My boyhood best friend and mentor, Jaybird, was tight with his money. He believed that the Lord watches how His children spend it.
Once, when he scolded me for buying a useless toy, one that I would tire of quickly, he said, “You oughta be ashamed, boy. Don’t you know de Lawd gave you de ability to make money? Dat’s a gift! If you misuse dat gift by wasting yo’ money, which you earned the hard way — chopping cotton, you jes’ showing Him dat you don’t ’preciate de gift, and He jes’ might take away yo’ ability to make money.”
Chopping cotton … what a hard job. Jaybird was the straw boss on my father’s Mississippi Delta cotton farm, and, unless the weather was rainy, he’d have his work crew, myself included, in the field by sunup. Then, he’d assign everyone a row, some over a mile long, and say, “Awright, boys, start yo’ rows.”
At first, I couldn’t keep up. After all, when Dad gave me to the old black man and instructed him to teach me to work, I was only ten years old. For a while, Jaybird would stop chopping his row, get on mine, and help me catch up. But that didn’t last long. “You must tote yo’ own load in dis life,” he would often say. I soon learned to bend to the task, and keep up with the others.
Hard work was all that my best friend had ever known, and he seemed to love it. Wasting a day in inertial sloth, like wasting money, was anathema to him. From the time his feet hit the ground until it was too dark to see, he was determined to get the most out of every day.
Jaybird often devised ways to make those long days go by faster. One way was to start on the side of a field where the rows were longest, and since few fields were rectangular, the rows began to get shorter at some point.
When they did, Jaybird would say, “Boys, we gittin’ in de short rows” — a small note of optimism, but optimism nonetheless. To this day, while struggling through difficult tasks, I always say, “I’m getting in the short rows,” when I begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
So many of Jaybird’s teachings still motivate me. In reality, motivation was what he was all about. He wanted me to keep in mind always that motivation generates momentum, and momentum generates achievement and success.
I teach that lesson to my college students. If I can motivate them to master the fundamentals — to learn that little things make big things happen — momentum galvanizes them. Then, they face and overcome the difficulties of earning an education, and have a much better chance of succeeding as responsible, productive members of society.
As I begin this new year, when I enter my classrooms, I’ll remind myself of what that beloved old master teacher always said: Start yo’ rows.
Jimmy Reed is an Oxford, Mississippi resident, Ole Miss and Delta State University alumnus, Vietnam Era Army Veteran, former Mississippi Delta cotton farmer and ginner, author, and retired college teacher.
Other books by Jimmy Reed include The Jaybird Tales.
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