Like most good Southern tales, this one starts with a young man, a problem to solve, and more determination than common sense. The year was 1927, and just outside Davisboro, Georgia, Thomas Eugene Glover made his first appearance – though folks would come to know him better as Papa Gene. Now, if you’re thinking this is just another story about growing up in rural Georgia, well, you’d be about as right as calling a pound cake just another dessert.
From those early days on his daddy T.O.’s thousand-acre farm (bought for $25 an acre in 1930, if you can imagine such a thing), through his adventures in the Merchant Marines at 18, to his years running McCoy Gin in Davisboro, Papa Gene had a particular way of looking at the world. He was the kind of man who could size up a problem, scratch his head, and come up with a solution that might make you wonder if he wasn’t part engineer and part magician.
“If A Frog Had Wings” follows Gene’s journey through the changing landscape of mid-century Georgia, from his marriage to Mary (who was all of 16 when she said “I do”) to raising four children who’d each inherit their fair share of his problem-solving spirit. Along the way, you’ll meet the characters who shaped his world – from Ada and Jim, who were as much family as employees, to the cast of characters who’d gather at the Biltmore for parties with Sam Nunn and other notables of the day.
But the heart of this story isn’t in the big moments – though there are plenty of those. It’s in the quiet wisdom of a man who’d calculate how fast his son’s pond would fill just because he could, or who’d think nothing of buying drinks and snacks for everyone at a dove shoot, not just family. It’s in the way he could defuse any tension with a well-timed “Well, guess he can just scratch his ass and get glad!”
From his work with the Department of Agriculture to his later years helping his son Jimmy at Utilicon, Papa Gene’s story is more than just a timeline of events – it’s a testament to a generation that faced life’s challenges with wit, wisdom, and a healthy appreciation for a good story. And speaking of good stories, just wait until you hear about the great bull and cart caper… but we’ll get to that.
This family memoir captures not just the events of Eugene Glover’s life from his birth in 1927 to his passing in 2008, but the spirit of a man who understood that sometimes the best solutions to life’s problems come wrapped in a little bit of mischief and a whole lot of heart.