Today’s episode of The Storyteller’s Porch begins with a signature drink to honor our hosts, Jill Davis’ “daddy”, peppermint schnapps.
James G Davis (Jim) and Elizabeth Sue (Leathers) Davis. March 1951
Jill’s dad, Jim Davis, was 91 years old when he passed away in November of 2018. One thing that remained true for Jim throughout his entire life is that he LOVED peppermint. Jim was known to end his day with a nice shot of peppermint schnapps. In fact, this habit went so far that Jill’s sister once snuck in a bottle of peppermint schnapps to Jill’s dad while he was recovering in rehab from a broken hip.
Jim Davis was born on a farm in a home birth Kansas in 1927. He grew up in a small town, went to a little school in the middle of the country and quit school the first semester of 9th grade. Living through the Great Depression, he worked and made a living breaking wild horses. At age 17, he joined the merchant Marines. After World War II was over, he became a union sailor.
In 1949, Jim Davis’ father passed away and he moved home to take care of the family farm in Kansas. We talk more about this journey in episode 1.
This is where Jill’s parents met, in a small town called Bird City, Kansas.
Jill’s mother was born in a town of 2,000-3,000 people in Kansas and was one of five children.
Jill’s dad was a couple of years younger than her mom and that’s almost all we know about how they met. They were in the same state and around the same age as one another. Though Jill and her siblings asked many, many times to hear the details of their love story, the full details were never divulged. Jill’s mom, Sue, just always said… “well… it was a pickup.”
What we do know is the story of the first time Jim realized he was in love with Jill’s mom. Jim explained to the kids that the moment came when he found himself puking his guts out of the side of a truck. Jill’s mom held Jim’s head, dabbed his forehead with a damp washcloth and cared for him during that experience. The rest is history, as they say. The couple later married in 1951 and moved to a little town called Colby, Kansas.
Jill’s mother was not “farm life” material but loved her husband so much that staying there was a blatant exercise of love. In hindsight, Jill recognizes how her mom had to work hard to live a day-to-day life on the farm by herself. Water was not readily accessible and had to be pumped, then brought in from the well for consumption, cooking, and bathing.
There was nothing around for miles and the only vehicle the Davis family had was driven by Jill’s father as Jill’s mother did not know how to drive. This meant Jill’s mom spent most of her time for many years alone at the farm house with no one around, no entertainment and little resources as they were in a drought.
The farm was formed on dry land farming, there was no irrigation and life on the farm was very much dependent on the weather. Jim found himself struggling to make enough money to keep the farm going and support his growing family. After a few years of struggle, he decided it was best to find a living elsewhere.
An Aerial View of the Farm in early 1990’s
Eventually, Jim moved to Leadville, Colorado where he worked in the mines. At the time, Climax Mines was mining molybdenum. While Jim lived and worked in Colorado, Jill’s mother remained on the farm in Kansas with the children. They kept up this way of life for a long while. With Jill’s mother not knowing how to drive, seeing one another was completely dependent on Jim. Ever so often, he’d make the 5-hour drive from Leadville to Kansas to see his family and spend time on the farm.
Eventually, Jim saved enough money for the family to move with him to Colorado and they settled into their new home in Buena Vista. The family lived in an encampment that was a stockade, high up on a hill where you could see all of the surrounding areas. Although all was well for a while, tragedy soon struck when Jim and his wife lost their two daughters in an accident.
James and Elizabeth about 1960 Colorado
Following the accident, Jill’s parents relocated once again to Colorado Springs, which is where Jill was born. Jim started a construction business in Colorado Springs and the tides began to turn.
In the ’70s, Jim’s business became very successful. By the ’80s, when Jill had grown and moved away from home, Jim was offered to become part owner of a local bank in Colorado Springs that specifically catered to and supported small businesses.
Sometime during the time of Jim’s business growing and the bank coming into the family’s life, the farm in Kansas went out of the family. The house that was on the property was built by Jill’s grandfather and appeared to the new owners to be dilapidated. They later found that all that was wrong with the house was that the windows needed to be replaced but by the time the new owners became aware of this, they had already ordered and shipped their new home to the farm so they went ahead and dozed the original house built by Jill’s ancestors.
In the late 80’s, the family that purchased the farm land reached out to Jim and let him know they had given the farm a go but to no avail. The area was again experiencing a drought and many farms and homes were over mortgaged. No one in the Kansas area had any money to take care of or to purchase the land. The family was at a loss and asked Jim if he wanted his family land back.
By this time, Jim was well off and in a solid position to repurchase the land so he did so for $14,000.
A photo from the directory of their local Country Club, Early 2000’s
Sue did not want to move to the land and so the family stayed in Colorado Springs and Jim went back and forth each season to help farm the land. Eventually, Jim had tenants on the property to care for the homestead and the building for him. Longtime family friends, the Kresses and the Bursches, continued to grow crops on the land.
Though Jill’s parents never lived on the farm again, the few years that they did are a symbol of the power of love, showing respect for one another’s needs, and working through life as one half of a partnership.
We continue the story of how the farm lived on in the family and how Jill inherited it from there in other episodes of the podcast.
As we wrap up this episode and of the story built between Jill’s parents, we ask that you share YOUR story with us. What combination of love, loss, joy, triumph and chaos makes up your own life and what experiences might YOU have to share with the collective?
Towards the end of Sue’s life time but not the end of the love story.
You can submit your stories here to be featured in a future episode. We look forward to hearing from you and can’t wait to share a signature drink with you.
Thank you joining us on The Storyteller’s Porch this week! Make sure you subscribe and follow us at https://thestorytellersporch.com/, https://thestorytellersporch.libsyn.com/, or on your favorite podcasting platform so you don’t miss a single story with us on the Porch. We’ll see you next time where we’ll be sharing more personal stories with collective impact. What drink will you bring?
Always drink responsibly, don’t drink and drive.
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