(309,'[[Category:Earl Chapman Humphrey]] This is part 1 of 11 of the [[Earl Chapman Humphrey#Oral_History|Earl Chapman Humphrey oral history]]. ==The Homestead== [[Image:round_prairie.jpg|right|thumb|250px|[http://www.historicmapworks.com/Sections/Maps/viewPlateUS-67774.htm Historical map]]] {{jbh}} Come in, come in... {{ech}} oh! Recording the sorted history of Earl C. Humphrey. \'\'laughter\'\' {{jbh}} Ok, well, I don\'t know. We\'ll go by this sheet a little bit, but I\'ll just ask the questions, ok? {{ech}} ok. {{jbh}} Guess one thing I want to know is, when and where where you born? {{ech}} Well, I was born right over here in what was the home place. What we called the home place. My dad was born there, my grandfather was born there, and my great grandfather was born there. So that\'s in Round Prairie township, Jefferson County, Iowa. {{jbh}} That farm was in the family since... {{ech}} Since 1840. {{jbh}} How many acres was it? {{ech}} 80 acres. It 120 when my dad died (he bought an additional 40 acres), but the original homestead was 80 acres. {{jbh}} When did you sell the homestead? {{ech}} When my father died. 1973. {{jbh}} Were you actually born on the farm them? {{ech}} Right on the farm, right in the house. Same house as all my people were born in. For the most part all my brothers was born there, and we all had the old family physician doc Bishop, office there in Glasgow. He attended all the births in all parts of the neighborhood. He usually got there too late, but he was there. \'\'laughter\'\' {{jbh}} He was there to tie the knot, huh? {{ech}} And most of \'em wasn\'t paid for. \'\'laughter\'\' {{jbh}} What size was the home? How many rooms and what were the rooms? {{ech}} 1, 2, 3... there was about 5 rooms and the basement? {{jbh}} How many people in the house while you were growing up? {{ech}} My dad and mother and six of us kids, and my old great uncle. He lived with us too until he died. Edwin Fredonzo Chapman. {{jbh}} Now Chapman, that\'s your mom\'s side of the family? {{ech}} No, my grandmother. See my middle name is Chapman Humphrey, that means that both families. But ya, he was the last of the Chapman family. {{jbh}} What\'s some of the earliest things you remember growing up on the farm there? {{ech}} Oh, the neighborhood kids playing, adventuring together, going to school, these are my earliest memories. {{jbh}} What kind of games did you play when you were growing up? {{ech}} Oh, all kinds of homemade games. We\'d lead one another around blindfolded. That was the funnies thing that we could think of. We\'d lead one another through the thistles and we\'d lead one another through the ditches, through the cow manure, and everything like that. That was funny. \'\'laughter\'\' {{jbh}} What kind of toys did you have? {{ech}} We didn\'t have any, except what we made. We usually saw the handle out of an old broom or something and make wheels, and nail em on a board. That was the closest thing to a toy that we had. {{jbh}} You mean you\'d take the rim of a wheel? {{ech}} Just saw off a section of broomstick, ya know. Just slice it like bologna and take four of these and nail em on a square board for wheels. Then you\'d push it around through the mud. {{jbh}} Anything else in the way of toys? Did you play marbles or fly kites or any of that? {{ech}} We\'d fly homemade kites. Made out of old newspaper and string. {{jbh}} Did they fly? {{ech}} Ya! We had some of \'em fly pretty good. \'Course we\'d destroy a bunch of em too. They wouldn\'t fly. {{jbh}} What would a typical day be like when you were younger. 5 rooms in the house, right? So how many people did you sleep with in your bedroom? {{ech}} There was four, four of us boys at that time. {{jbh}} Did you have bunk beds or something? {{ech}} No, just double beds. Two double beds upstairs. {{jbh}} Was it heated upstairs? {{ech}} No way! The frost was on the ceiling and on the walls in the morning. The snow\'d blow through the cracks in the window and make little snow drifts across the floor. {{jbh}} Holy cow, really? Did you have to sweep it up or just ignore it until spring? {{ech}} Just ignore it. \'\'laughter\'\' [[Image:wild_devil_000.jpg|right|thumb|250px|[http://garamond.stanford.edu:9001/dp/owa/pnpack.draw?pid=566 Wild West Weekly]. [http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=wild+west+weekly