Jimmy Crutchfield has called Jones County home for more than 85 years, and he has never hesitated to serve his community, country, and God to the best of his ability.
While the Round Oak resident served in a branch of the military and has been an active member of several organizations, he said his first commitment lies elsewhere.
“My faith in God has always been top priority in my life,” he declared. “I joined Sunshine Church as a child and have served in many ways. Both of our boys and their families are also members.”
Crutchfield, 87, was born on Round Oak-Juliette Road before it was paved, and his family moved to Round Oak when he was six. The house he moved into had few amenities.
“It was a long time after we got over here and had electricity that we had running water,” Crutchfield said last week. That meant no indoor toilet for four or five years. “We had a double-hole right side of the house down there. I mean, you had a two-hole, you were high up, you know,” he laughed.
Crutchfield said his life growing up was pretty typical. As most boys in the country, he liked to hunt and fish, and he recollects other instances.
“I remember my granddad coming by on the wagon. He’d come by the house on that old wagon, a mule pulling it, and I’d ease out the door. I mean, I could get on the wagon; I’d run and jump, and he wouldn’t even know I was on the wagon until he got over there to the barn.”
The youngster attended Round Oak grammar school three years before the county closed it. He went to the Jones County school campus thereafter.
“I went there in the fourth grade,” he shared. “It was all together, that’s how small it was back then. We finished grammar school right there and went right on into high school. All we did was change buildings.”
Crutchfield and a friend made a joint decision before they finished high school.
“During my senior year, my friend, Phillip Stanford, and I joined the Air National Guard, and upon graduation we went to basic training in Texas. After four months, I returned to Round Oak.”
It was then that he encountered a friend from high school, Janet Gorley.
“The love of my life, Janet, was visiting her aunt, who ran a grocery store in Round Oak,” Crutchfield recalled. “I stopped to get gas, and she was there. We had dated a few times before I went to basic training, but nothing else.
“Sparks flew many months, and we married Jan. 4, 1958. She said it was the Air Force uniform that melted her heart,” Crutchfield said, smiling at his wife of nearly 68 years.
The couple had two sons, Steve and Howell, and three grandchildren, Josh, who was killed in an automobile accident, and Kelsey and Chase. The Crutchfields also have three step-grandchildren, Brian, Josh, and Kelli.
Once Crutchfield completed basic training, he landed a job in Gray.
“I went to work at Gulf Station in Gray pumping gas. I started to work at the filling station making $45 a week,” he pointed out. “I worked there for probably three or four months. And then I had my application in Southern Bell. So I went to work at Southern Bell and took a cut in pay, making $43.50 a week. But,” he added, “I had all the benefits.”
“I started off as a located lineman, assigned to one location, which was in Macon,” Crutchfield explained. “We didn’t have any bucket trucks, nothing to dig holes with. So we had to dig them with hole-diggers and had to climb every pole.”
The retiree said he was on the line crew for about two years before he began handling transfers and installations. “I put in telephones in residences and businesses.
“Then I went to the Private Branch Exchange (PBX) department, which was for large businesses, like the Medical Center, for example and did that for a few years,” Crutchfield detailed. “And then I wound up being a supervisor in the PBX department.
“I had a group who had maintenance and installation,” he continued. “I would hardly ever get a night’s sleep. Phone rang every night. Had to get somebody to go handle a problem. But all that’s changed now.”
Crutchfield did more at night than answer telephone problem calls. He was a high school football referee for 37 years, traveling across Middle Georgia Friday nights.
“It was a good experience. And the reason I’d do it,” he elaborated, “was nobody else would do it. And it’s worse now than I was when I was over there. You can’t get anyone to do it. The people get on them so bad now. They used to get on us, but nothing like they do now.”
Crutchfield’s role in that job changed with his age.
“I field-judged when I first started because I was pretty fast. But as I grew older, I wound up a referee and ‘sitting’ behind the offensive line, you know, because the referee doesn’t have to run that much.”
Refereeing wasn’t a road to riches, according to the veteran official.
“We got paid according to what the classification was. The classification started at $35 a game,” Crutchfield said. “Out of that $35 a game you had to buy your uniform, buy your shoes and all that stuff. All that had to come out of you what you took in on that $35.”
In addition to his fulltime and part-time jobs, Crutchfield remained in the Air National Guard. Late in that career, some 10-12 years before his retirement, he went through deployment annually.
“We went on 15 days active duty every year somewhere,” he recalled. “But most of the time it was in the state. But when we started deploying, we also went overseas, Turkey and St. John Island, Okinawa, Germany, and just everywhere.”
The veteran moved up in rank during his 40 years of service to his country.
“When I retired from the USAF, I held the rank of Chief Master SGT (E9),” he said. “I’ve had many opportunities to serve my country.”
On top of his jobs and time of service in the Air National Guard, Crutchfield has had — in addition to his wife — another passion for many years.
“I have been an active member of the Jones County Fire Department for 48 years,” he stated. “I am the oldest active member in the county. But I’m fixing to get inactive. I told them a while back, a man that’s 87 years old doesn’t need to drive a fire truck. He can’t think fast enough.
“So, this is probably my last go-round on the fire department,” Crutchfield acknowledged. “I was chief for, I don’t know, 15 years or longer up here at Station 5. We had a good fire department, too.
“Jones County’s got good fire service,” he continued. “Eventually they will have to go full-time, though, and that’s going to raise some feathers ‘cause it’ll make your taxes go up.”
The former unit fire chief has seen a lot of change — and growth.
“The first fire-knocker District 5 had was parked out here by our house, and it didn’t even have a firehouse,” he reflected. “We had the truck parked out here in my yard with a canvas over it. But, things like that, we grew up from there and have come a long way.”
The community-minded Crutchfield has been active at different times in the Sincerity Masonic Lodge #430, serving as Master once, a member of American Legion Post 142 in Gray, and member of the Woodmen of the World Lodge 358 in Round Oak. In fact, he was Master of the Sincerity Lodge when the building on East Clinton Street was built.
“That wore me out to the bone,” he said wryly, adding that he and several others went to the Bank of Gray to secure a construction loan. “D.V. Childs was at the bank then, and when we all signed the note, D.V. said, ‘By signing this note, ya’ll are responsible for it.’ Well,” he said with a chuckle, “we signed it.
“Every month we were making those monthly payments, and every month it was close,” he recalled.
Eventually, members were asked to pledge money personally to help pay off the note, which he believes was $75,000 or $80,000.
“I think we asked for $100 a member.
Everybody donated, and some of them donated more than $100. And, we got enough money; we paid that thing off.”
As the years passed, Crutchfield has been less active in the various organizations. He has also had some recent issues with his legs but is recuperating nicely. He laughed when asked how he spends his retirement time.
“I don’t ever get any days off. I work a lot. I tell you what, there’s so much going on around here. Somebody’s always got to do this and got to do that. There isn’t enough time in the day.”
