THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, September 27, 1995 TAG: 9509260120
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Coastal Journal
SOURCE: Mary Reid Barrow
LENGTH: Medium: 94 lines
You could just as well call James C. Arnold's home on First Court Road the Arnold Agricultural Museum.
Arnold, a collector of old farm implements and other memorabilia, has decorated his Beechwood neighborhood yard with some of his artifacts.
He has incorporated old-fashioned wood-burning stoves into the landscape and hung an array of old plow blades and other early 20th-century farm items on the fence down the side of his yard.
Fence boards are painted bright white or red and the plows, old cook pots and other unusual items are painted black, red and silver. The fence gate yields a clue to part of his collection. A sign says many of the implements came from ``Auntie Alberta Criswell's farm in Springfield, Arkansas.''
This way, Arnold, who retired from the Navy in 1965, has a touch of his Arkansas youth around his retirement home in Virginia Beach. His Auntie Alberta lived 15 miles from where Arnold grew up in Arkansas. When he went home to visit, he'd bring back some implements from his family's and his aunt's farm.
``I told her I was going to hang them on the fence,'' Arnold said. ``And she said to take a picture, so I made a sign for the picture.''
In addition to Arkansas plow blades and the like, he has some items of local origin. One is the hand pump from the well that he used at his First Court Road home when he built it in 1961.
There's also an odd looking bowl-shaped contraption with a small lever in the center which turns out to be an old-fashioned automatic cow watering bucket from Bayville Farm, down the road from Arnold's home. When a thirsty cow nosed the lever, the lever opened a spigot to let water flow into the bowl.
Arnold remembers well the days back in Arkansas when the iron cook pot that hangs on the fence was actually used to boil the family's supper over an open fire in the kitchen fireplace. A fireplace poker, ice tongs, cow bell, crosscut saw and shoe last also are among the items on the fence.
``There wasn't any shoe shop,'' he said speaking of the shoe last. ``They'd repair their own shoes and my daddy used to fix ours.''
Gear for tending to farm animals also is part of the collection. There are parts of leather harnesses and rigging for the mules and plow horse, along with a curry comb and horse shoe.
A curved wooden horn that his daddy used to call the hounds in from the hunt back in Arkansas also is part of the fence decor.
Arnold also has a little bit of the Arkansas landscape in his yard. Arkansas rocks imbedded in concrete and painted white and/or red are made into pillars and gateways. White rocks form flower beds around the trees.
One front yard ``exhibit'' features a rack from which a big iron cook pot and tea kettle hang as if they were ready to cook a meal over an open fireplace. Two wood stoves are imbedded in concrete in the lawn. One has a heavy iron clothes iron on top of the eye to show how the iron was heated.
Arnold got involved in his collecting about 20 years ago. He first started installing his memorabilia in the front yard.
``My wife started getting after me,'' he said, laughing. ``She said I had too much junk in the yard!''
That's when he moved around to the side of the yard, built the fence and started decorating it. There is no question that all Arnold's ``stuff'' is an attention-getter.
``A lot of people stop and ask if they can come and look,'' he said.
P.S. GO DOLPHIN WATCHING at 4:30 p.m. Friday or Saturday or go on an Ocean Collection trip at 4:30 p.m. Sunday with the Virginia Marine Science Museum. Call the museum at 437-6003.
PLANTS THAT CHANGED HISTORY is the topic of a walk at 4 p.m. Sunday at Norfolk Botanical Garden. The walk, free with admission to the garden, leaves from the Garden House Cafe patio. Call 441-5838.
KEMPSVILLE DISCOVERY, a free series of programs at Community United Methodist Church, begins Oct. 4, and runs on Wednesdays through Oct. 25. Folks can choose programs beginning at 10 a.m. on nature, travel, art or Bible study. The programs are followed by lunch and a speaker. The cost for four lunches is $12. Call 495-1885 or 495-1021.
BACK BAY NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE is looking for old photographs of the refuge and the Back Bay area for a slide program on the refuge's history. If you have any and are willing to lend them to the refuge to be reproduced, contact Deputy Refuge Manager Joe McCauley at 721-3896. MEMO: What unusual nature have you seen this week? And what do you know about
Tidewater traditions and lore? Call me on INFOLINE, 640-5555. Enter
category 2290. Or, send a computer message to my Internet address:
mbarrow(AT)infi.net.
ILLUSTRATION: Photo by MARY REID BARROW
Old farm implements from family farms in Arkansas decorate James C.
Arnold's home on First Court Road.
by CNB