Story by Claudia Johnson, Photo by Tim Nave
James Gable’s response to “what’s the best thing you’ve ever done?” is “plowing.”
Why?
“No trouble, no headaches,” he said. “Just plowing.”
And Mr. Gable has certainly done his share of that on some of the finest land in Tennessee. He spent a lifetime in the rich fields of Wales along Big Creek, sometimes leaving on Monday and not returning from the far edges of the fields until the week’s end.
Remembered by older residents for being the first man to drive a tractor across the bridge at Wales, having driven it from Pulaski, he admits farming with a tractor was easier but less satisfying as walking behind his mule team, Ned and Jim, which he recalls with fondness even now.
He remembers an era when field workers passed the time singing and sometimes preaching. He still enjoys gospel music, confessing, “Sometimes it makes me cry.”
With approximately 10 decades of memories, (he was born on June 6, 1906) Mr. Gable has forgotten a few minor details, but not many. Records in the courthouse offer the vital statistics about Gable’s earliest years. Marriage records show his father, Polk Gable, and his mother, Lena Reynolds, wed Dec. 27, 1904.
According to answers provided to educator J.J. Zuccarello, who was responsible for 1910 Census data collection in the Campbellsville area, both Gable’s parents were born in Tennessee. They resided in the Morristown community on Dry Creek Road where they rented the farm on which they had lived for five years. In 1910 his father was 24 and his mother 21, and their only child, James, would celebrate his fourth birthday on June 6. The Gables added two more sons and five daughters in the years ahead.
James Gable moved to Wales as a young man, working for Newton Morris, Joe Scales, state senator Newton White, who died in 1931, and on Clifton Place for owners spanning three decades, beginning with the Wades during the depression.
When asked, James is quick to clarify that the one task he never did was pick cotton.
“That’s for children, not for me,” he said.
he had no time for hobbies, has never been much of a hunter or fisherman, wasn’t interested in sports and, except for occasional trips to see relatives, has not traveled much.
“I worked all the time,” Gable said, a memory confirmed by his son. William, a retired City of Pulaski employee, who started working with his father on the farm when he was 12, some 46 years ago.
“Work won’t kill anybody,” William Gable said, sounding much like his father.
William was the youngest of three sons of James and Eula Mae Marks Reynolds, whom James married in 1935 when she was 15. Confined to a nursing home, she, too, has outlived their sons James Junior and Moses Glen. She and James have lived in separate homes for 30 years, a situation their son credits with the good relationship between them. William said when his mother was still in her residence but could not be alone, his father spent the days cooking for her and attending to other needs.
James lives in Pulaski, but he’s only been a permanent resident for 14 years. He tried living in town in 1960, but five years later he headed back to Clifton Place. Two knee surgeries have slowed him down a little, and since he does not drive anymore, he is dependent on others for transportation.
“Who cooks for you?” he was asked, to which he quickly replied, “I do.”
“He’s always been a good cook,” William said, explaining that his father makes wonderful cakes in addition to full meals of meat, vegetables and bread.
(When I told Mr. Gable that I can’t make biscuits, he insisted on explaining in detail how to do it. “Try it when no one is around,” he said. “Then if they are no good, you can throw them out and nobody will know.”
William said he’s always been amazed at his father’s simple wisdom. For instance, James’ theory on taking medicine, especially multiple pills, is that “one pill knows where to go, but five pills don’t know where to go.”
His analysis of politics in America: “They’re just for the rich people. They stole the election last time, and they’ll do it again if we don’t watch out.”
When asked for advice after approximately 100 years of living, Mr. Gable said, “want do you think?” as though his counsel should be obvious.
“What do you think he meant?” his son was asked.
“I think he was saying ‘be honest, work for what you get and treat everybody right’,” William said. “That’s the kind of example he always was to me, and still is.”
-copyright 2004 Pulaski Publishing
Post Script: Mr. Gable died on Jan. 26, 2010, at Pulaski, Tenn., at age 104.
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