Mr. Sunshine

A true story by Erick Sahler

“Ever seen one of these,” Bill Eason asked as he hopped down from the 1946 Allis-Chalmers tractor he calls Ollie.

He began explaining how the spiky attachment behind the tractor worked.

“Breaks up the crust pretty good after a hard rainstorm,” he said.

On the front of the tractor was a broad blade.

“Take care of all the dirt roads around here,” he told me as the old tractor gently putted behind him.

We had never met before. I was making a delivery to Oxford when I was attracted to a green and yellow field of sunflowers, and Eason’s orange tractor slowly crawling through it.

I made a quick U-turn, parked on a secondary road and jumped out just as Eason completed a row. He waved like I was an old friend.

“Mind if I take your picture,” I hollered.

“What do you want me to do,” he shouted back, smiling.

“Just go about your business and I’ll try to stay out of your way,” I said.

He made another run to the end of the field and back, and then stopped to chat.

The small tractor reminded me of the International Harvester Farmall my grandfather bought in the 1970s to tend his backyard garden. Later he replaced it with a used Ford Golden Jubilee, a 1953 model with a huge emblem on the front celebrating Ford Motor Company’s 50th anniversary.

“I know that tractor,” Eason said. “Got a ‘54 Ford in the barn looks just like it but without that emblem.”

I asked about all the sunflowers.

Some of them he sells, Eason said, but mostly he donates them to hospitals and nursing homes.

“They’re bright and cheery,” he said. “They make people happy.”

Kind of like Eason himself.

© Erick Sahler Serigraphs Co.

Each summer, Bill Eason of Oxford grows a field of sunflowers to donate to hospitals and nursing homes.