I came to the garden

 I came to the garden

John Clare Stokes

 

In the back yard of Pilgrims Rest at Crawfordville, Florida, the county seat of Wakulla, Rev Luther Ray Stokes, my father,  grew rows of old fashion scuppernong grapes of many varities, HIggins, Fry, Jumbo and others he acquired locally in Wakulla County and through the Stokes, Park and Ison catalogs he always had on hand. Inside this large square arbor, with the three wire fence on which the grapes ran, with pear and persimmon trees for shade, he called the Garden of Rest. Here, over the years he performed several weddings, held a few outdoor meetings of his Evangelistic Association but mostly just to sit and prepare his sermons in the peaceful surroundings. As a boy and young man, I was always in awe of the vast knowledge my father had for growing, for knowing the ways of the animals, the seasons and human nature. Much of what little I know today I acquired from observing my father, from a little boy atop his workshop bench in Sopchoppy to a young man trying as best I could to emulate his ways on how to drive the tractor, when to plant or how to decipher his sometimes exasperated instructions I wasn’t getting. He liked to give nicknames to those he was endeared to and I can recall his calling for "Jumpy" to come sit with him in the garden of rest....

Jumpy was me and I’d give anything to still have that Garden of Rest today to return to and just sit a spell in the cool of a Wakulla morning, of course, while the dew is still on the scuppernongs.