Fall At The Farm

When I see the leaves turning beautiful in the Fall it reminds me of life on the farm when I was a young teenager. The persimmons begin to fall and if I remember correctly, mama always said it had to frost on them before they could be used to make persimmon pudding. I recall there was a persimmon tree by the path down to the pond and we would watch for them to start falling so we could have some of that delicious persimmon pudding or in our words when we were young "simmon puddin". Later on sister Ilease began making it and kept up the tradition by bringing it to our family gatherings and everyone looked forward to that.

Another reminder of Fall was the Corn Shuckings that some of the neighbors had and I looked forward to those. A huge pile of corn would be stacked and neighbors would gather around to start shucking it. There would be talk and laughter and anticipation of who might find a "red ear" and would be the lucky one to either get or give a kiss, I can't remember the exact rules. When all the corn had been shucked there would be a big meal prepared for all the helpers. It was as much a social gathering as a work gathering, lots of stories and tall tales would be told, especially if someone happened to bring a "bottle" and shared it.

Then there was Halloween. We always hoped it would not rain that day; it would not be too cold and there would be a bright moon to light upthe sky at night. There were no fancy costumes in those years. You had to come up with your own costumes which was usually a stocking over your face, lips painted and wearing some of your mom or dad's clothes. We would go to the neighbor's homes to see if they could guess who we were. There was no "Trick or Treat" either. However, the Hendrick family always gave us parched peanuts and apples and we loved and looked forward to that. We just walked around and if it got real dark and scary someone might just hold your hand and that was a thrill, especially if it was a boy you liked. I remember one year we had "Sparklers" and when we got to Shuf and Lucy's house we lit those and walked around the outside windows waving them and making crazy noises and scared their little ones, I believe their names were Bunt and Bob. Of course, we were asked to leave and told that was not a very nice thing to do and we were not welcome there the next year.

As we got older, the tradition was to dress and go to town on Halloween night and just walk up and down the streets to see who all you could recognize. You also got to meet a lot of people who were friends of someone you knew and they just might ask you to sit with them when you went to the movie on Saturday night.

Fall, after the weather got really cold was Hog Killing time. Most of the family would come home to help with that. I remember coming home from school and every door knob in the house would seem greasy from grinding sausage and making lard. I did not like that part but I did love the liver that mama would fry and then make gravy. I loved the livermush until I heard mama telling someone what went into making that and then I could not eat it for a long time. The tenderloin she fried was also very good and that made especially good gravy. In fact, I would love to have some now over one of her biscuits!