THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, October 2, 1996 TAG: 9610020587
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LINDA MCNATT, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: SUFFOLK LENGTH: 118 lines
Melton Walden still recalls the frigid, windy New Year's Eve day of 1960. While others prepared to celebrate, he, his wife and their two eldest children - 10 and 8 at the time - picked cotton.
In all his years of farming, that time was one of the worst.
Laborers were scarce and there was no machinery to harvest the crop. ``We stayed out there until after dark, and we still left cotton in the fields. I swore I'd never plant another stalk.''
But things changed, including picking machines and cotton's reappearance in Virginia fields. In his fields, near the North Carolina line, Walden planted more than 300 acres last year and increased the acreage this year.
Because he is the kind of farmer he is, because he works in his fields when he has to, recognizes trends and moves on them, supports the agricultural community and simply loves the land, the Suffolk Chamber of Commerce recently named the Holland farmer and his family ``Farm Family of the Year.''
Walden's is the first black family to win the award. Blacks make up about 10 percent of the state's agribusiness community.
``Mr. Walden has always been an agricultural innovator,'' said Virginia Tech Extension Agent Clifton Slade. ``He stays up on the latest equipment, the latest techniques, and he's always eager to open his farm for others to come see what he's doing.''
Walden's knowledge reflects decades of experience. The 67-year-old was born where he lives, in the same house in which his throng of seven children, their husbands and wives, the Walden grandchildren - and, since July, a great granddaughter - gather each Sunday.
During harvest time, they come to work as well.
That, he says, is just one of his blessings.
``Not a day goes by that there's not a grandchild in this house,'' he said. ``Most of the time, there are five or six here. This farm has helped us raise our children, educate them. It's provided us with a home.''
Until he was 16, Walden worked with his father and grandfather - and three mules - on the 75-acre original family farm. Not until then did the family buy its first tractor.
``I've seen the equipment go from one row with mules to two rows to four rows to what we have today, eight rows,'' he said. ``Back then, it wasn't anything but work. You might get to town once a month, if you were nice.''
Just as he followed his father's advice about going into farming, Melton Walden followed his advice about selecting a wife:
``My daddy always told me if I went to see a girl and she won't ever doing nothing but sitting around polishing her fingernails, I didn't need her.''
Doris Walden recalls that the first time her future husband came to visit her father's farm, in the Skeetertown section of Suffolk, she was working in the flower garden, where she escaped at the end of each day.
The next Sunday, when he knocked on the door, ``I told him to come on out to the flower garden with me, and we've been best friends ever since,'' said Doris Walden, 66.
He added, ``Every time I saw her, she was working.''
The couple married in 1948, and moved in with Melton's parents until they built their own home nearby. As the family grew, so did the land, from the one small farm to five with about 1,400 acres.
Children were born to the Waldens every two years until there were five. Another was born in another five years. And during another period that the couple remembers as trying, their seventh child was born.
For years, both Melton and Doris worked outside the farm. He worked for the government and for the school system, and she worked at General Electric's television plant for 20 years. With help from the children, they still worked the farm.
Doris Walden calls the hard work another blessing.
``When you've got children working, doing something all the time, they don't have time to give you any trouble,'' she said.
For nearly seven years, when Melton had back problems that puzzled doctors, she and the children kept the farm going. ``And that's when the last baby came along,'' Doris said, laughing. ``Everybody teased Melton. They said Melton's back couldn't have been but so bad.''
Smiling as he held her hand while sitting in the living room of the century-old family home they returned to after his parents died, he said, ``That was your surprise.''
Eventually, a ruptured disc was removed from Melton's back and replaced with plastic. Doctors advised him to retire.
``I took it easy for about six months,'' he said. ``Then, I got back to work, and I ain't stopped since.''
Today, the Walden's two oldest sons, Monte and Glen, are partners in the farm with their parents. They and their wives, all living nearby, will carry on the family tradition.
``And Monte's oldest son is interested in farming,'' Melton said. ``We've got another one coming along.''
After nearly 50 years of marriage, the Waldens still walk hand in hand on their land. They rise each day at 6 a.m. When she isn't working next to her husband in the fields, she prepares breakfast and takes lunch to him, her sons and the family's two longtime farmhands, Elvin Hunter and Cleveland Lawrence Jr.
In her spare time, Doris grows orchids. She has nearly 300 houseplants. And she tends grandchildren.
Last year, the Walden family farm took third place in area peanut production. This year, they're hoping for first place.
Neither Melton nor Doris regret the investment of hard work and years they've put into their Suffolk soil.
``Farming - it's a good clean life,'' Melton said. ``Out there, you can think . . .''
``You can sing; you can pray,'' said Doris, finishing the sentence for him.
``This is rewarding work,'' he said. ``There's nobody to bother you.''
``It's peace on earth,'' she said. ILLUSTRATION: Color photos by MICHAEL KESTNER photos/The
Virginian-Pilot
Farming and family are synonymous in the Walden family, here
gathered around the table Sunday for dinner. Many generations of
Waldens have worked and lived on family farms, beginning with a
75-acre farm and growing into five farms covering about 1,400 acres.
Though they've each held other jobs, Doris and Melton Walden have
been devoted to their farm since they married in 1948. ``This farm
has helped us raise our children,'' Melton said. ``It's provided us
with a home.''
KEYWORDS: FARMER OF THE YEAR by CNB