Smoky Mountains Around Town / December 2018

Valley Pools & Spas
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Mine For Your Fortune!
You’re never too old
to play in the dirt
and find some treasures
Fun For The Whole Family !
Page 7 Around Town
Hot Tubs
Swimming Pools
Game Tables
(865) 908-0025
3059 Birds Creek Rd, Sevierville
Old Smoky Gem Mine
968 Parkway, #1, Downtown Gatlinburg
(865) 436-7112
(Located between lights #8 & #9 across from Ober Gatlinburg - Parking located in Elks Plaza)
849 Glades Road, # 1B1, Gatlinburg
www.splitraileats.com
Hello Friend (Osiyo Oginali)
Wait! Hold It! Do Not Shoot!
I know how to spell PUMPKIN, a long line of school teachers
saw to that. According to some people I pronounce the word in
the wrong way.
Cocke County country folk tend to call this fruit of the vine
PUNKIN, although the majority will write it PUMPKIN.
Listen to a gathering of Cocke county rural folk around
Halloween, you may be surprised how many of them call this
golden fruit of the vine PUNKIN.
James Whitcomb Riley has been honored many times for his
delightful poem, “THE FROST OF THE PUNKIN”. If this great
man is not ashamed to present PUNKIN to the world, surely you
will allow me to present PUNKIN.
In the fall of 1942 the United States of America was engaged in
a desperate war, Food was necessary war material. Home or
backyard gardens were encouraged along with home or
community canning to save the surplus food thus produce for
future family needs.
No one knew how great those needs would be.
Patriotism and willingness to help the war effort was running
deep in the hearts of Cocke County People.
Under the authority of the Works Progress Administration
(WPA) a community cannery had been established in the old
knitting mill so recently converted to a school in West End.
Under the leadership of several, the cannery was a going and
growing concern.
To the best of my recollection no charge was made for the
metal cans to can the food or the use of the facilities. I seem to
remember a one-fifth toll being levied on the finished product.
Mr. Shipley, an Agriculture teacher at the Old Cocke County
High School urged his students to take advantage of the
community cannery to help feed their families and push the war
effort.
Much to his surprise, he was not having much success for the
simple reason that canning surplus food was a way of life for
farm families in Cocke County at that time and all the Vocational
Agriculture students lived on or had access to farms.
In dogged determination Mr. Shipley maintained that even
farm families had at least one surplus farm produced food item
that could be profitably canned in the shiny metal can used by the
cannery. He let it be known that he would look with generous
intent at the grade cards of any of his Vo-Ag students who
utilized the facilities at the community canneries to help
conserve the family food supply.
Yours truly seemed to always stand in need of extra grade
points at grade card viewing time. I certainly was not too proud
to accept a few extra points for doing something that was not
only my moral obligation but highly patriotic also.
What could I can this late in October?
The Mr. Shipley just happened to come by our rented farm and
informed my parents of his intentions.
I was volunteered before he could finish his remarks.
Now my parents had over five hundred glass jars, crocks and
jugs filled with a wide assortment of vegetables, fruits and meats
stored in the smoke house, but they would appreciate anything
Mr. Shipley could teach the boy to can. “What can he can?”
Mr. Shipley looked across the hillside covered with browning
corn and tons of yellow punkins. “Why, some of those ripe
pumpkins so you could have pumpkin pies next June.”
“Pumpkins it is”, agreed my parents.
In a frenzy of labor, golden ripe punkins were slaughtered,
deseeded, sliced in one inch wide rings, peeled, squared and
packed into five gallon lard cans which were loaded into the
truck of the family Terri plane (extinct car) and delivered to West
End School on the specified date. Mr. Shipley had a number of
students who were trying to help the war effort and gain a few
extra grade points. I was the only one canning punkin.
A lively discussing arose about how to can the yellow fruit of
the wine and what type of can should be used.
It was finally decided to pre-cook the punkin and ladle the
cooked mixture into metal cans that were coated on the inside
with an acid resistance coating. The same type cans used to can
corn and fruits.
In short order a big copper-bronze lined steam cooking pot was
bubbling cooking punkin. Metal cans were filled with the hot
fruit of the vine.
Mr. Shipley set a full can into can sealer done a few fancy
gyrating steps around the contraption and presto a can of punkin
was sealed and ready to place in the water bath heating tank.
He crooked a finger at me saying, “Now, Roy you can seal the
rest of the cans.
I approached this mechanical contraption with a dour
expression for mechanical tools and I have never hit it off at the
first introduction. It has always taken a bit of time for us to
become cozy with each other.
Mr. Shipley noted my doubts and said, “You can't go wrong
Roy, all you do is set the can on the turntable, lay a lid on top of
the can, pull down on this lever and turn the crank. You do not
have to even look at the can lids for they have been stamped out
with a metal cutting die so they will all fit.”
Little did he know.
I followed his instructions to the letter and juicy hot punkin
squirted all over the place.
