Bloomfield News Blog

Thursday, November 5, 2009
By Nick Schneider, Assistant Editor
Greene County Daily World

LYONS — Former Worthington, Linton and Bloomington resident James Sanders has experienced much in the last 91 years.

He’s been a farmer, military veteran, business owner and a factory worker.

He’s always enjoyed being a handyman with a special knack for woodworking and more than two decades ago he took up basket-making as a hobby — after taking lessons at Conner Prairie Farms, located near Indianapolis and receiving encouragement from an area antique dealer.

Today, he resides at Lyons Health and Living Center and even though he’s confined for the most part to a wheelchair or a motorized chair to assist with his mobility, Sanders is quick to admit he still enjoys crafting custom wicker baskets that he offers up for sale.

Sanders explains his basket-making is just a way for him to “pass his time,” but admits he gets a lot of personal satisfaction from seeing the basket evolve through the process from materials to the finished product.

He makes two different sizes — a larger basket that is about 9-inches high that sells for about $40 and a smaller one that is about 6-inches in height for about $15 to $20.

Sanders admits the prices are negotiable and he’s given away a lot of them.

“I have no set prices. If people are short on money, whatever they can spare or if they don’t have any money to spare, I’ll just give it to them. If I can just get enough money to buy more material, then I’m happy.”

Making money on his hobby is not really important.

“It gives me something to do for myself. I sell enough to buy more materials. I’m not into it to make money, it just gives me something to do,” he stressed. “I just make one and when it sells I make another one. I give a lot of them away. I don’t need a lot of money down here. Everything is taken care of.

“Down here they tell me it’s good therapy and they don’t want me to stop making them.”

Before coming to the health center, Sanders had a table saw and would make his own basket handles, but now he buys them.

Sanders explained that he was encouraged to take up basket-making by a woman who ran Bittersweet Antiques, located between Stanford and Bloomington. She gave him a couple of magazines as a guide, but he admitted that really wasn’t very successful.

“I couldn’t make heads or tails out of them (magazines),” he said with a big smile.

He later decided to go to Conner Prairie Farms near Indianapolis in the mid-1970s to learn from some talented craftsmen.

“I went up there and learned how to do it,” he said. “I learned the basics and ever since then I just make them up as people want. I don’t have a pattern to go by,” Sanders explained.

Sanders isn’t sure how many baskets that he’s made over the years, but it’s a safe bet it is multiple dozens — probably several hundred that have ended up throughout Indiana and several surrounding states.

When asked how long it takes him to craft a basket from start to finish, Sanders paused and with a smile, he said, “I’m getting awful slow anymore.”

He later said it takes him about four days to make a typical basket.

“Making some that I can hold and say ‘I made that’ is nice. I am especially proud of the fact that for my own satisfaction that I am past 91 and I make things that people like well enough that they will pay money for,” James said.

Sanders has lived at the Lyons facility during two different stints — April 2005 to July 2007 and most recently since September 2007.

A gifted conversationalist, who never meets a stranger, Sanders is a favorite storyteller for the staff members, who has vivid memories of growing up in Martin County, moving to Daviess County and later settling in Greene County.

He was born in June 1918.

His parents — Bertus and Laura Sanders — farmed near the current NSA Crane facility and raised three children. They are James, a sister, Martha Noel, who lives at Murphysboro, Tenn. and a brother, Ralph “Red” Sanders, who is deceased.

As a youngster, Sanders attended the old Switz City High School, but dropped out of school at 16 because he said he was very bashful and just couldn’t give any kind of oral reports. When his teacher pressed him to give is report, he quit school and helped his dad farm.

He later joined the U.S. Army during World War II and was stationed in Mississippi.

Sanders recalled that times were tough and his parents were aging and he was able to come home on an extended furlough in April 1942.

Unfortunately, his military career came to a sudden end, when he suffered a severe leg injury while he was home in Greene County on leave.

He was changing a flat tire and a “drunk driver” crossed the center time and struck him.

“I had changed the tire and just got it put on and a drunk driver came down the road and he hit me just as I stood up. It broke my leg in two places,” he said. “I had a lot trouble with that leg after that.”

Sanders said he’s been a life-long learner and after his retirement, he told some of his RCA co-workers that he wished he had his high school diploma.

At RCA, he started on the assembly line and later moved to materials inspection over the 10 1/2 years he worked there.

He went back to school through the Monroe County School District’s adult education program and he completed his GED requirements and got his long-awaited diploma on June 7, 1992 at the age of 74.

Sanders proudly pointed to his diploma that is mounted on the wall of his room at the health center and said, “I passed it (the test) the first time and made an above average grade. I got my certificate up there on the wall. I had that framed … I’m really proud of it. I made good enough grades that they offered me a $500 scholarship to Ivy Tech (Community College). I went over there (to the school) and looked and all they had was nursing and computer programing. At that time, I wasn’t interested in that, but I like woodworking, but they didn’t have anything like that so I had to turn it (the scholarship) down.”

Previous, Sanders owned and operated the old Western Auto Store in Worthington with his late wife, Louise, from 1956 until the fall of 1966.

Sanders said he gets lonely since his wife’s death on Nov. 4, 2008. The couple married Jan. 25, 1948.

The Sanders’ didn’t have any children of their own and were very close as a couple for more than 60 years. They lived a couple different times in Worthington and for more than 30 years in Bloomington. They also lived in Green Acres Subdivision in Linton, before moving back to Bloomington and finally ended up on Dayton Street in Worthington during the later years.

Sanders gets a boyish gleam in his eyes when his beloved Louise is mentioned.

In his view, she was a devoted wife, business associate and his best friend above all.

The past year since her death has been tough for Sanders and he admits to missing her greatly every day.

“I get so tired and lonesome. The Lord knows when he’ll send for you, but that is one thing I can’t hardly understand. Why is there so many divorces? If they really loved each other when they got married I can’t see how they can do that. They ought of known what they were doing when they go married,” he said.

Sanders said there wasn’t any big secret to his long-term marriage to Louise.

“One thing, I’m thankful for is I married a good Christian girl. We were in love when we got married and she helped me with just plain hard work. She had some chickens and I took care of the farm, the cows and the hogs. She took care of the housework and the washing. It was just hard work. It took team work. She was my partner, a good friend and a loving wife.

“That’s her picture up there (on the wall). She baked cakes and was an artist … you know all I have left now is me and Louise in pictures.”

If anyone would like to order a custom basket, contact Sanders at the Lyons Health and Living Center by calling the office at 659-1440.