Farmer Pope now rests in peace

They laid him to rest in the earth he loved so well, the earth he tilled and planted, the earth in which his ancestors lie, the quiet earth beside the church he loved.

Most of his life he mowed and trimmed Ebenezer United Methodist Church cemetery just east of Peachtree City, knowing that his bones would join those of his people. That spot in Fayette County, Georgia, will forever be honored as the last resting place of David Pope.

Ebenezer was packed for David’s funeral last week. I was probably the only person in the sanctuary not connected to the others by blood or marriage.

There was singing, because David sang with the choir, in a booming bass.

There was scripture, mostly Psalms written by that other David, a king who also loved the earth.

There was laughter. Don Smith, the preacher who lives across from Pope’s farm on Ebenezer Road, said David used to ask him to come to Ebenezer Church and preach, and he’d always find an excuse not to.

“I can imagine him in heaven now,” Smith said, turning to look at the casket. “He’s looking back at me and saying, ‘Gotcha.’”

I first met David Pope when he set up his little produce stand just north of Peachtree City’s eastern city limits. Like most of the old-time Fayette County natives – be honest now – he hated Peachtree City. You could hardly blame him. The rolling green landscape that once easily supported a few dozen families has been buried in concrete and subdivisions. Tens of thousands live where once the red fox ran.

But when he saw how well the produce stand did, and how much it meant to his customers – mostly Peachtree City folks – he softened a little. The stand was a longtime dream of his that he brought to fruition after he retired. It was just something he always wanted to do, his daughter Cindy told me.

Besides that, he thought he’d like to run the stand on the honor system. “Honor” apparently was an unknown concept to the people who stole from him, and there were many. He replaced and fortified the padlocked money box, which pretty well stopped the cash pilfering, but then the veggie eaters took to simply carrying off what they wanted, leaving no payment.

He actually installed a video camera with the electric cord running into the ground. (Who did he think he was fooling?)

Cindy helped him put out posters with the week’s tally.

They would have been funny were they not so poignant: “June 12 – thieves got $64.50.” “June 29 $18.75.” “July 7 Thank you, honest customers. Dirty thieves got $21 worth.” He knew exactly how much produce had been swiped.

His daughter and son-in-law Tim Koch managed to tail a woman whom they had watched load up without paying, and followed her into Peachtree City. They stopped at her driveway and sat for a while staring in, but there really wasn’t much they could do.

Distressed that people stole from him, Cindy says, he would have given them food if they’d asked for it.

Another Peachtree City woman found that out. She stopped when she saw him at the stand, and asked him if he’d call her when he had produce that had to be thrown away. Her husband was in jail on drug charges, leaving a family that could not afford food.

These unfortunates became one of David’s many generous projects. Not only did he give them food, he also made sure the children had all the school supplies they could possibly use.

At one point, the thievery drove him to close the stand. I called him, and he sounded as though he was angry enough to cry. When I wrote a column urging people who appreciated his service – and his produce – to call him, he changed his mind and stayed open.

His “good loyal customers” actually rounded up their totals to try to compensate for the thieves’ pilferage.

Cindy told me what happened after I wrote a column announcing that the stand was staying open. It pleased her father so much that he drove the length of Ebenezer Church Road picking up The Citizen from the driveways. I doubt if he’d have seen the irony in that – swiping free newspapers didn’t seem like theft to him.

(I asked Cindy if it was OK to use that story. “Sure. It won’t bother Daddy where he is,” she said.)

I have good news. Cindy and her husband Tim are planning to open the stand next spring. I hope they will. Hefting cartons of tomatoes and corn is hard work, and driving up to the Farmers’ Market before dawn to buy produce is daunting.

David’s arthritis began to take its toll. The last two years, every time I saw him, I was shocked to see how much worse his back was twisted out of shape. The arthritis was in his spine, he said, and the pain almost unendurable. Surgery was impossible, his doctors told him, and he couldn’t take more medicine. Recently he wrecked his truck in his own front yard and also fell, and Cindy believes that a “brain bleed” killed her father.

Born in Fayette County, David Pope died in Fayette County and lived here all his life, except for the year in the late 1950s when he served in the U.S. Army in Germany. After being discharged, he drove trucks, ran a small food market in Fayetteville, and helped his father farm – all at the same time – and raised three daughters. “A very busy man,” says the daughter who spilled the butter beans.

Rest in peace, dear David.

Rest in peace, no longer in pain.

Farmer Pope

Submitted by cogitoergofay on Wed, 10/15/2008 - 9:38am.

Thank you, Sallie. When I saw the byline "Farmer Pope", I immediately thought of David and the produce stand. Your comments were kind and accurate. He was a really nice man who took an interest in listening to what you were saying and doing.

I remember way back Boots Pope living in a small house on the front of the property. He had a Braves pennant up there occasionally and he would wave to traffic.

That is a wonderful family and a wonderful little church. Thank you for the mention of David.

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