Frank and Kathleen Sprinkle’s greatgranddaughter, Westyn, will be 2 in August. This summer is the first time she has picked strawberries at Pa’s.
Summers
SIMPLE
By Amy Sprinkle have lived in Dobson, Surry County, all my life. I grew up less than a mile from the city limits, but even today we are still in the country. I have seen many wonderful “pillars of the community” and “salt of the earth” neighbors over 40 years, but none quite lived up to my parents. Recently, however, that has changed. For so long I have compared other families, friends and neighbors to the straight-road way of life my mother and father paved for me from childhood. Nothing compared to the simple life they lived and taught to others. Those simple summer evenings with the smell of fresh-cut grass, a cooler breeze flowing through the oaks. If you
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24 JULY 2010 Carolina Country
close your eyes, you can smell the Sweet Bubby Bush at the corner of the porch. Mother always cut patterns and sewed her own clothes. There was always enough left for me to have a new skirt, blouse or “culottes.” She would work all day at the local rest home, come home and garden a half-acre of vegetables and get them canned, all before suppertime. How she did it, I can only guess. With the Good Lord’s help, I imagine. My father, John Henry Wright, was a third generation Baptist minister from Mountain Park, here in Surry County. He was humble and funny. He always made time for anyone. He didn’t live life the way he wanted, but
instead he let life live through him. He told me one time that he didn’t know why life had led him where it did, so he thought he should give someone else a word of encouragement every chance he could. He lived each moment. When he would see an old friend he hadn’t seen in a while, he saw that there was a reason for it. God must have planned it. It will be five years ago this June 30, 2010. I miss him greatly. Well, I finally realized that two people I met four years ago fill the mold of my mother and father. They are Godfearing, family-loving, simple-living, earth-friendly people: my father-inlaw and mother-in-law, Frank and Kathleen Sprinkle. They have been married 55 years and have always lived here. Frank was a state advisor in the Surry County Agriculture Department. Kathleen helped him on the hog farm, one of the largest in the state in the late 1970s. They had two wonderful daughters and a very sweet son, my husband, Don. They managed hayfields for their cattle and a homestead. Frank has always grown a garden with the tube watering system under plastic. He also has raised beds for his other delicate vegetables. This garden is a strawberry lover’s delight: huge berries hanging above the ground on a raised bed inside railroad ties. Every berry is sweeter than the last, never any dirt on them. You can eat them right from the vine. You won’t find chemicals on these fruit. I don’t think Frank’s conscience would allow him to spray them. I will always be grateful for this family and what they have done for our community.
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