LETTERS: BILL FORD MADE PARK DREAM A REALITY

To the editor:

What a wonderful way to be remembered by having a huge pavilion built in your honor. Some even suggested the entire Cape Girardeau County North Park be named in honor of the late Gene E. Huckstep, a presiding commissioner. The park began as a dream of his and is the most beautiful park around.

We all have dreams, and those dreams are never fulfilled by ourselves. There were those behind the scenes with the muscle and brawn who worked endless days and volunteered many, many hours to bring this dream to reality.

One such man was my father, Wilson "Bill" Ford, who was instrumental in the clearing, mowing and maintenance of what has become Klaus Park. He also mowed and maintained what is now Cape County Park North.

I believe it was in 1966 that Bill went to work for the county as superintendent of those parks. Klaus Park was a real thicket filled with various trees and briar patches.

He introduced his work ethic to his young son, Joe, whom he'd taken to work with him. Joe particularly enjoyed operating the chain saw and dropping those trees. If they didn't drop quickly enough, Bill would topple them with the tractor. They'd then saw them into large pieces, chain them to the tractor and drag them to where they'd burn them, along with the brush, in an open fire. Joe recalled sawing one. At is fell right close to his dad it knocked Bill's pipe out of this mouth. He must've caught what for about that. But 10 years later Bill would throw the pipe out himself, along with all his tobacco products. It took a lot of blood, sweat and tears, but they cleared the land and continued mowing and maintaining it for some time.

When the county decided to build the North Park across the interstate, this land was clear, so it was Bill's job to mow and maintain it, again talking Joe into helping him. Bill spent a lot of his time keeping Joe awake, as he was keeping late hours. One day, Bill just gave up and told him to go to the truck and get a nap.

There was some kind of bird -- meadowlark, I think -- that would dive for their heads as they mowed the tall grasses and weeds. They began wearing hardhats. One day, Joe's blew off and rolled under the bush hog. That was the end of his hardhat.

Nowadays, the county furnishes trucks for its employees, but back them Bill had to use his own. After Easter, there was always an abundance of ducks that would mysteriously appear at the lake. Of course, Bill would feed them and then find a way to give them shelter in the wintertime. Those ducks knew his truck and would greet him each morning as he pulled into the park. They knew which side their bread was buttered on.

Bill usually ate lunch there in the park at the Senior Citizens Center. When I was in the area, I'd stop in to visit him at the park, and he'd take me out to lunch there. I realized then what I must have known all along. He'd rather work than eat. And now you know something I knew along: He made dreams come true.

ELLA JEAN PLEASANT

Jackson