more pictures]]] {{jbh}} So how\'d you keep from freezing to death? {{ech}} Oh, we had old feather picks. Bought us the best insulation there is, ya know. Old feather picks. {{jbh}} You slept on those or underneath them? {{ech}} Both. They was warm. Kept from freezing. Hang a lantern on the end of the bed for a little light and we\'d read. {{jbh}} What sorts of things did you read when you were a kid? {{ech}} Usually these western magazines. One of \'em that I remember and liked was called [http://garamond.stanford.edu:9001/dp/owa/pnpack.draw?pid=566 Wild West Weekly]. It was full of all kinds of shooting and... It was very good. I remember some of the characters in the story. Like Billy West. He was the lead character see. And Sing Lo, he was the Chinese cook, Scott he was the cow puncher. Aw, you should read them \'cause the characters never changed. It was an ongoing thing from week to week. I used to get lost in them stories. {{jbh}} Any other books you remember reading? Did you have an almanac or a gazette or weekly news magazines? {{ech}} No. We didn\'t take any magazines at all. We took a Salem paper. I don\'t know how much it was, two dollars a year or something. \'\'laughter\'\' {{jbh}} That come out every week? {{ech}} That came out every week. {{jbh}} Did it come in the mailbox? {{ech}} Ya. The mail was delivered by Frank Randoff. He was an old Spanish American War veteran. He carried the mail and he rode a horse and drove the buggy. And sometimes he drove the car up there. If the roads was good he drove his old Model T. {{jbh}} He\'d drive it right up to the house? {{ech}} Oh, no, Jim. He\'d walk up to the mailbox, that was up the road about a quarter of a mile. {{jbh}} Well like on a typically morning, you\'d wake up and there\'s four boys in the room and what happens? What do you do? Are you on the way to school or what? {{ech}} Ya, first thing, we\'d get up but we\'d never dress upstairs cause it was too cold. We\'d grab our clothes and go down to the old heating stove and put our pants on and our socks and our clothes on down by the heating stove. It\'s always be warm. My dad\'ll always get up ahead of time and it\'d be warm. Had the stove firing and the kitchen stove started. My mother\'s up, getting breakfast. So we\'d get up, get ready, do our chores, and get ready to go to school. {{jbh}} What was doing your chores? {{ech}} Oh, splitting wood, bringing in wood, feeding the lambs, feeding the cows, fork down the hay for the mules, that sort of thing. {{jbh}} Now the 80 acres on the farm, that is the only source of income you had for the family? {{ech}} Ya. {{jbh}} And is 80 acres considered adequate or minimal or were you really big time farmers, or what? {{ech}} I think it was kind of an average farm. Been a lot of families raised on 80 acres. {{jbh}} You had a garden? {{ech}} Ya. Had our own meat, had our own eggs, raised our own vegetables. Most of what you ate was what you raised. {{jbh}} What did you grow on the farm? {{mm|10:00}} {{ech}} Well, we grow\'d corn. That was before soy beans. The only thing you\'d grow soy beans for was hay. But corn was a main crop. Oats. Oats was a main crop. Feed the horses and mules and cows and chickens. Had our own chickens. {{jbh}} How did you get money to buy things at the store? What kind of things would you buy? {{ech}} Very basic. Only things we bought at the store was sugar, salt, that sort of stuff. {{jbh}} Clothing? {{ech}} Ya, a little clothing. Not too much clothing. \'\'laughter\'\' {{jbh}} Is that right? She\'d buy cloth and she\'d sow your own clothing, ot? {{ech}} Ya, she did buy some stuff. But not too much. {{jbh}} Well, when you were growing up how many sets of clothes did you have? {{ech}} Oh, just work clothes. We had one change at least, maybe two of some things. One pair of shoes. We didn\'t have two pair of shoes. If you wanted to go anyplace you\'d just slap some polish on our old work shoes. Make \'em look a little better. {{jbh}} Ok, so you\'d get up in the morning, go downstairs, get dressed around the stove, and then you\'d have breakfast. All sit around the table at breakfast time? How many people\'ll be around the table there? {{ech}} Well, it\'d be \'\'laugh\'\' the whole family plus Michael. {{jbh}} Ok, so that\'d be four boys and two girls? {{ech}} No, one girl. But