Bedsole - NCGenWeb

clothes and for the making of soap.In the winter, they had to put so many covers and animal skins on the bed
to keep from freezing, they could barely turn over with all that weight bearing down on them.
After supper during winter, everyone always had to shell peanuts, shuck corn, work on leather, repair stuff, or
do something for another three hours before going to bed. So they sat in the “living room”, which always had
two or three double beds in it anyway and sniffled and froze to death while they did that work too. They
couldn't wait to get in bed and hopefully warm up some. Nobody had adequate winter clothes, so everybody
froze equally. Most people wore 2 pair of breeches, two shirts and some kind of coat, if any
or all of that was available, which was seldom the case. Some wore animal hides as overcoats. But no matter
how tired people got, there was no such thing as a vacation or time off. Any time off meant someone else
had to take up the slack and this was usually followed by a period of less to eat.
Seeds For Planting
Producing, preparing and storing corn, peanuts, cotton and other seeds meant they had to be bagged and
stored as they were prepared. The shelling of peanuts and corn was always done for days and usually lasted
long into the nights, until the smaller kids couldn't stay awake any longer.
With the passage of time and the time-consuming tediousness of the seed work, someone hit on the idea of
holding a "Peanut Shelling" at his house one Saturday night and the word spread that single people were
invited and there would be a "cake walk" for them. That meant everybody there would have to shell one "pan"
of peanuts (about five gallons), more or less. With people usually living 3 miles or more apart, the single
people were desperate for a chance to at least see a member of the opposite sex if nothing else and they
were all excited and showed up in droves and any single women always had their parents, or older brothers,
as escorts and guardians.
Three men, who could make a reasonable attempt at music, played a guitar, fiddle and banjo. After the
peanuts were shelled (the farmer tried to get all of them shelled he could) the cake walk was held. In this
case, everybody moved out into the front yard, kerosene lamps were placed on the front porch, lighting the
yard at least some. A circle with numbered squares was drawn in the dirt. The music started, the single
people found themselves a partner, usually someone they had never seen before and holding hands (the
greatest thrill), began walking around the circle as the music played. This was considered very romantic,
especially by the girls.
Being able to hold a girls hand was more than the single guys had even hoped for. The music stopped and
everybody stopped. A number was drawn out of a hat and called out and the couple in that numbered spot,
was the lucky couple and they could go off in a corner somewhere together, but not too far away and
certainly not out of sight, and eat their cake. Cake's were brought by several of the females and were
considered an expense incurred to get the daughters married off. Eventually, over a period of time, these
affairs evolved into full-blown music and dance get-togethers, but was not popular at the same house twice in
any given year as one could almost always count on such turning into a knock-down, drag-out, free for all
fight, before it was over, because someone would always bring moonshine (A big no-no) and start getting
drunk and/or someone would do something or say something offensive to someone else. However, out of
consideration for the homeowners and their wives, the party goers would stash their moonshine at the edge
PAGE TWENTY SIX
of the yard, or in the woods near the house and not actually bring it into the house, as the homeowner was
certain to take offense. This homemade whiskey was called “Moonshine” because it was usually made by the
light of the moon, deep in the woods, for privacy.