The Syndicate Crop

"We will make a ton of money.” Tim Gray uttered these memorable words as he drove on Highway 181North from Guthrie to Elkton.  We were tooling around in the Gray Family’s second car. Tim had nicknamed the car the “Brown Bomb” and it was in this vehicle that the “Guthrie Fun Bunch” had our escapades. As we rumbled along to fill our task at hand, we began our muse on how to make our second million (we had given up on making our first million).  The source of our next (and first) financial bonanza would be, in Tim’s mind, a tobacco crop.  This would not be your plain and ordinary tobacco crop but a partnership. 

Tim's plan involved us approaching Mr. Sam Harper and working out an arrangement where we used Mr. Sam's implements, tobacco base, and barn for a share of the profits.  This limited partnership (LLC) would involve our childhood friends who also happened to be Mr. Sam's family. The organization would be headed by Mr. Sam's son David who would be our CEO/COO/CFO/ and Chairman of the board.  Actually, he told us farming misfits what to do or we would have been lost like "a ball in high weeds."  Next in our make shift arrangement would be the Brothers Chapman.  Chappy and Tommy were Mr. Sam's nephews; they would be there for medical support since Chappy aspired to be a doctor someday.  Rounding out this motley crew of farming first timers were Tim and myself.  Mr. Sam had a gentleman named Hooks Lacey who lived on his farm and Hooks morphed into the undesignated overseer of our syndicate joint venture.  He offered advice, direction, and encouragement all along laughing with and at us as we tilled the earth for monetary profits and good times.

Our adventure during the summer of 1978 seems to have taken on a life of it’s own.  Invariably, when I talk of past times with my friends of old, the conversation will turn to “the syndicate crop.”  I have never figured out who named our venture “the syndicate” but it has become a part of the lore of Guthrie/Allensville for some of us. Whenever we talked about the venture we always started laughing and Mr. Sam always laughed the loudest and longest. Who wouldn’t laugh at teenage boys as we tried things like-- on a 100 degree August day, to fry an egg on a black toolbox using motor oil for grease and a screwdriver for a spatula (it works too) when they should be hoeing.  

When we worked out our loose agreement with Mr. Sam, we knew in the heart of our hearts that he was giving us a gift.  Yes, he gave us the chance to make a nice profit in that summer of ’78 and I used the money I made to buy my dream car.  But now as I start the fifth decade of life I realize that we gained much more than some gold in our pockets. We gained golden memories and we are the richer for it. 

On Friday October 29, 2010, I was driving from Bowling Green, KY to Clarksville, TN.  As I travelled along highway 79 through Allensville, my mind returned to that magical summer of the “the syndicate crop.”  I popped Boz Scaggs’s CD “Silk Degrees” into the stereo and turned the volume up.  The sun felt warm on my face and my heart warmed to the memories.  I was unaware that on that very day at that very time, Mr. Sam was being laid to rest as I moved through South Todd.  I regret not being there.  I regret that I never told him how very special he was in my life and many more people’s lives.

The next meeting that The Syndicate has I will make a motion that we name Samuel Stuart Harper "The Man of the summer of 1978."  Good bye, Mr. Sam and thank you for caring and thank you for the laughter you brought to our lives.