Jimmy, the youngest boy, he was the baby. He slept with my folks. Slept in the same bed with them. Us four older boys slept upstairs. My sister slept in a little room off to the side. {{jbh}} There were four rooms downstairs and one room upstairs in the house? {{ech}} Ya. {{jbh}} The four boys slept upstairs, the baby slept with mom and dad and your sister... Ok, why don\'t you tell me the names of your family, starting with the youngest. Jimmy was the baby in the family? {{ech}} Ya. He was the youngest. James Keith, he was the youngest. He was the baby. Then there was Howard William and Harold Wayne and Earl C., which is me, and Hazel Louis, and Arlo Evert. {{jbh}} What year were you born? What was your birthday? {{ech}} 1920. January 7. {{jbh}} So after you had breakfast, then what\'d happen? {{ech}} We\'d do the chores and then off to school. ==School== {{jbh}} How did ya get to school? {{ech}} Walked. {{jbh}} Walked to where? {{ech}} \'\'laugh\'\' Out to Vega Country School. It\'s about a mile away. We\'d walk right at the branch, through the snow drifts and the mud, and through the rain and through the snow to go to school. {{jbh}} That was five days a week? {{ech}} Ya. It was this one-room school house. {{jbh}} How many kids in the school? {{ech}} Oh, at the time I was going there was probably about 15 to 20. {{jbh}} How many teachers? {{ech}} One. One teacher taught all the grades. {{jbh}} Who was it? {{ech}} Well, I think one the of the first teachers was Gladys Kerlyle. She\'s still living. And Helen... I forget their names. {{jbh}} Most of em your typical school marm spinster sort of ladies? {{ech}} Ya. They was all single. There was no married women that taught school when I went. {{jbh}} What was Vega School like? It was a one room school house. Brick or frame? {{ech}} One room. Frame. No insulation. No storm windows. Very, very cold. Had one big pot-bellied stove in the middle of the room. {{jbh}} Who kept it stoked up? {{ech}} Teacher. That was her duties too. She had to get there early and start the fire and bring in a bucket of water. Didn\'t have no water. {{jbh}} Bring in a buck of water from where? {{ech}} From the well. {{jbh}} Like a hand pump well? {{ech}} Ya. Pump a bucket of water for the kids to drink and to wash your hands with at noon. {{jbh}} What did you do at noon time? Take a little brown bag lunch or what? {{ech}} Usually carried it in a bucket. A sorgum bucket or something like that. A half gallon bucket, ya know. {{jbh}} Oh, ya. With a lid. Metal lid. Bail. {{ech}} Ya. Used to buy sorgum in them buckets. I don\'t know what they... I think you can still buy \'em. {{jbh}} What would you typically have for lunch when you had your lunch? {{ech}} Oh, we\'d have usually some kind of a meat sandwich. Home made meat, ya know. Homewicher meat. One with jelly and jam. Butter. Mom made all her own jelly and that. An apple. That\'s about the size of it. Maybe a couple of cookies. {{jbh}} How long was your school day? {{ech}} 8 to 4:30. {{jbh}} What sorts of things did they teach ya? {{ech}} All the basic subjects they taught. Reading, writing, and arithmetic. Geography and government. {{jbh}} What was the age range of the kids in the school? {{ech}} Well, it went all the way from 5 or 6. 6 years old. Up to 17, 18. \'\'laugh\'\' Some of them boys wasn\'t too smart. They didn\'t get out of school too quick in them days. {{jbh}} How did they determine when you were ready to get out of school? {{ech}} We had to pass an examination. One grade to another. {{jbh}} What grade was it you were supposed to graduate? 8? {{ech}} 8. Ya. {{jbh}} So you went through 8th grade. Did you go on to school after that. {{ech}} No. {{jbh}} Was there a possibility of that in your area. {{ech}} Oh, ya. There was a possibility. I\'d have to saddle a horse and rode six / seven miles to school in the rain and in the snow and lots of stuff. {{jbh}} Did your parents want you to go to high school? {{ech}} No. They didn\'t think it was necessary. {{jbh}} Did you think it was necessary? {{ech}} No. I wanted to get out and see what makes the world go \'round. And I found out. I did. I got out and seen what makes the world go \'round. It\'s the books. \'\'laughter\'\' {{jbh}} If you\'d only known then, huh? {{ech}} Ya. {{mm|17:36}} {{jbh}} \'\'laughter\'\' Shoot. So then, after... You