Howard Herron Memoir - University of Illinois Springfield

Howard Herron
and he had these pink tights and He'd holler, "Is the man with the gun
ready? If the man with the gun is ready I'm all ready too." They'd
shoot the gun and this fellow would hang by his teeth on a rubber grip.
And this boy'd just come down on this pulley that was two blocks long and
he was really yelling something and he had a big blanket and a canvass of
some kind and when he hit, he stopped him so he wouldn't get hurt.
Q:
It makes your neck hurt thinking about it.
A: It didn't hurt me. We were anxious to see it. We were always ready
to see it. My father raised from four to five hogs and he, after we sold
that house, we bought another house that had a whole block in the southwest
part of town. And we had a cow and he always raised four-five hogs and
Lou Alberts and Butch Harms would butcher. They'd make a date like if
they come the 5th of December this year to kill your hogs and they'd come
in and all we had to do was get the wood ready and they'd come in with
their wagon and tripod or whatever it is. They'd be there about 4:30,
5:00 in the morning and they'd have all those hogs shot and hung up on
the trestle there and they had them a11 cut up, lard rendered, and
sausage made. And us kids would go down the street giving everybody some
liver, everybody had liver when we butchered. And so they would make a
date next year for the same time. Everybody had them around town, had to
raise their own hogs. My father had a smokehouse and they used sassafras
and hickory and sassafras, hickory and something else, some kind of wood
they smoked it. Boy those were good hams too. That was the best ham. I
can taste them yet.
Q: Those smokehouses, were they all enclosed?
A: Well, yes, they were enclosed, but they has a. . . .
Q: Had place for the draft?
A: Smoke would come out through the cracks, but they'd hang them hogs up
in the wintertime and they'd salt them, put salt over them and they'd
hang them up. And the first time that they thawed, they would get around
the hams, so then they'd brush all that salt off and then they'd take
sugar and stuffing. It really tasted good. We traded in the store, and
they took milk. We never paid anything at the grocery store because we
just traded milk. He had three children, him and his wife and we took
milk to them about everyday. And groceries never cost like they do naw
and we just traded groceries for milk. And I took care of Dr. Britton's
horses. I told you I loved horses. I took care of Old Dr. Britton's
horses for him and if we needed a doctor why he would come and he never
would charge us because I took care of his horses and he never would
charge us.
Q: Did you do the milking?
A: Oh, yes, a lot of times.
Q: How much milk would you get from a cow?