DEKALB – Back in early May, Eddie Sciple’s phone rang.

    Now, Sciple’s family has lived in Kemper County for generations, and Eddie is the kind of guy who wears many hats in the community. When his phone rings, it could be almost anybody.

    Eddie Sciple teaches ophthalmic technology at East Mississippi Community College in Scooba. On May 1, he had been named the Optician of the Year at the Mississippi Association of Dispensing Opticians’ annual convention in Biloxi. Maybe their public relations person needed to ask a follow-up question.

    Or, with graduation at EMCC just around the corner on May 8, maybe there was a question about a final grade for one of his students.

    Sciple is also a certified emergency medical technician. Maybe the local volunteer fire chief wanted to discuss an upcoming training exercise.

    But it wasn’t any of those people. This call concerned Sciple’s Water Mill, which Sciple’s family has owned since the 1830s and where he works nights and weekends. Sciple has no shortage of local customers – or distant customers, for that matter. Some of his customers drive from as far away as Memphis and Mobile to have their corn ground at the mill.

    This call, however, was from a lady named Mary Bess Walker, a producer for “Dirty Jobs,” which airs weekly on the Discovery Channel. She said the show’s star, Mike Rowe, had been wanting to visit an old-fashioned grist mill and ran across Sciple’s Water Mill on the Internet. Would it be OK if a crew came out to film a segment?

    “Why, sure, come on,” Sciple said.

    After that, things moved pretty quickly. The “Dirty Jobs” team flew into Mobile, and arrived in Kemper County on May 11 with as much secrecy as a caravan of SUVs carrying a film crew and a television star can manage.

    “Mike Rowe didn’t put on any airs. There was no formal introduction. He just got out of the SUV and went to talking about stuff and asking questions,” Sciple said.

    “He’s like someone you’ve known all your life, but you just haven’t seen him for awhile. That’s the best way I can explain it.”

    And as promised, Sciple got Rowe dirty.

    “Grinding corn is a dusty job, there’s no doubt about it,” Sciple said. “When I get done, I look like a powdered doughnut in overalls. The ‘Dirty Jobs’ people arrived first thing in the morning. Mike Rowe did a couple hours of grinding and we cleaned out the water wheel, so, yeah, we got pretty dirty.”

    The group broke for lunch about 1 p.m. at a building right across the road where Sciple and his father, Edward, hold singings on Saturday nights.

    “They had brought a lot of sandwich meat, and we made vegetable soup and cornbread,” Sciple said. “After lunch, there was a good bit of sandwich meat left over, but there wasn’t any vegetable soup or cornbread.”

    The “Dirty Jobs” crew stayed until about 5 p.m., chatting, looking around, filming a few more things.

    “They asked us not to tell anyone they were coming. We didn’t, and I think they appreciated that. I don’t imagine they get many quiet afternoons,” Sciple said.

    “Every once in awhile, you’d miss Mike, and he’d be on the porch talking to Dad. Or he’d be sitting on the side of the creek, looking at the water all by himself. He was a real nice guy. They all were, the film crew and the producers, everybody was as friendly as they could be.”

    Rowe and the “Dirty Jobs” team spent the night in Meridian, where they ran into another EMCC group at Crescent City Grill. The next morning, they were on their way to Lucedale to talk to a man who installs lightning rods.

    The “Dirty Jobs” episode featuring Eddie Sciple and Sciple’s Water Mill is scheduled to air Tuesday at 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. on the Discovery Channel. In the television listings, the episode is titled “Animal Relocator,” for another featured business.