went to school from 8 in the morning until 4:30 at night. Then you\'d walk back home with the. {{ech}} I think that\'s right. I think that\'s the time. Is that the time Marine? {{mms}} What honey? {{ech}} Did we go to school 8 to 4:30? {{mms}} No. 9 to 4. School started at 9. {{ech}} Oh, I don\'t know. {{jbh}} About that time anyway. {{ech}} Ya. \'\'laugh\'\' {{jbh}} So you\'d walk back home with your brothers and sisters. {{ech}} Ya. {{jbh}} And then have chores to do? {{ech}} Ya. Same old thing. Feel the cows. Feed the mules. Feed the horses \'n sheep \'n hogs. Split the wood, carry it in to the woodbox. We had to carry some water. {{jbh}} You had chickens I suppose? {{ech}} Ya, had to feed the chickens. {{jbh}} That\'s where you got the eggs and the feathers for the feather ticks and all that stuff. {{ech}} Ya. {{jbh}} On an 80 acre farm how many of these critters did you have, typically. You mentioned pigs and sheep and mules. {{ech}} Well, pretty hard to remember. We always had 4 or 6 head of mules and horses. To pull you farm implements. We didn\'t have a tractor. We\'d have maybe 15 hogs and 6 / 8 old cows for milking. {{jbh}} So you had to milk the cows in the evening, that was part of the chores? {{ech}} Ya. Milk the cows and separate the milk. {{jbh}} How was that done, the separating? {{mm|20:00}} {{ech}} It was a machine. Called the separator. You pour the milk in to run through the machine and as the milk through the ... it was spun at a high rate of speed. The cream was heavier, so it would spin to the outside and come out through a spout and that\'s the way you separated the cream from the milk. {{jbh}} Was that done with electricity? {{ech}} No. \'\'laughter\'\' There weren\'t no electricity. {{jbh}} When did you get electricity on the homestead? {{ech}} Never did while I was home. The folks didn\'t get electricity until after the war. {{mms}} Well, they didn\'t get electricity until after we came home. {{ech}} Ya, that\'s right. In 1948. No, you turn the separator by hand. And had to maintain the speed on it. There was a little bell, and as long as you were cranking it too slow the bell would ring. But if you would crank it fast the bell would quit ringing. {{jbh}} Is that right? That\'s how you knew. {{ech}} Ya. {{jbh}} Ok, so you had the milk. So you drank the milk, mostly I suppose. {{ech}} Oh, we\'d feed it to the hogs. What we didn\'t use we\'d feed to the hogs. They did good on it. {{jbh}} What did you do with the cream? {{ech}} Sell it. They used to sell... Have creamers in all the towns where you\'d take your cream and sell it. You had a bakery man ... that made butter. {{jbh}} How did you keep it cool in the summer time? You had the cream in the summer time to take to the market how did you keep it cool? {{ech}} You didn\'t. {{mms}} It wasn\'t necessary. {{ech}} It wasn\'t necessary. They didn\'t care if it was sour or not. They\'d make butter out of it anyhow. ... Might even have few flies. \'\'laughter\'\' {{mms}} Now, Earl... {{jbh}} You mean if it smelled a little rank that didn\'t matter? {{ech}} No. I seen in the creamer, cream come in with mold on top, ya know. They\'d just stir it in. That was our penicillin. \'\'laughter\'\' {{jbh}} They didn\'t have penecillin other than that huh? {{ech}} No. {{jbh}} Well, if you didn\'t have electricity how did you keep your food refrigerated so it wouldn\'t spoil? {{ech}} You didn\'t. {{jbh}} What do you mean you didn\'t? {{ech}} \'\'laughter\'\' Didn\'t have no refrigerator. You\'d eat it before it got rotten. \'\'laughter\'\' {{jbh}} How did you preserve your food then, to keep in through the winter or? {{ech}} Well, the milk was fresh every day. You\'d milk the cows twice a day. So that was the worst thing that\'d go bad on ya. {{jbh}} So you\'d just drink the milk warm, usually. {{ech}} No, you\'d let it cool out. {{jbh}} Room temperature. {{ech}} That was real milk. You didn\'t refrigerate your food \'cause you didn\'t have any leftover food. \'\'laughter\'\' You didn\'t have any of that. You eat it. ==Celebrations, threshing== {{jbh}} You didn\'t have a little block house / ice house. You didn\'t try to cut ice in the winter time and bring it in and save it in the summer time. {{ech}} No, no. You could buy it. They used to have an ice house in Salem, where they did that. They cut the ice