Drying Up Of The Vine

Drying Up Of The Vine

I recently saw an elderly patient of mine. He was in his late eighties, but he stood tall and was sprightly. He was in excellent health for his age. The only evidence of his advancing years was a hearing aid in one ear.

We took care of his routine health needs. On one visit, he talked about how things change over time. I asked him how? He then told me his story.

In his younger years, he had moved to a very small town in Georgia. This town was established in 1820 and was one of the oldest towns in that area. In 1887, the railroad came through and the town boomed. People moved there and businesses were established.

In the 1920’s, this area became a favorite visiting place for the future President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. FDR loved the wide open areas and the multiple springs beneath the land. He kept visiting until his death in 1945.

This area continued to do well, with cotton mills and some manufacturing plants. Almost forty years ago, my patient opened a hardware store there. He ran it with his wife and worked every day except Sunday. Both husband and wife knew most of their customers by name and business was steady.

Unfortunately, a few years ago the main industrial plant in town shut down. This was a food processing plant, and with it came the loss of several hundred jobs. Many people moved out and businesses started shutting down.

His hardware store also started to decline. This was hastened by the opening of a large chain department store in a nearby town. My patient was getting older and the store, in his words, was bleeding money. He decided to try to sell it.

There were no offers on the store. He finally closed the store and auctioned the inventory. The town agreed to buy his building, and they used the building as a medical office. My patient was now officially retired.

He finally decided to move away from his small town and move closer to where his children and grandchildren were living. While he is much older, he remains in good health. He spoke with a little sadness of the decline of his store and his small town. His description of it struck me. He said it was like the “Drying up of the Vine”.

This was a beautiful way of expressing his thoughts. I later found out that this expression comes from the Bible; “The vine is dried up and the fig tree is withered; the pomegranate, the palm and the apple tree, all the trees of the field are dried up. Surely the people's joy is withered away”. (Joel 1:12).

After our visit, I looked up his old town. It had declined to a population of less than a thousand. However in recent times there had been a renaissance. Tourism had remained popular as many people would come to see President Roosevelt’s cabin. This fairly modest cabin was known as the ‘Southern White House’.  This term has been used for many presidential retreats, but this is probably the most modest.

Some of the old stores were renovated and antique shops were opened in them. More recently a Korean auto parts manufacturer has opened a plant in that area and the population is slowly increasing.

My patient is also doing well. He is a little bored in retirement but is content. His phrase ‘Drying up of the Vine” has stuck with me.

However it now appears that the vine is growing again!

                                    President Roosevelt's Southern White House in Georgia