Howard Herron Memoir - University of Illinois Springfield

Howard Herron
or something at the church, and my brother said, "Oh, I've got to go to
the toilet." He ran out to the toilet and he came back. I had to turn
the heat on and 1 had it good and hot. The stove would get red. He came
back and he pulled down his pants and backed his behind up to the stove
and he just went like that. (makes searing naise) He had a big blister
on each cheek of his butt.
Q: Oh my goodness.
A: He had to sleep on his stomach for about a month. Oh, he cried, but
there was nothing we could do but to put same lard or butter on it.
Q: Did you have feather beds to sleep on?
A: Yes, everybody had to have feather beds.
Q: That must have been nice and warm?
A: It was. That's how we kept warn. Some of them had--for each bed
mother had a feather bed quilt, just about that thick all filled with
feathers. She'd sewed it by hand and most every house in town would have
what they called a quilting horse. Women would sew the patches or emblems
on them and then they'd roll it up. When they got it rolled up they'd
have a quilt done. They'd have quilting bees. Some woman would have a
quilt or two. They could make a couple quilts in an afternoon.
Q: Some sort of a social gathering?
A: Yes. Back when they were first started here, I can remember this
when I was little. Mr. Stout, who ran the drug store and he told me
about this now. I didn' t see it. He said, "Howard, you know, we use to
have a singing school." I was young fellow about 18 years old when he
told me this. Be said, "They had a singing school and we'd meet at Mrs.
~rown's for the day." He said we had a teacher here that knew a little
about singing and he'd sing a song and a verse and then we'd all sing it
and that' s how they learned the song. Everybody in town would learn the
songs, church songs and otherwise. When they got--Mrs. Brown, maybe next
week, she'd serve a glass of water and then next week, Mrs. O'Brien would
serve a piece of cake and the next house they served cookies and a cookie
and a drink for them. That's where they got the saying, "Try to outdo
the Jones."
Broke up the singing school, they served them too much. It broke up, the
singing school and then he said they finally got a band organized here
then. They used to have a big wagon and it had seats across there like
that. You've seen pictures of them like a circus. You've probably seen
them in a circus parade. The band wagon was pulled by horses and that's
what they called the band wagon. Auburn would take their band wagon and
the band would go to Waverly. They'd have a picnic and Auburn would play
fox them and then later in Auburn or Virden. Every town had a band
wagon.
Q: Back in the olden days, did people have player pianos and Victrolas
and things like that in their homes?