in the pond and put it in the ice house and covered it with sawdust and you could buy ice there. And we did, on special occasions, we\'d buy ice. Ya know. {{jbh}} What would be a special occasion? {{ech}} Like Thrashers. If you was having Thrashers or neighbors coming it to help you with something you\'d need to keep cool. Make a lemonade and ice cream and that sort of stuff. That\'d be a special occasion. {{jbh}} That\'d be once a year sort of occasion. {{ech}} Ya. {{jbh}} Do you remember any other special occasions. Was there a special day when people would stop work and get together and have celebrations? {{ech}} It used to be that neighbors were much closer when I was a kid. They never have been since. If you was cultivating corn with the old mules in the field and you met the neighbor across the fence. He was cultivating too. You\'d come out to the end, same time. Heck, you\'d get off and lean on the fence and talk for a half hour. Now they don\'t do that. They come out to the end with the great big sod slinger 700 horse power diesel super charged, throwing dirt 15 foot in the air. They don\'t see ya. {{jbh}} \'\'laugh\'\' Just zoom right on by. {{ech}} Ya. {{mm|25:00}} {{jbh}} What would be a special occasion for the community, when the work would stop and everybody would get together and... {{ech}} Last day of school. {{jbh}} When would that usually be? Sometime in May? June? {{ech}} May. Or, when you ended the threshing run. When you got through threshing in the neighboorhood. All the neighbors would get together and take a saying(?), go to the crick and sing(?) out a couple sacks of fish. Have a fish fry and ice cream. {{jbh}} So that\'d be a special time you\'d go get the ice to make the ice cream out of? {{ech}} Ya. You bet. {{jbh}} So the end of school, and then the end of the thrashing season... did they go around to the whole neighborhood and do the thrashing, and then when everybody\'s stuff was out of the field and in the bins, then they\'d have a celebration? {{ech}} Ya. {{jbh}} Now did you, for instance, work on a travelling thrashing bee? What did they call it? {{ech}} \"Thrashing run.\" They\'d start at one neighbor and move to the next and next and next. Just keep going to neighbors until they got done. And when they got done, they\'d have a celebration. {{jbh}} Now that was still done with the horse-drawn, mule-drawn threshers? {{ech}} Oh ya. {{jbh}} What would your job be, as a boy, in that process? {{ech}} Well, when I was little I used to carry water. I was a water boy. I had a riding horse and a couple of jugs and I\'d carry water out to everybody in the field. The loaders and the pitchers and then men on the threshing machine. Keep them in water. Then when I got bigger I\'d load bundles or pitch bundles or... {{jbh}} Now what were the bundles? In that time... {{ech}} It was cut with a binder. A grain binder, and the grain was made up into bundles. Straw and all. And they you shock it. You\'d haul 8, 10, 12 bundles together in a field and make a shock out of \'em. And let it cure. And then you\'d thresh... Why you\'d haul these bundles, go out there with wagons and load these bundles up and haul \'em into the machine, run through the threshing machine. {{jbh}} Did everyone just do their own shocking themselves? And then when it came threshing time then they\'d travel around and beat the stuff out and separate the wheat. {{ech}} Mostly oats. Some wheat, but not too much. {{jbh}} How did they harvest the corn? {{ech}} Pick it by hand. {{jbh}} And everyone\'d do that themselves, for their own farm? {{ech}} Yes. {{jbh}} So it was just the oat harvest that they did together? {{ech}} Ya. {{jbh}} What did the community do, on like the fourth of July for instance? {{ech}} There was always a celebration, in the local towns. {{jbh}} Everyone from the farms would come into the town itself? {{ech}} Ya. {{jbh}} Which town was your center? {{ech}} Salem. {{jbh}} So what was the Fourth of July like? {{ech}} Oh, lot\'s of fireworks. Cause they wasn\'t illegal then. And they was cheap. Had to be. We\'d go in to Salem and they\'d have programs set up. Music and bark(?) in the bandstand. {{jbh}} Local musicians sort of thing? {{ech}} Ya. {{jbh}} What kind of musicians? {{ech}} Country stuff. There would sometimes be a brass band. The schools all had a band, ya