I started to school and soon learned I was not a scholar. After repeating the first grade and then the second, I was pushed into the third grade without ever knowing my a-b-c’s. My mother and father had great concern with me not being able to learn to read. The teachers thought I was being a funny man by repeating things backwards, and the kids laughed at me. Needless to say, this did not do much for my ego. Being shy and having few friends, I was not very popular in elementary school. But, I always knew Jesus was there for me and he would carry me through whatever I needed.

Spending more and more time alone in the woods, talking to God, watching and learning from the habits of animals, birds, spiders and bees, I never got mad at God, I just took whatever was in store for me. I figured he dropped me in these boots and this is who I am. I don’t ever remember God telling me not to worry about my being different from others. He must have, though, for I always felt at peace within myself. Oh yes, kids made fun of me a lot, but God blessed me with patience and a mild temper. I mostly laughed and said, “Maybe some day I might be smart like you.”

My parents made many trips to school to find out why I could not learn the alphabet, but no one knew why or how to teach me. The county superintendent suggested an evaluation from a medical doctor. The final report was that your eyes are the windows for your brain and that I have a missing window. To their apparent knowledge, dyslexia had not yet been discovered. I started off with a private tutor who realized I was reading from right to left causing me to reverse my sentences within the paragraphs, my words within the sentences, and my letters within the words.

Time marched on. I have three fine healthy sons and a beautiful wife that I wouldn’t trade for the world’s gold. Yes!! God blessed me with them and what a heavenly reward I did get. Being dyslexic I was never able to read children stories to my sons at bedtime or at least like most fathers. I did learn how to read to myself – but very slowly. Turning into a history buff, I told them stories about Indians, like Red Cloud’s War and how he ran the white man off his land without ever firing a shot, what a religious leader Red Cloud was, and how his Great Spirit saved his people without guns. They loved it. My reward came to me many years later when my little granddaughter Sammi told her daddy, “No, don’t read me a book, tell me a Poppa story!”

In the early nineties I got cancer, didn’t think I was going to make it and I called my family together. I told them I had had a good life and that our good Lord has always taken care of me, and surely, he will again. My memoirs and notes had already begun when my youngest son David needed help in preparing a social studies assignment on family history. As I shared my stories, our sons started asking me to write more about life on the farm, so they would have something to read to their children.

Later cancer came back twice as hard. With all the drugs and medications I became sentimental and depressed. The Lord came down on me with a pounce. The only thing I could think of was my wonderful life on the farm, my love for animals, family and friends. And he hit hard, I started writing and what a challenge.

Being dyslexic, my writing is reversed sentences, out of order paragraphs, misplaced chapters and misspelled words. Mary never lost patience with me. Our sons kept asking me to do more. I was developing a love/hate relationship with this book. God does not always make things easy for you. I started to pray, “Lord, stop, let me sleep in peace.” But, no, the Holy Spirit would wake me up at 2:00, 3:00, or 4:00 in the morning, insisting that I get up to write down the words and thoughts given me. Sometimes I would hear him say that your sons want to know and your grandchildren want to know. Exhausted and groggy from drugs and lack of sleep, I pulled myself out of bed and went to work. The Legacy of a Country Boy was in the making for over thirteen years. I say I didn’t write this book – God wrote it.

Jimmy Fox