The sun came up today to give Calhoun County one of those beautiful spring days. The kind where it is not to hat and not to cold. Where it is fun just to go outside and sit on your porch and say hello to the neighbors as they pass by. There are a lot of porches in Calhoun County and most of them, due to the latest round of road work, are close enough to the road that when you’re sitting on your porch and a neighbor goes by you can say hello and perhaps, as a lot do, invite the neighbor up on the porch for a cold glass of tea or your famous lemonade. It is of note that no one in Calhoun County makes Lemonade it is always their famous lemonade and, strangely enough no one questions this.

Little Jimmy Brown is out doing his springtime rounds looking for jobs he can do during the spring and summer. Before the day is over he will have at least 5 jobs lined up. Little Jimmy Brown has been hustling for jobs since he was 12 years old, he is now 15, and no one that has ever hired him has been dissatisfied with his work. He says he is saving up for college, as he does not want to be stuck with a job down at the mill like his father. Jimmy is also fast to tell you that he is not ashamed of his father and his father is his hero.

Mr. Jimmy Brown’s wife died when Little Jimmy Brown was only 5 years old and Mr. Jimmy Brown has been raising Little Jimmy Brown and the rest of the 5 Brown children ever since by himself. Little Jimmy Brown knows this has not been easy on his father and has done all he could to help. When Mr. Jimmy Brown was growing up there were few jobs to be had in Calhoun County and he was lucky to get one of the few jobs left at the mill. Mr. Jimmy Brown was so very much in love with Mrs. Jimmy Brown that when she died of the Flu he all but wanted to give up himself. Then one day he looked around and saw Little Alma Brown and noticed she looked just like her mother and snapped out of his self-pity as he realized that the love he had for Mrs. Jimmy Brown was still alive in each of the children. Mr. Little Jimmy Brown has had more than one chance to remarry but has turned them all down as the little Brown children have never found one they really liked and Little Mr. Jimmy Brown feels he owes it to his children and the dear departed Mrs. Jimmy Brown to find them a new mommy they will like.

So every day, six days a week, Mr. Little Jimmy Brown goes to the Mill at 6 am and comes home at 7 pm to his happy band of little Browns. Every Sunday Mr. Little Jimmy Brown cleans the little Brown children up and takes them to the Baptist church to hear Pastor Johnson give his sermon then takes them down to the VFW for a late breakfast. Little Jimmy Brown once asked Mr. Little Jimmy Brown why he had to go to church as he was not sure he believed the Bible was a book that was written by God and that he sees a lot of those Baptists doing thing that are not right according to what the Bible says so what is the use in going to listen to Pastor Johnson every Sunday.

Mr. Little Jimmy Brown looked at Little Jimmy Brown then asked him if he believed in God and Little Jimmy Brown told his father that yes he did. Mr. Little Jimmy Brown then told Little Jimmy Brown he was now 15 years old and able to make up his own mind as to whether he wanted to go to church on Sunday or wanted to stay home and sleep in. That is where Mr. Jimmy Brown left it.

Sometimes, Mr. Little Jimmy Brown said, we have to make choices in life. I see little Jimmy Brown working hard and being a good boy. I see him helping others when he can and not looking for a reward. He doesn't know that I know that every year he goes and shovels the Widow Jones' driveway and the driveways of three other people here in Calhoun County that cannot shovel the snow off for themselves and never asks them for a dime. Nor does he know I know about the lawns he mows or the cars he washes every summer just because he thinks it's the right thing to do. Perhaps he knows better than Pastor Johnson what the Bible says or means. Some things you need no words or book for as they are just there to be had if you look for them.

TT