know. High school. {{jbh}} Fiddlers? {{ech}} Ya. Local fiddlers. Fiddling contests. All that kind of stuff. {{jbh}} What else would they do to entertain themselves? {{ech}} You\'d have party games. You\'d have a sack race and that sort of stuff. Carry an egg and a tablespoon and have a race like that. They guy that got there the quickest would win a prize. {{jbh}} These are mostly kid games? {{ech}} Oh, not necessarily. Have a play sometimes. A local sponsored play. {{jbh}} Really? What would the play be about? {{ech}} Usually a comedy or something like that. Didn\'t go in much for tragedy. -laugh- {{mm|30:00}} {{jbh}} No Shakespere? {{ech}} No, no. -laughter- Usually some silly stuff. I think the last one they had was down in West Grove School house. A community affair. It was a riot. It was a real success. I believe that\'d went off on Broadway. That was the funniest thing. It wasn\'t meant especially to be funny, but it was funny anyhow. {{jbh}} Do you remember what it was? {{ech}} Probably got something around here, the script of what it was. It was silly, but it was the local people you knew. That\'s what made it funny. Wouldn\'t a been funny with strangers, \'cause they made fools of themselves. -laughter- {{jbh}} Now when you went to school you just went during the winter months, and into the spring. And then about May or something school would get out? {{ech}} Ya. Then school would take up again, usually about August. {{jbh}} And by that time, well what\'d they do then? Quit school for threshing season? {{ech}} No. They did, back ahead of my time. The boys didn\'t go to school when they was needed on the farm. But in my time we went every day. {{jbh}} Even if it was threshing season? {{ech}} Well, school\'s out during threshing season. {{jbh}} When was that usually? {{ech}} July, August. {{jbh}} Oh, so you\'d get the threshing done, and then you\'d get back to school usually. {{ech}} Ya. {{jbh}} How many bushels of corn and oats did you get per acre? {{ech}} 50 bushel of corn was pretty good corn, we thought. Oats would run around 15 or 20. We thought that was good oats. {{jbh}} And what is it now? {{ech}} Well, some of the scoring runs over 200 bushel an acre now. And the oats, 60 or 70. {{jbh}} How did they fertilize? {{ech}} Strictly organic. There was no chemical fertilizer of any kind used, except maybe somebody might put on a little lime. Agricultural lime. Which is not a chemical, just a... {{jbh}} Mineral. {{ech}} Ya. ==The garden, preserving food, into town== {{jbh}} What did you typically grown in your garden to see you through the winter months? {{ech}} Oh, we\'d grow everything. Lots of beans. Lots of tomatoes. Lots of pickles. Beats. \"tatas\" -- lots of taters. \'\'[potatoes -ed]\'\' {{jbh}} Did they freeze down there in the basement? {{ech}} No. Not bad. {{jbh}} How did you can or preserve the things that you did want to preserve? {{ech}} They had an old boiler. They cooked it in the boiler. Fill the boiler full of quart jars or half-gallon jars with the lid started, but loose. They\'d cook it in the jars, and that\'d tighten down the lids. {{jbh}} When they\'d cool, it\'d seal itself. {{ech}} Ya. {{jbh}} Now is that something that would be done outside? {{ech}} No. {{jbh}} That was done inside on the wood burning stove. {{ech}} Ya. {{jbh}} That must have taken a lot of wood. -laugh- {{ech}} Lot of wood. Tons of heat, boy. Lots of heat. {{jbh}} Do you remember just roughly how many quarts of different kinds of food? {{ech}} I think my mother canned more than 100 quarts of green beans, 100 quarts of tomatoes. Stuff like that. 100 quarts was nothing. She\'d can... As much as she could get. All kinds of fruits, ya know. Peaches and apples. She\'d make a lot of applesauce and canned peaches, plums, anything that was available. {{jbh}} Now was most of that grown on the farm itself? {{ech}} Ya. Grew right there. {{jbh}} How did you preserve the meat? {{ech}} Well, we\'d sugar-cure it and smoke it. {{jbh}} What\'s that? How do you do that? {{ech}} Trim the hams and the shoulders and the bacon. Trim the fat off of \'em, ya know. Take the smoke salt and rub into the meat. Then they\'d wrap it in papers and put it in a cloth bag and hang it up in the barn. {{jbh}} What kept the critters from getting up there and eating it? {{ech}} Too salty. {{jbh}} They