Howard Herron Memoir - University of Illinois Springfield

Howard Herron 25
A: Oh, we had a cow one time, we bought a gurnsey cow and we had to milk
her three times a day. She gave so much milk and we had an over supply
of milk. We'd just feed it to the hogs. And I'll never forget my father
said to me one day, he was going out to thrash and he said, "Howard, I
want you to put some lye, worm them hogs with a little lye." I didn't
know. I got a can of lye and a bucket of water and dumped in there and
in the trough and the pigs would drag one way and then they'd squeal and
bite the dirt. So anyway it didn't kill them but it killed all the
worms. Dad would be gone all week thrashing wheat. They'd go from one
house to the other thrashing and when he got home well, he didn't know
about this and I didn't tell him. I learned not to put that much lye in
the water. That was too much.
Q: Well, when you were ten years old, you said you worked on a farm.
A: Oh, yes, I went work for Beansy Blockly out here. I had what you
call a sulky low. Three horses. All you had to do was sit on there and
drive the horses and then kick your foot. I got two bits a day and my
board, and the next year I got fifty cents a day and my board, and then
the next year I finally got a dollar and my board.
Q: Wow!
A: That was when school was out. Everybody had something to do in them
days. If you didn't work, well, you didn't eat I guess. I remember
mother used to say, "Boys," we'd play out in the yard and she'd say,
"wash them feet," and we'd go back and pump the water on them. And I
tell you I'll never forget, she said, "Now I want to see them feet, them
sheets are getting too dirty too quick." We didn't wash them, we just
pumped water. It was cold, you know, coming out of the well and we
didn't want to get our feet cold and so we just pumped and she'd hear the
pump going and think we were washing them, but we didn't wash them.
Q: Did you go barefoot a lot?
A: Oh, yes. We didn' t take our long underwear off until the 1st of May,
then we got to go barefooted. Then we would go barefooted until frost.
We'd go swimming out here and we just ran off and went swimming out in
the creek out here. And she forbid us to go unless some elderly people
went with us so we would come home and have dirt on our face and I suppose
she knew we had been swimming.
Q: Did you learn how to swim by yourself?
A: Oh, yes, had to. If it hadn't been for Charles Martin, I wouldn't be
here today. There was a log across the creek and there came a big rain
and Sugar Creek was coming out. And I went and jumped in the water out
there before I could really swim very good. The current was so fast it
took me and Charlie Martin out on that log and a board was on the log and
he grabbed me by the hair and throwed me up and walked me back and got me
out.
Q: Howard, how old were you then?