“How are you ole buddy?”

Those are usually the first words out of Ida Hinkle’s mouth when she approaches a friend, and usually those words are accompanied by a smile or a hug.

Ida is one of the most down-to-earth people living today. She is simple, honest, hardworking, compassionate, and everyone’s neighbor. If you need your yard mowed, Ida will try to do it. If you need an errand run, Ida will do it. If you need someone to go to the store for you, Ida will do it.

What you see is what you get with Ida Hinkle, who is 88 years old and still going strong.

“I’m old-fashioned, but I can’t help it. I’m older than dirt,” she said when asked to explain herself.

Often seen riding around town in an old green 1999 Chevrolet Cavalier that was given to her by her son, Tim, Ida’s trademark is her headrag. “I wear it because my hair is so thick and is hot hanging down,” she explained.

On this day when Ida visited at the STAR, the back seat of her car was filled with trash bags — items she had picked up from a few friends for recycling.

Before the Chevrolet Cavalier, Ida for many years drove a 1988 Chrysler her husband bought for her. “I liked that old car, but my son thought I needed a newer model,” she shared. To Ida, the old Chrysler was special and she took good care of it, often cleaning the windshield and spots on the car between stops.

Ida, a longtime resident of Dividing Ridge, knows almost everyone in Carter County and is full of stories from her days working at the former Farm Service Office in Elizabethton. She worked at the Elizabethton ASCS office for 48 years. “That was when there were a lot of farmers in the county. At one time we served 3,200 farmers in Carter County,” she shared.

Ida didn’t always live locally. She grew up in a small community two counties south of Chicago. “My daddy, Irvin Goodwin, was one of 15 children and his family owned a farm near where Watauga Lake is now. His mother was a widow at 55. The oldest boy went to Illinois and got a job working on the railroad and he worked and saved enough money to pay the way for my father and his brothers to come north and work,” Ida said.

One of 11 children herself, Ida came to Hampton after graduating from high school. She had applied for a scholarship to the University of Illinois, but when she didn’t receive it decided to strike out on her own. “My dad had a thresher. We not only worked our farm, but we threshed oats for other people. I had a twin sister, and my dad told us if we worked hard and got the threshing done on time he would buy us a train ticket to come to Tennessee to see relatives,” said Ida.

Ida came and ended up staying in Hampton, where she met and married James “Buster” Hinkle. They were married 46 years when he died in 1995. The couple had two children, Tim and Tamra.

“I was raised poor, poor, but I am none the worse for it,” she said, noting that her mother died when she was two. “Because I was raised poor, I could empathize with many of the farmers I worked with and was familiar with what they were going through.

“My grandmother had property that sold for nothing back then. Now, it would be worth a bundle as it is right at the start of Watauga Lake. She had a hard time raising her family as there was no Social Security then, no aid of any kind. People often said she was hateful and mean, but if you had 13 children at home, and some of them little and no way to raise them except by hiring out and tilling the soil, you would probably be a sour person, too,” Ida explained.

After she moved to Carter County, Ida initially worked at Gurney’s Confectionary and later at Anderson Supermarket. Because of her farming background and experience, she landed a job at the ASCS office. “I’m 100 percent for the farmer. Farmers never did get their fair deal. They were my kind of people. We had about 20 farmers who came into the office who could neither read or write, and we were instructed not to fill out their forms for them. Either their wife or a child had to come in and do it. We in the office agreed to help them if they would keep their mouths shut. However, someone tattled and they sent a person from the state office to investigate. They told us not to do it anymore, but, I always considered myself working for the farmer, not someone at the state or national office,” Ida said. “Those farmers were just like my family.”

Ida laughs when she says she is related to everyone in Carter County. “So don’t talk about anybody,” she said.

Ida when she worked at the ASCS office was different from the Ida you see now. She dressed professionally, had long dark locks of hair, which were always neatly combed, and very friendly and helpful to everyone who came into the office.

“As you get older, you get more care-free and you go for comfort over looks,” she explained. However, she continues to help others and lend a helping hand wherever she goes.

Ida is a long-time member of Union Baptist Church, but was raised a Methodist. “That was the only kind of church around where we lived in Illinois. My daddy taught us about the Baptists. We didn’t get to use the Bible much because Dad was afraid we would tear it up. Then, a man came around and if we memorized so many verses, he gave us a New Testament. That New Testament was so precious to me. Over and over I read John 3:16. After reading that verse, I gave my life to the Lord, That was a long time ago, and I’ve tried to live for the Lord ever since,” Ida said as she lightly clapped her hand.

About her age, the octogenarian explained with a chuckle, “I was 39 for a lot of years, but I recently turned 40.”

Ida has tagged herself with the nickname “Barney Fife,” after she helped solve a theft by her alertness and keeping an eye out for unusual “going-ons” and strange people in her neighborhood. “I tell people I keep my bullet in my pocket,” she quipped.
Her best advice: “Live for the Lord and don’t have a proud look.”

When the Lord speaks of being “salt of the earth,” He no doubt had people like Ida Hinkle in mind. She’s a very savory person and among the best in our community. I, like a lot of others, am glad to call Ida Hinkle my ole buddy. She’s one of the most best people I know.