The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1916-11-16
What Grandfather Would Do.


Yes Grand Dad bought a pound Of
meat
For Just a dime or SO,
But he'd paid most anything
To see {. movie show.
Two pounds of sugar in those days,
Might have cost "jit,'
But gladly would they paid much
more
If they could phone for it.
Potatoes, too, were bought dirt cheap
But never came a laugh,
Or Caruso's mighty tenor voice
From our friend the photograph.
So why complain of prices now
And give the crouch alarm,
When for the wheel OF an automobile
Grand Dad would swap a farm:'
Not grandfather. Granddad bought
meat cheap when he bought 1t, but
lie was no regular patron OF the
butchers. Grandfather always had a
couple of fat hogs to butcher at this
time of the year He and his neigh
bors changed works and butchered
them in the back yard. They stuck
them, scalded them in a barrel OF hot
water with a little wood ashes in it,
'scraped" them with an iron candle
stick on platform made from the
old barn door, hung them over pole
on the "gambrel sticks that had
done duty for years and emptled
them, hanging the livers on post
to cool out so that fried liver might
appear on the table at the next meal.
Then they sloshed pailful after pail
full of cold water inside and outside
and finished by "scraping up with
butcher knives and left the dressed
hogs to lose the Mammal heat. That
evening they were brought into the
woodshed and "cut up" Hams and
shoulders were trimmed neatly and
side meat put to pickle, tenderloins
and CHIMES were set aside for fresh,
the big grinder and sausage horn
were brought forth and the cloth
sacks prepared for the purpose were
stuffed till the seams strained with
real country sausage. The lOWls and
certain other~parts went into head
cheese" and ''souse' and when
grandfather finished with the hogs
there wasn't much wasted but the
squeal and toenails.
The remainder of that unfortunate
porker had become real food. Grand
father was some butcher himself and
grandmother knew how to cook it af-
ter grandfather had finished his part
of the job. The hams and shoulders
hung long in the smokehouse over a
hickory smoke, no Liquid smoke
for granddad. Sometimes grandmOth-
er laid down" great juicy slices OF
ham in big crooks covering them with
hot fat whence they were resurrected
in the winter seemingly as fresh and
sweet and wholesomely tasty as when
they were cut from the bone. Speak
ing further of grandfather's meat
supply memory brings the hind
quarter Of beef" that swung from the
beams of the woodhouse.
Grandfather wouldn't have spent
much time or money at the movies.
When some of those emotional ac-
tresses'' displayed their powers be-
fore grandfather and grandmother
there would have been an exodus
from the moving picture show with
grandmother in the lead making re-
marks about shameless hussies."
Grandfather would have accompanied
her whether or not he was Interested
in the pictures; and neither grand
mother nor grandfather would have
gone back. 1t would have been pro-
claimed in that household that III
one Of my girls was at that place
I'd go after her with a horsewhip.'
The emotional play of this age is
long, long cry from the "panoramas"
Of grandfather's age and time, when
attendance on the theatre or indul-
gence in fiction graded pretty close
to attending free thought" lecture
or having a set of Tom Paine's works
in the bookcase.
Grandfather would have cottoned
to the photograph but don't imagine
that ragtime and highbrow classical
stuff would have made hit in that
household or that dance tunes"
would have been tolerated on Sun
days or approved thoroughly on
week days Annie Laurie and oft in
the Silly Night along with hymn
tunes would have been the real limits
Of repertoire. Perhaps grandmother
would have wanted a record with
American Taxation" on one side and
that song which related in minor
numbers how Poor Birdie was taken
out to die" But if you imagine that
any Of that 100000 and :Bunga-
low stuff would have got by, you
have another guess coming. Not at
grandfather's. Nay, nay.
Grandfather might have come to
the automobile. That horseless con-
traption has won over many grand
father and grandmother to sit pride
fully in its tonneau to be whirled
over roaos once painfully traversed
with OK teams and farm horses but
when grandfather traded farm or
put mortgage on a forty for an au-
tomobile-why granudad didn't do it.
Not grandfather; and if he had got
such notion he couldn't have drag
ged grandmother before a notary
with a stump puller.
Of course grandfather and grand
mother would seem odd and queer
among us folks today but at that
there'd be- something mighty whole
some and fine and trustworthy about
tho old folks don't Won think Mar