulled a switch from the wagon and commenced to start chasin' me around the wagon trying to hit me with the switch.  I told him that I was too grown to be hit with a switch, and I kept on laughin'.  I didn't know this till later, but Ma saw the whole thing from the porch of the house.  My youngest sister asked my Ma what was Pa doing to Archie out in the backer field.  Ma just shrugged her shoulders, and said "maybe your Pa is givin' Archie an O..fficial send off to the Navy."  Needless to say, that was the last time I cropped backer!


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