{"id":1120,"date":"2020-09-18T07:11:44","date_gmt":"2020-09-18T12:11:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tngenweb.org\/weakley\/?p=1120"},"modified":"2020-09-18T07:11:46","modified_gmt":"2020-09-18T12:11:46","slug":"tom-grooms-pasture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tngenweb.org\/weakley\/tom-grooms-pasture\/","title":{"rendered":"Tom Grooms’ Pasture"},"content":{"rendered":"\n


by Joe Stout<\/big><\/small><\/small><\/big><\/big><\/p>\n

\n
In 1936 Tom Grooms had a pasture behind his house on Evergreen Street in Greenfield.\u00a0 This pasture had a muddy pond where we went swimmin before I was old enough to swim in the Obion River.
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From 1935 until 1938 my Mom and Dad operated the old Colonial Hotel just across the highway from the train depot.\u00a0 In those days traveling salesmen came in on the passenger trains and stayed at the hotel.\u00a0 Single men and women also stayed there on a permanent basis.\u00a0 Room and board was furnished to all.
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In 1936 a vagabond, barnstorming pilot, came in to Greenfield in an old open cockpit Fairchild bi-plane.\u00a0 He landed in Tom Grooms pasture and came to the hotel to stay.\u00a0 His name was Mel Garvin.\u00a0 In addition to being a daredevil pilot Mel was also an alcoholic.\u00a0 One day while under the influence he decided to put on a show for Greenfield by doing some stunts over town.\u00a0 He put the old bi-plane in a spin over the depot and pulled out at just the last minute.
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Mel stayed around Greenfield for a few months.\u00a0 I recall my dad saying that he and someone else had to go to Kentucky to bail Mel out of some problem.\u00a0 This was the middle of the Great Depression and times were hard.
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Memory does not serve me as to when Mel left Greenfield but we never heard from him again until sometime in the early 1970’s.\u00a0 My dad had already passed away and I stopped by to see mom one day and Mel was there to visit her.
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As Mel started to leave he shook my hand and then my mom\u2019s.\u00a0 I heard him say \u201cthis is just a little something that is still due.\u201d\u00a0 After he left mom opened her hand and unfolded a one hundred dollar bill.\u00a0 She explained that when Mel left town he owed her a room and board bill.\u00a0
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As a kid just starting grammar school airplanes were a fascination for me.\u00a0 In the days when Mel was here, and airplanes came over, everyone ran outside to see them.\u00a0 Only dreaming of the chance to one day fly, my very conservative mother, surprised me by saying we were going to Tom\u2019s cow pasture and take a ride with Mel.\u00a0 Needless to say this was a thrill that has never diminished in my mind.
\u00a0
Sometime in the 1950;s Tom Grooms started selling building lots at the south end of this cow pasture just off Jefferson Street.\u00a0 The Drewry boys started building houses and selling them.\u00a0 A street was opened up and was named Fairlane Drive.\u00a0 By the late 1960’s Fairlane Drive had filled up and was one of the best sections of town.\u00a0 In 1969 my wife and I bought the last lot available on Fairlane, which was located midway of what was once Tom\u2019s old pasture.\u00a0 We built our home and still live here today.
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As I sit here typing this story, I look out my window and can still see in my minds eye Mel\u2019s scarf flapping back toward me and Mom, at just about the point a six year old kid first left the ground in flight……………………\u00a0 It don\u2019t git much better than that.\u00a0<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Joe Stout In 1936 Tom Grooms had a pasture behind his house on Evergreen Street in Greenfield.\u00a0 This pasture had a muddy pond where we went swimmin before I was old enough to swim in the Obion River.\u00a0From 1935 until 1938 my Mom and Dad operated the old Colonial Hotel just across the highway Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"template-gutenberg.php","format":"standard","meta":{"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"full","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"author_meta":{"display_name":"MaryCarol","author_link":"https:\/\/tngenweb.org\/weakley\/author\/marycarol\/"},"featured_img":null,"coauthors":[],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["Uncategorized<\/a>"],"unlinked":["Uncategorized<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":"0","relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 6 years ago","modified":"Updated 6 years ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on September 18, 2020","modified":"Updated on September 18, 2020"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on September 18, 2020 7:11 am","modified":"Updated on September 18, 2020 7:11 am"},"featured_img_caption":"","series_order":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tngenweb.org\/weakley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tngenweb.org\/weakley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tngenweb.org\/weakley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tngenweb.org\/weakley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tngenweb.org\/weakley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1120"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tngenweb.org\/weakley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1120\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1121,"href":"https:\/\/tngenweb.org\/weakley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1120\/revisions\/1121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tngenweb.org\/weakley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tngenweb.org\/weakley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tngenweb.org\/weakley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}