Samuel Pate

November 22, 1914

It is hard to remember how old I was when I first began farming. My dad owned a small farm and I helped him. My dad usually did the farming until I got a good bit older. My mother and I did hoeing and whatever else was needed. The thing I enjoyed most about farming was just seeing things grow. I remember before I got large enough to work in the field, my mother would let me help in the garden and to get me out of the way, she let me have my own little garden in the corner. It was my job to do the garden, and that’s how I learned.

            When I got old enough I had a mule and a turning plow. Before that, all I ever had was a hoe. We also had what we called a ‘gee whiz’- or a spring tooth- that we used to cultivate. It was more or less a scooter scratch like plow that would run around the corn. We had to go two times to the row and each side of the row. Believe it or not we never owned a tractor and I never did have the experience with a tractor other than just studying about it. Certainly, a tractor could do more than we did back then. We only had a small area, about 20 acres more or less was about its size. I think being raised on a farm certainly made me appreciate what I did have. I was brought up during the years of the Depression, but we really did not notice much difference. We always had a hard time just getting enough to live on. You can see why people felt that way at the time.

            The point I left the farm was when I started school at Shelby County High School in Columbiana in the seventh grade. I had to leave home and live with my grandfather to go to school. I came home during the summer months to take care of my projects and help my dad on the farm. While at school, I had ‘occupation classes under the Ag teacher. Then, in the eighth grade, we had a little shop class. I built a knife and fork box. I still have it. I played football and made team captain one year, was president of the student council and senior class. I became very involved in FFA and attended three state FFA conventions. In 1933-1934 I was elected State FFA Reporter and was one of our state’s delegates that year to the National FFA Convention in Kansas, Missouri.

            I started my first teaching job as Vocational Agriculture teacher at New Market, Alabama on July1, 1939. Then the war started and I went into the Navy from 1940-1945. I came to Sand Rock in November 1945. I got out of the Navy on November 3 and came to Sand Rock just after Thanksgiving. My supervisor called me and told me that Sand Rock was open and to come and look at it. I came to Centre and met the Superintendent, Mr. Frank Stewart. He came with me to Sand Rock and when I saw it- a small rural community- I knew at once it was exactly what I wanted.

            The Sand Rock people proved to be the friendliest and loving people I had ever known. They were true neighbors to each others and if you needed something they were there to help you. I taught at Sand Rock for 31 years and have been retired for 23 years and today I don’t think you can find a friendlier and loving people. When I came to Sand Rock, most of the families farmed. Cotton was the main cash crop. Some of the men worked at Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company and the steel plant in Gadsden, but they farmed a few acres on the side. Sand Rock had two stores, two churches, and a cotton gin. During the cotton picking season, the gin operated around the clock when needed and the school let the students out for cotton picking.

            Mr. J.R. Nutt was the first Ag teacher at Sand Rock. He came and organized the Ag Department in 1937 and was here when I came in 1945. During World War II, canning plants were built at various Ag Departments over the state to supplement the food rations the people had to eat. These plants were placed under the supervision of the Ag and Home Economics teachers. The plant at Sand Rock had been in operation part of one season when I came. The people brought their vegetables, fruits, and meats to the plant and we instructed and helped them can it. Ag and Home Ec teachers were not paid anything extra for this work. Sometimes we didn’t finish the day until after midnight. Some ‘smart’ Ag and Home Ec teachers let their plants run down and need repair and they closed then. The plant at Sand Rock lasted ‘till 1976.

            In addition to teaching regular classes, I visited projects, helped train teams for FFA contests, had evening classes with farmers, did the canning plant, and had a recreational program one night a week. We also had an FFA store we managed as a business. There were two boys working, buying, and taking inventory. The store paid part of the expenses of our trips we’d take in the summer in the beginning and finally it financed all of them. We ended up buying a new bus and paying the school rent every four months of $500. The boys took inventory once a week and paid 20 cents per day.

            The trips or educational tours were made to different parts of the country. We rotated each year for three years so the boys wouldn’t make the same trip twice. The trips included Washington, DC, two trips to the World Fair, New York City, Daytona Beach, Panama City, deep sea fishing, New Orleans, Miami, Tampa, and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. I enjoyed my work, but I regret that I didn’t spend enough time with my family.

            There was one thing that stands out in my mind more than anything to me. Before I was large enough to work, my mother and dad would go to the field and my mother had an aunt that cane and kept me and my sister at the house. I remember that this aunt told me about angels and about the devil, hell, and all of that. I was about 5, maybe 6 years old at the time and I have never forgotten it. It stayed with me all the time up until I accepted Christ as my personal savior.