A YOUNG MAN AND A FORD BECOMES KING OF THE ROAD

Jerry Earnest Leroy Overman was his given name, but people who knew Jerry called him Jell-O because of his initials, and he liked that name better. But that's not important here is what you need to know about him.

Jell-O was a farmer who seemed doomed forever with no means to escape harsh farming life in North Carolina's backwoods. It was the 1950's and the South was recovering from hard financial times, but the recovery had not caught up with the tobacco farmers. Jerry Overman was about as poor as anyone can get. My God, look at his surroundings and family life.

His parents Mildred and “Big John” Overman had always been dirt farmers in the rural piedmont region of North Carolina, and no one remembered either of them attending school. Jerry was no different. He and his family were consumed by tending Tobacco crops for their livelihood and growing vegetables to feed their family. There was no time for schooling in the Overman family.

After Jerry was born, Mildred bore three girls in succession to the disappointment of his father, Big John, who needed and desperately hoped for male children to help plow and maintain their farm. After the third girl, John gave up on trying for boys as there were already too many mouths to feed.

Jell-O was the male help for his family, and as much as anyone who worked farms near the Overman property could tell, Jell-O didn't seem to mind. Jell-O was one tough young man. He was not anything like his nickname implied.

Jerry Earnest Leroy Overman was a mountain of a young man, tall, rugged, and extraordinarily strong. His remarkable strength was already legend in those foothills, and he wasn't in age much more than a teenager. Just listen to the gossip at the local store if you don't believe me.

On Highway 49 near Jell-O's farm, there was an old country store owned and run by NB Stanley in those days. In that store, Mr. Stanley, or "Buck," as his friends dubbed him, placed old chairs and tables for the local farmers to hang out and play checkers. It was at those checker games the locals would somehow always get around to mentioning Jell-O.

One old-timer said that Jell-O never wore a shirt or at the most a T-shirt because if he sported any proper shirt, his biceps would tear the shirt when he tightened his arms upward.

It was rumored his mother Mildred said she would whip Jell-O if he ripped more shirts, so after fourteen, he stopped wearing shirts with sleeves. One old man said that Jell-O was the only man he had ever seen that had a muscle on top of his huge bicep as large as most men's single bicep. It's sad some would say he had to work so hard in the fields. It has damaged him already, they added.

You see, Jell-O's face at fifteen was so scarred and sun-damaged; he looked double his age. Pretty wasn't a player in Jell-O's family. John Roberts said that Daisy, the middle girl in the family, had more hair on her legs in the eighth grade than he did, and Doris, the youngest sister of fourteen, only had a few teeth left due to the absence of dental care.

It was a pitiful existence for the whole family. And if problems were not already bad enough, Big John was clearing land for farming when a tree fell on him, killing him instantly, leaving Jell-O as the only male laborer for his mother and his three younger sisters at only 17 years of age.

At the time of Jell-O's father's death, the Overman family didn't own a vehicle of any sort, and the lone mule they used for plowing either died from a heart attack or from being overworked.

When word got around about Jell-O's mule, Buck Stanley started a collection at his store to help the family, but the clientele was poor themselves and could only put ten cents or so in the mason jar on the counter, and the contributions didn't add up to much.

After a month, Buck counted the collection, which only totaled $18.37 even though almost everyone put something in the jar, including 8 yr. old Henry Owens, who surrendered 2 cents from his weekly nickel allowance to help Jell-O.

Buck Stanley decided after the money count; he would do what he could and remembered that Lester Albright had mentioned he would sell his banged-up Farmall tractor. Buck drove over to Lester's house and asked what he would take for the tractor. Lester said that the old tractor built-in 1943 would plow a straight row from North Carolina to Alaska and was worth around $500, but because the fuel pump was broken and the tractor would not run, he would take $75.00 and not a penny less.

Buck finalized the deal at $35.00 and paid Jimmy Watkins to get it running. After repairs, Buck had almost $100 invested in the tractor, but now it ran reasonably good for its age. Buck had Jimmy drive it down to the store and park it.

Buck drove to the Overman farm, where he saw Jell-O with a homemade contraption of a looped rope wrapped around his neck and chest with a plow at the other end of the rope. Doris, his sister, was standing on the plow blade to hold it into the dirt while Jell-O pulled and tugged to turn the soil in the row for crop planting. Buck said later it was the saddest sight he had ever seen.

“Jell-O Buck Hollered out”.