didn\'t like it? The mites and rats wouldn\'t even eat the stuff? {{ech}} No. We\'d have to hang it from the rafters, ya know, where they couldn\'t get at it. {{jbh}} How did it taste? {{ech}} Beautiful. I wish I had some today. Them old hangs would hang there and drip. The moisture would drip out of them. -laugh- I guess you\'d say they\'re kind of fossilized. -laughter- They\'d turn real black, and shrink. The moisture\'d evaporate out of \'em. {{mm|36:00}} {{ech}} They\'d mold. Mold\'d get on \'em. But that didn\'t hurt anything. You\'d just scrape the mold off. {{jbh}} -laugh- But you\'d just take the ham, or the leg, or whatever portion let\'s say. And cut the fat off of it. Rub the salt into it. Wrap it in newspaper? Just hung it up? Didn\'t cook it or anything before hand? {{ech}} No, didn\'t cook it. Just smoke it. In the smokehouse. {{jbh}} First, before you hung it? {{ech}} You didn\'t have to. You could do it either way. You could just hang it up with the salt on it, or you could smoke it first. {{jbh}} Smoking it gave it an extra flavor everybody liked? {{ech}} Ya. {{jbh}} How did you smoke it? {{ech}} In a little old smokehouse. A hickory wood fire in there. Green hickory wood. Made a lot of smoke, but not much fire. {{jbh}} Ya? So it wasn\'t actually cooked in there, just smoked? {{ech}} Ya. Kinda fossilized. -laughter- {{jbh}} Did you have any maple trees on the homestead? {{ech}} Yes. We used to make maple syrup. And there used to be several sugar mills around the country too. Where they made maple syrup on ... ? That was fun. Go down there in the spring time, tapping all the trees and set around the old fire and swell the syrup. That was real fun. That was good. I\'d like to do that again. And we grew sargum. Made our own glasses, see. Grow sargum, take it over to old Gus Peterson. He\'d run it through the mill. {{jbh}} Ya had to cook it and make it into the syrup. {{ech}} He\'d squeeze the juice out of the keen(?) ya know, run it through the roller. The juice\'d run out of the roller, down into the barrels and the barrels was right there next to the pan, where they cooked it. Where they boiled it down. {{jbh}} Would you go there during the day and be there while he did that? {{ech}} Ya. Sometimes, ya. {{jbh}} How many gallons would you come home with then? {{ech}} Oh, depends. Lot of time we\'d have 15, 20 gallons. We could eat a lot of sargum. {{jbh}} That was you didn\'t have to buy so much sugar I suppose? {{ech}} Ya. {{jbh}} How else did you get money to buy the things you needed to buy? {{ech}} You didn\'t get money. -laughter- You\'d sell the cream and the eggs. That was your main income. {{jbh}} Well what about the stuff you grew on the 80 acres? Did you just end up consuming that just to keep your family going? {{ech}} Most of it. You\'d see, \'bout everything you grew. Corn and oats. You\'d feed that to livestock. You didn\'t market it. You fed it back to livestock. And then sold the livestock. {{jbh}} Or ate it. So sometimes you would sell your livestock and earn a little money that way? {{ech}} Oh, ya, ya. You\'d had ... Feeder pigs and calves and things like that. The old mare might have a cold or something. Might cash that little bugger in. -laugh- {{jbh}} When you were growing up did you have an allowance? {{ech}} No, no. Never heard of an allowance. {{jbh}} Well when you went to town... {{ech}} We didn\'t have any money. -laugh- {{jbh}} Did you go to town on weekends? {{ech}} Ya. {{jbh}} Most weekends you\'d go into town? {{mm|40:00}} {{ech}} Every Saturday night we\'d go into town. That was kind of what everybody did. Do their trading. So-called trading, see. See they\'d take their cream and their eggs and sell that, then they\'d go buy the stuff they had to have. {{jbh}} What did you as a boy do when you went into town Saturday night? {{ech}} Just walk around. {{jbh}} -laugh- Were there lots of other boys from the farms in? {{ech}} Ya. Lots of other boys. Lots of other girls. The girls would walk and giggle and the boys would stand there trying to look fierce, ya know. -laughter- {{jbh}} Did you guys play games or anything? Like baseball, softball? {{ech}} Oh, ya. On Sunday we used to have ball games \'bout every Sunday. The only thing there was to do. {{jbh}} So what\'s a Sunday look like? You get up, you do the chores, then you get