THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, June 19, 1994 TAG: 9406180071
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 12 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY SUSIE STOUGHTON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: 940619 LENGTH: SEBRELL
So after graduating from Ferrum College with a degree in agriculture three years ago, Simmons, 24, joined the family operation at Nottoway Farms, where the sign out front read, ``J.P. Simmons and Son.''
{REST} One of the first things his grandfather did was to add ``G.S.'' - for ``Grandson.''
Today, his grandfather - J.P., as everyone in and out of the family calls him - spends his days in his office in the midst of the Southampton County farm's corn, wheat, peanut and soybean fields, leaving the heavy work to his grandson and son, Paul.
``The relationship I have with Paul and David is just great,'' said J.P Simmons, 75. ``But lots of times they'd like to see me get out of their hair.''
They appreciate his help, especially making phone calls for them while they are driving tractors or running combines, the younger men said.
J.P. Simmons, wise beyond his formal education, left school after the eighth grade to help his own father, a sharecropper.
``I stopped school and went to plowing a mule when I was 13,'' he said. ``If I had had an education, I don't think I could ever have done anything I enjoyed more.''
David Simmons shares that love of farming.
``It was what I wanted to do since I was a young 'un,'' he said. ``I didn't ever want to do anything else. It's all I'd ever done, besides fishing.''
Things were different when Paul Simmons grew up, watching his father and his uncle, Malcolm Simmons, till the 300 acres of open land they and their father bought, beginning in 1941.
``I never had any inkling I would farm,'' he said.
Instead, he went to VMI, graduating with a degree in English. He spent two years in the service and two years teaching at Southampton Correctional Center in Capron before his career took an abrupt turn.
By then, J.P. Simmons was farming alone, following the deaths of his father and brother.
So Paul Simmons, disillusioned with teaching, left the classroom and learned to drive a tractor.
``I ended up here, I don't know how,'' he said. ``Maybe God had something to do with it. It was one of those happenstance kind of things.''
Despite his book learning, Paul Simmons knew nothing about farming.
``Everything I know about it now, J.P. taught me all of it after I came back,'' he said.
The father-son duo learned to cooperate, despite different approaches.
``I'm the conservative,'' Paul Simmons said. ``He's the liberal. I'm the pessimist; he's the optimist.''
His father balked at spending money for an irrigation system, Paul Simmons said.
``But J.P. had watched crops burn up on that sandy soil,'' he said. ``If we had not put it in, we wouldn't be here today.''
Now the responsibility is shifting again.
``David is taking a lot of pressure off of me,'' said Paul Simmons, 48. ``A lot of things I can shift over to him. I can get rid of the details, details, details and push that to the side.''
Things don't always go smoothly, however, in the blistering sun.
``We have some cross words,'' J.P. Simmons said. ``But not but about 30 minutes, and we go back and shake hands.''
During the day, it's business. Other times, it's family, Paul Simmons said.
Every week, he and his wife, Peggy, gather with David and his wife, Heather, for Sunday dinner with ``J.P. and Anne'' after church.
Despite any differences, the men share their love for the land.
``It's a great life,'' J.P. Simmons said.
{KEYWORDS} FATHER'S DAY
by CNB