Howard Herron Memoir - University of Illinois Springfield
Howard Herron Memoir - University of Illinois Springfield
Howard Herron Memoir - University of Illinois Springfield
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<strong>Howard</strong> <strong>Herron</strong> 27<br />
Q: Well, my first job outside <strong>of</strong> farming, every evening after school,<br />
was at Butler Poultry company down here. They'd go out to the country,<br />
every farmer raised chickens, and they'd bring these chickens (into town.<br />
They had what they call ruffers, they would hook them in the hooks there<br />
and they would stick them in their brain and they would throw them over<br />
to us kids. We'd pick the pin feathers <strong>of</strong>f and then they put them all in<br />
a barrel and put a big cake <strong>of</strong> ice on them. Then they would put burlap<br />
over the top and take them out to the depot, and the train, they called<br />
it number eighty. It came in at eight o'clock, and they would ship them<br />
to New York. They were New York dressed, they didn't even take the<br />
intestines out <strong>of</strong> them at the Butler Poultry Company down here.<br />
Q: Where was that located?<br />
A: Right down here where the city had their machinery. That was the<br />
Butler Poultry House. (3rd and Washington Street)<br />
Q: The city garage?<br />
A: Yes. Us kids would get, they got five cents for ruffing and killing<br />
them and we got two cents for pinning them. We worked all day and made<br />
about forty cents, but we had something to do, we'd get chicken lice all<br />
over us. They don't hurt you but they'd run you to death, they would run<br />
a11 over you.<br />
Q: So what did you spend your money on then?<br />
A: Oh, ice cream cones.<br />
Q: Where did you get your ice cream cones?<br />
A: Well, they had ice cream then.<br />
Q: How did they keep that ice cream cold?<br />
A: They had some kind <strong>of</strong> a big barrel like thing and a big can about<br />
that long, about ten gallon, about that big around and they put ice all<br />
around it and pushed half <strong>of</strong> it down and put salt around there. Did you<br />
ever see them make homemade ice cream? Well, that's the way they had<br />
that can, they packed it in there, and they and a cork down in the bottom,<br />
and they pulled it out and let the water out and then they'd do the same<br />
thing and keep it cold that way. Charlie White had a popcorn machine,<br />
you could get a sack <strong>of</strong> popcorn for a nickel and every Saturday night<br />
they had a band concert. Every Saturday night was a big night. The<br />
farmers came to town, and the band would play.<br />
Q: Did they dance?<br />
A: No.<br />
Q: There was no place to dance.<br />
A: They had a dance at the opera house, that is what they called it,
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