Mode and Turk Garrett were well-liked farmers who lived south of my home town. “Mode” and “Turk” were nicknames and no-one knew their real names. I knew both of the brother’s families quite well when I was a kid growing up, and Mode’s son Gary was a good friend. Both Mode and Turk possessed common sense. They told a story how one Sunday afternoon Mode was combining when he broke down. He was underneath the combine when a wrench slipped off and smashed his finger. Unfortunately, at that very moment, the local preacher had walked across the field to talk to Mode about attending church. Mode was using language that was not commonly heard in church, when the preacher said, “Mode, that wouldn’t have happened if you had not been working on Sunday.” Mode then asked the minister, “Preacher, just what day of the week do you make your living?”
Neither Mode nor Turk put up with any foolishness. Every year Turk had a watermelon patch that was always one of the best in the area. One dark night a group of us high school boys decided we’d go out and relieve Turk of a few of his watermelons. We had my old car right out in the middle of the field putting watermelons in the trunk when one of the guys came up and whispered to me, “Jack how many of us came out here?” I told him five, and he said, “Well there are six of us in this patch.” We quickly loaded up and left.
We went back to town and consumed the watermelons. The next evening when I went home from school I started to pull in our driveway and there was Turk talking to my dad who luckily had his back to the road. I just kept on going and drove around the country block pretty slow. When I got back home Turk was gone. My dad never said one word to me about that meeting with Turk, but I can assure you he had some good help milking those cows for the next few weeks.
Jack can be reached at PO Box 40, Oak Grove, MO 64075 or jackremembers@aol.com
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