Walter Myers bought the South Bend farm of about 150 acres extending from the South Bend Crooked Creek bend to the top of the hill along Cemetery Road. Early on, he grew mostly cucumbers for the pickle market. Teenagers were hired to do the hoeing during the growing season. In later years, Inez Townsend supervised the workers in the planting and weeding.. Ron Jamison did much of the plowing, cultivating, fertilizing and equipment maintenance.

In our years as a neighbor to the Myers farm size 1964, we have seen the changes in the crops he grew. Some years he was into growing a large acreage of cabbage, tomatoes and peppers. In other years, he specialized in early sweet corn, mechanically laying down sheets of black plastic and planting into holes to get an early start from the warmer soil.

For several years he grew cantelopes just as his father had years before in the family farm near Leechburg. Walter raised a special, highly-ribbed melon which was extremely sweet and people drove from miles around to buy a basket or so. In season, Edith Myers ran their small vegetable stand along the highway between their upper and lower fields, with the early corn a big seller.

In later years Walter used the upper field to mainly raise pumkins for the Halloween trade. Some were sold locally, but most were sold to dealers in the Virginia-Area. Walter would used large flat wagons to pick up the pumkins and sometimes they were stored in rows in the upper fields awaiting pickup by the tractor trailers. Other years he would haul them all and stack them in rows in the field opposite to the barn.

Walter usually used organic fertilizers on his sandy soil, buying it from the limestone plants in Centre County. For several years Walter agreed to take chicken manure from the plant in West Lebanon. After it was spread on the farm, the entire area was permeated with the chicken plant smell when the wind blew, and until the first heavy, soaking rain. Most of the neighbors were quite upset that they couldn't sit outside during this time, and I think his wife Edith finally convinced him to give up the practice.

All the years Marguerite and I knew him, Walter was a vegetarian, and used special pressure cookers to prepare his vegetables. He used only natural condiments made of seaweed and the like. At least once a year he would fast "to clean out his system to maintain his good health. During his fasts, he would only take liquids, mostly vegetable and friuit juices prepared with an assortment of blenders. For years, at least once a month when we were talking, Walter would try to convince me to fast and to give up the meat "which was poisoning my system." His wife Edith and daughter Barb were never swayed by his arguments and maintained their regular menu.

   
2 Views of the Original Vegetable Stand on Farm Along Route 156

Waiting for Southern Tractor Trailer Trucks to Pick Up Halloween Pumpkins
For Sale in Virginia and the Carolinas

October, 1989 ~ Chris Carnahan

October, 1989 ~ Chris Carnahan

October, 1989 ~ Walter and Chris Carnahan

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Walter and Daughter Barb