Ice Bumper Cars
After much discussion it was decided that I had used a lid that
was not round and after crimping around the top of the can a hole
the size of a pencil emerged to dribble hot punkin.
Five thousand lids in that box and I had picked the only one
that was cut lopsided.
You have heard of Murphy's law, this Murphy character and I
have been bosom pals all my life.
Mr. Shipley drained the punkin from the can and took it back to
the classroom where it soon became known as “Roy's can”.
Almost every day for two weeks someone would draw attention
to the blasted thing and thirty-three pairs of eyes over thirtythree
toothy grins came my way as I slunk ever lower in my
chair.
Finally I stole the can from Mr. Shipley's desk and sneaked it to
boiler room when the teacher was not looking. In that coal fired
boiler I cremated that sucker. EPILOGUE
The community canneries served a vital and unheralded need
during the war years.
Corn was an item my family found hard to can and keep. Over
the years many bushels of Hickory King and Polific corn went
into the shinny cans of the cannery to be consumed before the
next crop of roasting ears appeared. The glass jars in the
smokehouse were emptied and refilled at least once a year.
The canned punkin had a staying power all its own. To us the
taste of punkin was not enhanced by canning and could in no way
compare with the taste of vine ripe punkin stashed in the hay over
the mule's stall where the heat generated by the animal's body
and their bedding kept the golden yellow fruit of the vine from
freezing on the coldest winter night.
In the fall of 1947 I lined the remaining dozen or so of the
canned punkin on a log and zeroed in my deer rifle. I did not have
to walk to the log to check my shots for I could tell from a
hundred years away when I scored a hit.
“As told to me by my uncle”.
“Do na da go hv i” (Till we see each other again)
Designs by Matoka
Shaconage Stone Art and Jewelry
170 Glades Rd, #15, Gatlinburg - 865-719-3999
www.ShaconageStoneArtandJewelry.net
Appalachian Bear Rescue
By Kathryn Sherrard
Chubby Cubs!
Nine bear cubs are being cared for at the Appalachian Bear
Rescue facility in Townsend, TN. The latest arrival, which we
announced as a “News Flash” last month, was released into a
Wild Enclosure after a couple of weeks in our Recovery
Center. It was decided that keeping her in such strict
confinement for any longer would be counter-productive. She
needed to be outside in a more suitable habitat. So our
population now is divided among three enclosures.
In Wild Enclosure #4 we have the “Six-pack,” so named
because of their number and the fact that the six resulted from
combining two groups of three. These cubs have worked very
hard to gain all the weight they could and now they resemble
round, furry balls with short legs.
In Wild Enclosure #3 the “Duet” reside. Yep, you guessed it
– there are two of them. And now, in Wild Enclosure #1 we
have Persimmon Bear, that most recent addition.
All of the cubs continue to eat as much food – nuts and some
fruits like apples – as the curators provide by throwing the
goodies over the fence to them. A vital component of the care
of orphaned and injured bear cubs is that there is minimal
human contact. The cubs don't see the human curators
throwing the food. The little bears also find some treats on
their own from naturally occurring critters like insects that
they quickly gobble up.
It is possible that as you read this the nine bear cubs are out in
the wild, finding dens in which to spend the winter. The
wildlife officers in charge of the cubs are the ones who decide
when they should be released. Two of the cubs will be
returning to their home state of Kentucky, while the remaining
seven will be in Tennessee or in the Great Smoky Mountains
National Park.
This brings us to the frequently asked question about
hibernation. Do bears really hibernate? While most of us
would say that they do, wildlife biologists call the bears'
winter sleep torpor. How does it work? To prepare, bears go
through hyperphagia, a feeding frenzy during which they eat
voraciously. That's what our cubs have been doing for the last
couple of months. The goal is to add at least another third of
their weight. During the hibernation or torpor period, the bear
does not eat, drink, defecate or urinate. All bodily systems are
maintained by utilizing the fat that has been stored.
Female bears (sows) will give birth during the time in the
den and therefore will not be apt to leave. Male bears (boars)
are unencumbered by such matters, and they may move
around, change dens, or opt for a daybed on the ground. If you
see a bear roaming around during the winter, it's probably a
boar. Regardless, bears that you see in winter should be
respected in the same way as at any other time of year. Keep
your distance and do not harass or stress the animal.
You can follow the story of the nine cubs and their release,
and find out more about Appalachian Bear Rescue by visiting
our Facebook page: facebook.com/AppalachianBearRescue.
New photos are posted every day, so you can see what is going
on at the ABR facility and at our Visitor/Education Center in
the Trillium Cove Shopping Village on East Lamar Alexander
Parkway. It is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 to 4;
closed Sunday and Monday. When you visit you can talk to
knowledgeable volunteers and purchase ABR merchandise as
mementos of your visit. You can even become a member of
Appalachian Bear Rescue and participate in a class to learn
more about bears. We'd love to see you there! You can also
visit our website at www.appalachianbearrescue.org and our
blog at abrblog.wordpress.com.