together and go to church? {{ech}} Well, sometimes. We didn\'t do church to much. Did go too often to church. Then we\'d get together with the rest of the kids in the neighborhood and organize a ball game, or... {{jbh}} On a Sunday afternoon? {{ech}} Ya. {{jbh}} And did you just walk there? {{ech}} Ya. Ride a pony or ride a horse. {{jbh}} What church did you grow up in? {{ech}} Baptist. {{jbh}} Where was the Baptist church? {{ech}} Round Prairie Baptist church. {{jbh}} About how far was that from where you lived? {{ech}} Two miles. {{jbh}} And how did you get there? {{ech}} -laugh- Well, sometimes we\'d ride with a neighbor. ...had the old Model T Ford. Sometimes go in the car. Sometimes in a buggy. When the roads was muddy they wouldn\'t take a car, they\'d drive horses. {{jbh}} Oh, so the horse and buggy could go better than the car? {{ech}} Ya. Horse and buggy or horse and wagon. Lot of people didn\'t have a buggy. Just hook it up to the wagon, throw the old lady and the kids, and go. -laughter- {{jbh}} Did these have shock absorbers on them? {{ech}} -laughter- No, absolutely not. She was solid. There wasn\'t a spring in \'em. There was on the buggies. Buggies has springs on \'em. {{jbh}} Now you said your house was located about a quarter mile from the road. So what was the road like between the house and the... {{ech}} Non-existant. There was just kind of a trail, was all it was. {{jbh}} Was it level? {{ech}} No, \'bout ... ? {{jbh}} As I remember you go through a creek too, at the bottom there. {{ech}} Yes. [[Image:Fixingaflat30X3inMTCa1923.jpg|right|thumb|450px|[http://www.smokstak.com/forum/showthread.php?t=29221&page=2 A Model T image] from smokstak.com]] {{jbh}} Did you guys have interesting times getting in and out there? In the spring time and the winter? {{ech}} We fought that road. Put on the chains and \'\'\'grind\'\'\' up through the back-brush and get on the road. Then you\'d \'\'\'grind\'\'\' through the mud for about 50 foot and the wheels would roll solid and... slide. Then you\'d stop and punch the mud out of the wheels. And go about 50 foot and stop and get out and punch the mud out again. -laugh- Then if you was really lucky you had a flat tire. -laugh- Then you took the inner tube out of the tire and patched it. Put a patch on it. In the mud. Smeared the mud around. Then put it back on and go again. {{jbh}} These are like Model Ts? {{ech}} Ya. {{jbh}} When did you get your first car? Do you remember about how old you would have been? {{ech}} Ya. I was 26 years old when I got my first car. {{jbh}} Oh, when you yourself got one. But how old were you when your family got their first car? {{ech}} Well, I guess they had a car since I can remember. If you can call it a car. -laughter- {{jbh}} What was it? {{ech}} Model T. {{jbh}} Why do you say if you could call it a car? Was it in sad shape? {{ech}} Well, for example: My dad. His only new car he ever had. He bought a new car in 1926. I was just 6 years old. In Salem. And he didn\'t even get home with it. It konked out. Had to haul it back to town to get it repaired. -laughter- {{jbh}} Didn\'t they make them very well back then? {{ech}} No, they sure didn\'t. {{jbh}} So it was all the time breaking down, having flat tires. {{ech}} Ya. Something wrong with that contraption all the time. {{jbh}} How did you get it started? {{ech}} Crank it. {{jbh}} Was that something that kids were expected to do? Crank the thing? {{ech}} Well, you didn\'t want to put any little kids on it. They couldn\'t handle it. And they\'d kick like a mule. Enough to break your arm if you wasn\'t careful. And in the winter time, if the grease in it was cold, then you\'d have to jack up the hind wheel ... -laughter- wheel turns ... -laughter- ... it was a lot easier to crank the engine. Cause he was a straight gutted affair, ya know. Back to the drive train. And if the wheel was stuck on the ground then you\'d have to crank all the stiff grease. {{jbh}} So you\'d actually get out and jack up the back of the... {{ech}} Before you ever started you\'d jack up the hind wheel so the wheel could turn free. {{jbh}} These are the good \'ole days. -laughter- That\'s amazing. {{ech}} And we finally got a... went modern. We got a Fordson tractor. Oh boy, that thing was the greatest calamity there ever was... {{mm|46:14}} End of file.','utf-8'),