After serving in World War II, my father raised cotton on two hundred Mississippi Delta acres. The wealthy doctor who owned the land loaned him enough money to buy a tractor and a cultivator. Single-handedly and determined, he worked the land, made his first crop, and launched a 50-year farming career.
When a much larger farm came up for sale, the doctor loaned Dad the money to buy it. I was ten years old, and that is when I first met Jaybird, the black man who was to become my mentor and best friend. He managed the field hands for the previous owner, and did the same for my father.