Peach patriarch has no plans to call it a day

From the time he was tall enough to stand on his tiptoes and pluck a peach, then take a bite and feel the juice running down his chin, Bob Dickey knew this would be the good life.

He made a promise to grow up surrounded by the orchards, and then grow old with them. He committed himself to wear out his knees praying for enough “chill dates” in January and February, then keeping his fingers crossed for warm nights after the middle of March.

He pledged to keep vigil as they bloomed and ripened, then watch them picked, packed and shipped to every state east of the Mississippi River. And he promised to always appreciate the loyal patrons who come to enjoy peach ice cream on the giant porch, sitting in rocking chairs on hardwood floors under the whir of ceiling fans. Sometimes they laugh and ask him if Norman Rockwell was the principal architect at Dickey Farms.

They arrive there on their summer pilgrimages, pulling up on church buses, motorcycles and behind the wheels of vintage cars. Their eyes follow the peaches along the conveyer belts, then they leave satisfied with varieties of Scarletprince and Summerladies in their back seats.

Dickey Farms touts its fruit as the “sweetest peaches in the South,” and there are those who believe they must be fertilized with Dixie Crystals sugar. The real magic is in the soil. They are grown along the edge of the fall line, on the hem of the coastal plains. Go a mile or so south and the ground is sandy. The hills and valleys of red clay then take over to give these peaches their special flavor.

Bob turned 88 years old on June 23, three days after the first day of summer and smack in the middle of the traditional peach season. His advanced age makes him the senior peach grower in Georgia. He is the affable patriarch of the oldest continuously operating peach packing house in the Peach State.

The regulars at Dickey Farms, with its blend of modern technology and old-fashioned approach, know at least some of its stout history. Many have heard it recounted from Mr. Bob himself. The family business was started in 1897 by his grandfather and namesake, Robert Lee Dickey. In 1936, the packing house was built — 80 years ago this year.

The chain has remained unbroken through five generations, with a few departures and returns. Bob’s father, William Moore Dickey, was in the automotive and tire business in Macon in the 1920s, then returned to the farm during the Depression. Bob’s son, state Rep. Robert Lee Dickey III, and Robert’s wife, Cynde, now manage the day-to-day farm operations. Their son, Lee, recently returned to the business after working in the financial world in Atlanta.

Mr. Bob, though, remains the Big Peach Emeritus, the centerpiece of history and legacy. He has never retired and likely never will. Every morning, after finishing his peaches and corn flakes, he drives over from Macon while the dew is still stirring.

“I can’t retire,’’ he said. “It’s like giving up. So I come out here every morning and give them my advice.’’

He laughed.

“Sometimes they take it. Sometimes they don’t.’’

He inspects the orchards spread across more than 1,000 acres in Crawford, Peach and Monroe counties. He checks on the more than 20 peach varieties that are synchronized across the growing calendar, from the clingstones of May to the freestones of late summer. Bob’s favorite is the Red Globes, which appear, like clockwork, every June around his birthday.

“A lot of people think peach growers only work three months, then take the rest of the year off,’’ he said. “But there is something to do every day. You have to prune the trees, fight the grass, and fertilize and treat the soil. It’s a 12-month job.’’

Peaches are Middle Georgia’s signature crop, and Dickey Farms co-exists in lockstep with the area’s other major peach operations — Lane Southern Orchards and Pearson Farm in Fort Valley and Taylor Orchard in Reynolds.

His family tree has featured names in high places in both peach farming and retail merchandising. His great-grandmother, Margaret Moore, was the sister of Elberta Rumph, who was married to Samuel Rumph, of Marshallville, the father of the peach industry in Georgia. Rumph developed the most famous peach of them all and named it after his wife, Elberta. Bob’s maternal grandfather was Joseph N. Neel, whose clothing store on Cherry Street in Macon was once among the city’s most well-known and well-respected businesses.

FIRST CROP PLANTED IN 1897

Musella wasn’t even a dot on the map until the railroad from Fort Valley to Atlanta pushed through at the turn of the century, laying down a side track every six miles. Musella had the good fortune of being among those tributaries of steel.

His paternal grandfather was hired as the depot manager at Musella and wore so many hats it’s a wonder the Georgia sun ever kissed his face. He was everything from postmaster to undertaker and later opened a mercantile business.

A visionary, he also saw a future in the peach industry. He planted his first crop in 1897 and shipped his first peaches three years later. They put mules to work plowing the orchards and transporting the peaches.

The packing house was located on the rail lines, and you can still see the outline of the old tracks. Today, the peaches are shipped by truck. But in those days, there would be five refrigerated rail cars, packed down with ice, making their way to Macon and Atlanta and then sent out in every direction on the compass.

In the 1920s, there was a special convoy called the “Peach Special.” It would ride the tail winds of the famed “Dixie Flyer,’’ which ran through Atlanta on its way from New Orleans to New York. The railroad would guarantee third-day delivery of the peaches in New York, which was considered amazing at the time.

When the Depression hit and Bob’s father lost his business, the family moved across the quiet street from his grandparents in Musella, a stone’s throw from the packing house. The only grandchild at the time, Bob began working when he was in first grade, shoving the baskets down the line to the workers, who filled them.

The Dickeys later installed the state’s first brushing machine (to remove the fuzz) and were among the first producers to introduce a hydro-cooling system. It was revolutionary because it used cold water to clean the peaches and slow the ripening process so they would be ideal when they reached their destinations in the northern markets.

“I loved my grandfather,’’ Bob said. “I would get up in the middle of the night, walk across the street and crawl into bed with him. I would ride around with him, and he showed me everything about the farm. I wanted to be in the peach business from the time I was 6 years old. I got all my encouragement from him.’’

Bob attended high school at Gordon Military and college at both the University of Georgia and Mercer. He married his wife, Jane, in 1948 and took over the farm operations in 1955, the year his father died.

That same year, a devastating spring frost wiped out the peach crop.

“It killed every peach in the South,’’ he said. “It wiped out the crops everywhere. Nobody had peaches.’’

That wasn’t the case this year, which has been a bumper crop, although Bob admitted he was sweating through the winter.

“We were apprehensive early,’’ he said. “We didn’t have enough chill hours to begin with, but we had a perfect February and caught up. The spring weather was cooperative and the rain has come at opportune times.’’

In fact, he will tell you this year’s peaches are the best he has ever put in his mouth.

Those around him chuckle. After all, he makes that same claim every year.

But maybe, like all the other fine things in life, they just get sweeter with time.

This story was originally published July 1, 2016 at 2:09 PM with the headline "Peach patriarch has no plans to call it a day."