Not too far down from where he lives on Old Pike Road, James Pugh was born.  On January 12, 1916, in Fitzpatrick, Alabama, he became the seventh son in a family of eight children.  The farm on which he played and grew had already been in the Pugh family for three generations.  He enjoyed the gentle rolling countryside, and the memories of the land and its promise would stay with him throughout a lifetime.

Life would not always be easy for James Pugh.  With World War II eminently approaching, he took a job as a sheet metal worker where jobs were plentiful at a place then known as Eglin.  It would later become one of America’s important defense lines - Eglin Air Force Base, Florida.  From there, in 1943, he was called to report for military action.  He would leave behind Kathleen, his bride of just one week, his family in Alabama, his friends, and the land he loved.  He would take with him warm memories of the country he swore to help defend.  Before long, James Pugh, the gentle citizen, would become Staff Sergeant James Pugh, ready to defend it all.

Battle he did.  A thousand miles from home in the South Pacific, he was dispatched with a 10-man crew assigned to a B-24 squadron.  It fell to him to operate the machine guns up in the very nose of the huge four-engine plane.  As a “nose gunner”, he was also about the first target the Japanese ‘Zeroes’ saw when they attacked the bomber squadron.  No one knew just how long they would serve doing this dangerous work, but James recorded 450 combat hours before finding his way back to Alabama. 

From Flying to Farming

With the war not far behind him, and back on American soil, it was his time to resume life with his bride and their plan for the future.  They were young with options and opportunities to take them anywhere, but the thoughts of fields and land he had left behind were lingering, and farming appealed to them.  They purchased their first land just down the quiet road from where he had been born.

James Had a Secret Wish

He and Kathleen left World War II behind, and bought their first 120 acres of what had originally been his great-granddaddy’s property.  Now divided up, he found some of it owned by family members with other parcels sold to various parties.  It was then the young couple set for themselves a private goal – and dreamed of putting the original farmland back together someday.

The couple accepted the hard work and diligence it took to run a successful farm.  Early on, Alabama was turning to growing poultry with chicken houses springing up everywhere.  They purchased cattle as well as chickens.  The egg business had a special appeal, because “everybody likes eggs”.  With 4,000 caged layers, they produced so many that they could deliver eggs door-to-door in various neighborhoods.

In their 22 years in the egg business, the price ranged between 55 to 60 cents per dozen.  Kathleen made most of the deliveries while James worked on the farm.  “It was just like the milkman did back then,” Kathleen says, “five days a week.”  One well-known stop on her delivery route was to downtown Montgomery to the governor’s mansion then occupied by Governor George Wallace and family.