Dairy Farmer Recalls Winter Bee Trips to Florida

As the temperatures turn decidedly cooler and Old Man Winter rears his head signaling he is taking over, the thoughts of a retired dairy farmer living in Southern Morrisons Cove turn to his younger days and oddly enough, to honey bees.

For many years, Ray Grubb of Salemville Road traveled out of the cold and into the sunny environs of Florida with these buzzing insects, so heavily depended upon to pollinate much of the fruits and vegetables grown in this country.

The ride south was usually a pretty cold one for Grubb, but the warmth of the Sunshine State penetrated clear through to the bones.

"Usually there was snow on the ground when we left around the first of December," Grubb said. "We rode, the wind in our hair, the whole way to Florida."

The winter wind in your hair? That's right. Grubb and his siblings rode in the back of a 1936 Chevrolet two tandem truck from New Enterprise through southern Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina to Leesburg, Fla.

The destination was in the center of the state in an area replete with orange and grapefruit groves, all in need of the magic touch of the honey bees moving the precious pollen from blossom to blossom.

Grubb, now in his 87th year, had a life that started out normal. Born in Loysburg, he was one of four children in a family that moved to a dairy farm along one of those windy roads that twist around New Enterprise soon after his birth.

The bee-ginning

The "normal" ended when Ray was six months old and his father suddenly died.

"My mother had no money," he said of the desperate situation many families found themselves in when the household breadwinner died.

But Momma met and married a man by the name of Joe Gamble. He was a honey bee farmer from some place in Maryland.

"It was 1940 and he decided to take these bees to Florida," Ray said recalling the first of what would result in many trips south.

The bees, in their hives, were placed along the sides of the truck bed. Bed mattresses were placed on top of the beehives.

"And that's were we rode, on top of the mattresses," Ray said.

Adding to the drama was the quirky tendency of the honey bees to fly away, leaving the hive when in motion during daylight.

"We had to drive at night because the bees would fly away during the day," Ray said.

Bumbling along

The cold wind, coupled with the battles to keep the bees in check, left lasting impressions on this little would-be dairy farmer, but some of the more dramatic memories came from the times when Joe Gamble would get lost and drive the truck into big cities along the way.

"One time we got lost in Washington, D.C., and that really scared us kids," he said.

Another memory burned into Ray's mind was when the clutch went out of the truck.

"We stopped at a strange house, the lady let us come into the house while Joe fixed the clutch."

Some years, there would be enough money and the family could find a roadside cabin to spend the night then resume the trip come morning.

Where to spend the winter months before heading north in April was always was a problem. At one point the family spent time in a chicken coop measuring 18 by 20 feet.

There were a couple years when Ray's mother drove some of the children south in a 1932 Chevy car from her first marriage, trips that were not without their adventures.

On more than one occasion, Momma would have had a baby over the summer months, an addition which took some pretty fancy footwork, Ray said with a laugh.

"She drove the car and she would nurse a baby while she was driving down the road," he said. "Keep in mind, she was driving a stick shift and she had to change gears."

Eventually, the enterprise was expanded and Gamble added a second truck putting Ray's momma at the wheel.

Raising the hive

Education for all the children was a huge challenge going to school for a part of the year in New Enterprise then to whatever school could be found in Florida.

It was especially hard for Ray, who found it difficult to keep up and failed second grade.

It was about 1944 when he was eight or nine that the family bought a house and five acres of land in central Florida, apparently with the intention of going into the citrus growing business.

But Ray's heart yearned for Morrisons Cove.

Flying home

Ray had the opportunity to leave the honey caravan and find a permanent home with his Uncle Hazen Ebersole of New Enterprise.

There he found stability.

"Uncle Hazen, he taught me to farm, I did a lot of plowing, harrowing, picking stores, I milked, but they were good to me."

Ray was a graduate of Replogle High School, New Enterprise, class of 1954 and eventually married Della Mae Detwiler, class of 1955.

Ray served the government for two years in alternative service, rather then join the military for religious beliefs. The couple married on July 7, 1957, and has three children.

Ray has only good things to say about his mother.

"People did odd things back then to make a living," he said.

Momma had a little kerosene stove and she would cook.

" I don't remember ever going hungry," he said. "Although we lived poor and there were lots of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches."

But despite the tumultuous life Ray held onto a principal he learned early on.

"My mother never had us miss Sunday school and church, and we tried to do the same with our children."