"Hello, Mr. Buck, Jell-O answered back. What brings you up this way? Everything alright?"

"Sure, is Jell-O. Can you take a ride with me to the store? I got something I want to talk to you about, and it is better if we speak at the store. I'll give you a cold Coca-Cola if you can come. One of the small ones you like."

"Yes, Sir Mr. Buck, if you need me there, I will be on my way. Just let me get Doris to start cooking for Mama cause she ain't doing well with Diabetes these days.

"Sorry about that, Jell-O." I truly am.

Soon both Jell-O and Buck were on the short ride to the store. Jell-O had to hang his head out of Bucks truck window because he was so tall.

Riding to the store, he asked Buck, "I ain't in your black book, am I? I know Papa didn't always pay you on time. I will work off any debt he owes you, Mr. Buck."

Buck Stanley was known to have a little unmarked black book with the names of people who had not paid him for their groceries over some time. Once in that book, your charge privileges were over at his store. He kept that book near the register for his wife, who worked there so she could check names. Buck's store was the only grocery store between Liberty and Burlington, which covered about 30 miles. No one could afford to be in that book, although over the years, many somehow made entry.

"No, Jerry, don't worry, it is nothing like that."

As they pulled into the store, Jerry noticed all the vehicles parked in the gravel parking area.

Mr. Buck, "you sure got a lot of customers. Is this a Holiday?"

Buck didn't answer. He parked and asked Jerry to walk around with him to the back of the store. Bewildered, Jerry did as he was asked.

As the two of them rounded the corner of the store, they were greeted with a crowd of around thirty people, all clapping and cheering directed at Jell-O. It was then that Buck pointed to the Ford tractor and informed Jerry that it was his and that all these people and several more bought it for him.

Later, while he was playing checkers with Cecil Jones, Old man Thomson said that if he lived to be 100, he didn't think he would ever see anyone more surprised and prouder as Jell-O was that day. No, Sir, that Jell-O was one happy man. That day was something special; he said as he put a crown on one of his checkers. Yes Sir as he winked to Cecil, just like this checker, he was a king.

***

I suppose if my telling you about Jell-O and his Ford tractor ended here, it would be a feel-good story about a deserving family, but there is a little more that needs to be told about Jell-O. Something extraordinary. It is unique because the giving of that poor community to Jell-O caused it to happen. It could not have happened without that tractor. No way.

About a month after getting that tractor, Jell-O went down to Buck's store and told them what happened to him just a few days before.

"Y'all ain't going to believe what happened."

Jell-O started telling the small crowd he was plowing near a big Oaktree when his plow got caught up on a large root about a foot down in the dirt. That root was so big I had to get an ax to cut it before I could plow again. As I was swinging the ax, it caught on an old milk of magnesia can. It didn't look like much but rust, but when I pulled it out of the way I saw through all that rust something shiny. As I pulled the can out of the hole, it fell apart, and three gold coins fell straight into my hand. I looked at that can and it held even more gold. I about fainted. I knowed they had value, so I took them downtown to Ronnie's Hobby Shop.

Three-finger George stopped talking for the first time ever and listened with big wide eyes.

Fletcher Williams dropped his slice of hoop cheese. Fat Back Jones wanted to know if there was any more gold, and Jell-O assured him he had torn up all of the roots and the tree, and there was nothing else.

Mr. Ronnie, Jell-O continued, took a look at dem coins, and told me I was rich. We walked over to the bank where Ronnie paid me $20,000 for the ones I took to him, and said dem gold coins were some of the rarest he had ever seen.

I ain't got no idea who put them there in that can, but they done changed my life. I can get Mama the medicine she needs for her Diabetes and the girls some dresses and false teeth.

And so, it was that Jell-O now was able to buy himself a partially wrecked old Ford car where he took a nail hammer and banged out the dents, but I thought he did more harm than good with that hammer. It took him a while but he finally got it running. Smoked a lot though.

Anyway's, we all asked him why he did not buy a better car with his newfound money, and he told us that he did not need a pretty car because people might think he was too good for them.

What they called continental kits were popular then, but Jell-O didn't buy a kit. Instead, he took an old tractor front tire and mounted it on the trunk with a link chain. He then hand-painted the entire car including the tractor tire Carolina blue with a 4" paintbrush. And you know what? Jell-O never got a driver's license, and he drove that car for years. He was so proud of that car, and in his mind, he was King of the Road.