Who remembers when

[smstonypoint]

<snip>
But for some reason my dad didn't like the skin left on the hog, so of course, I remember many hog killing days at our house when the hog was killed with a .22, but was then skinned.

<snip>
Scrambled eggs and calf brains were good, but pork brains were just as good.

Bird,

Did he skin the hams too? How did he cure them?

I passed on the brains,* but loved the liver mush.



Steve

* I just reread my own message and realized that I meant to write pork brains. The Missus would say that my original statement was correct.

 

[smstonypoint]

Flash forward 50+ years and imagine what the old folks of that time will be saying.

1. "Why you young whippersnappers, I can remember when gasoline was less than $3.00/gallon."

2. .....

Steve

 

[MBDiagMan]

Flash forward 50+ years and imagine what the old folks of that time will be saying.

1. "Why you young whippersnappers, I can remember when gasoline was less than $3.00/gallon."

2. .....

Steve

Steve,

I expect that I'm quite a bit older than you. If I am telling anyone on Earth anything fifty years from now I will be doing it while over the age of 110. Check out my edit to your number one.

1. "Why you young whippersnappers, I can remember when gasoline was less than $0.20/gallon."

2. "I remember when you had to be at home to get a phone call and the phone had a wire connected to it. I also remember when our ring was two longs and a short.

3. "I remember when we said the Pledge of Allegiance every morning when school started."

4. "I remember when they said a prayer over the Public Address system before the kickoff of a football game.

5. "I remember when cars had ignition points.

6. "I remember when it was shameful for a female to get pregnant without being married.

7. "I remember when..............

 

[smstonypoint]

Steve,

I expect that I'm quite a bit older than you. If I am telling anyone on Earth anything fifty years from now I will be doing it while over the age of 110. Check out my edit to your number one. <snip>
.

I would be 113+ years old. I would start taking better care of myself if I knew for certain that I was going to live that long.

Steve

PS. Good list -- I remember each of the items.

 

[milkman]

I remember hog killin' day, was always cold and family and neighbors standing around the fire waiting for the scalding water to get hot. Used a single shot .22 to down the hog and dad would flip it on its back and stick it with the butcher knife. Three or four guys would drag it to the scald barrel and dunk one end in the barrel then drag it out and scrape the hair off. Hang it from a tree with a gamble stick and cut the head off and gut it. Dad used a double bit chopping axe to split it down the back. The women would work up the quarters and cut up the fat to render into lard. Have to finish this later.

The women also pulled the gut fat off, all those entrails dumped out on the table. We had to use up the gut lard first because it wouldn't keep as long as the regular lard. It also had a stronger taste and we was always glad when it was gone. Dinner was always late because they had to clean up enough for us to eat. Fried liver was always the meat for that meal and later that night we'd have fried tender loin and biscuit sandwiches. Took forever to render the lard, the small kids were made to stay away while they were pouring off the lard, but then we got to dive into the hot salted cracklins. We had a sausage mill that was bolted to a board, we sat that across two string bottom kitchen chairs and one person sat on one end and turned the mill and another person sat on the other end and fed meat into the grinder. All us kids had to take turns cranking the grinder and it wore all of us out. We had a big tub setting on the floor to catch the sausage and then stuffed it into cloth sacks that mom had sewed before hand. We always got to bed late on hog killin' day, tired, but we sure weren't hungry.
We had a back room that we used to keep the separator in and us kids almost never went in there because it was dark, that's also where they laid out the meat to cool after it was trimmed. I remember opening the door one time and there laid a hog head, those eyes looking at me, scared the daylights out of me. Good old days.:laughing:

 

[Bird]

Yep, I remember rendering the lard in a big black pot on a wood fire outside, and the cracklins were saved to make cracklin bread (cracklins added to the cornbread mix before baking).

 

[bullbreaker]

Like most we had a fan back in the day that you would put ice cube trays in front of fan shield and it would blow cooler air.
Also I remember as a boy going into N.Y. city and an organ grinder would have a monkey that would climb the walls of certain apt./complexes and people would hand him (the monkey) change($) by opening their windows and he would collect some climb down and give it to organ grinder.

Boone

 

[smstonypoint]

I remember when men to barbershops (for a haircut, not "hairstyling") and women went to the "beauty parlor."

Steve

 

[dirtydan]

I am only 53 but I do remember hog killing day but not much, only the killing part. I have killed plenty of hogs myself but the older I get the more I dislike that part but I know it is necessary, Mom always made use of about everything hogs or beef. I remember her making homemade lye soap. I know she used beef tallow in it and I can still picture her making it. Her whole life she never used anything but a wringer washer and never had a dryer until I was out of high school but would only use it in winter and not always then. I remember somebody asking her what modern convenience she liked the most and she said, running water, something most of us take for granted.
Most of her recipes were in her head not written down. Sometimes I wish I knew some of them. I did find out just the other day that one of my older brothers has the recipe for the soap though. Nobody had cleaner clothes than her.
Dan

 

[scoutcub]

Yes I do. On the back of the dump rake and very nervous about lining up the hay windrows just right or get yelled at. There was the great metal seat, a foot bar to dump, and a side handle to dump. When I first started, I was too young to use the hand dump, but the foot dump sure took some good timing!
The Grandparents had a small farm across the street from us. I also remember the pure milk with the cream on top you had to brush aside to drink....
And fertilizing the garden. Grandparents had cows, and the cow manure would be pushed down a drain trough to a huge pile under the barn. We had an old "caca" tractor that was a Dodge with a wooden box in the back, use to fill it up with manure and spread it out in the garden by hand with pitchforks.
Also use to flip the hay over by hand with a pitchfork to allow it to dry....
One of my funniest memories as a youngster was when my Grandfather was getting up in years, he was helping to load the caca tractor, and he couldn't walk very well....so he ended up slipping and falling straight into this huge pile of soft manure. My Dad and I knew better than to laugh aloud, but trying to keep from laughing was checked by his volley of Polish curses....!

Not to mention dragging trees out of the woods...cutting/splitting with an ax, sledge and maul.....cutting the long split pieces with a buzz saw....
etc. etc.

I do remember......

You've inspired me to make arrangements with my Dad to acquire the dump rake next time I'm home, and keep it as a momento. My Dad's 84 and still putzes around on his machines and still cuts wood. I did buy him a logsplitter, though!

Timber, great thread!