Staff Writer

Paul Barnett says he and some of the other folks at Oakmont Residential were “tired of loafing.”

So, they asked residential supervisor Virginia Babb to get them some gardening supplies.

“We jumped in the Oakmont van and went to the Oil Mill and bought some plants,” said Mrs. Babb. “I thought they would work me to death. But they did it all.”

Mrs. Babb is accustomed to working with the residents on projects. She brought her sewing machine from home to help a group of ladies who quilt.

“If figured if I could sew with the ladies, I could garden with the men,” she said with a laugh. “One group taught me how to be warm; the other is going to teach me how to keep from being hungry.”

The group that day went to Union Oil Mill with the intention of buying four tomato plants, two pepper plants and two cucumber plants. They came back with much more, including 14 tomato plants and have added to the garden since then.

“I think we could take care of the facility,” Mrs. Babb said. “We may start up a produce stand. The ladies sit and watch the men work. It doesn't get any better than that.”

Richie Brown, the grandson of resident Bessie Erwin, plowed the soil for the garden. The men who have worked in it with Barnett are H.J. West, Carl Queen, Doug Smith and Roy Quinn.

Sitting around the garden, there are some good-natured jabs between these fellows.

“Carl claims to be the manager, but Virginia is,” said Barnett, 85. “Doug Smith is going to get fired. He laid out a couple of days.” (Smith, 91, had gone somewhere with his son.)

Though the garden is watered every day, nothing is growing but the plants - there isn't a weed in it because of diligent hoeing.

“We told the weeds not to grow in it,” joked West, 87.

“You've got to talk to it,” Barnett said.

Queen, 74, points toward Quinn.

“It won't grow if you watch it,” he said. “That fellow has been watching it.”

But Quinn is optimistic.

“We are going to have ripe tomatoes by the Fourth of July,” he said. He will turn 87 on July 5.

Mrs. Babb said some of the residents jokingly suggested they wanted to plant watermelons on the side of the road near the facility. She advised against this.

“You would have a lot of fun watching people steal them,” Barnett said with laugh.