The coastland times. [volume] (Mnateo [i.e. Manteo], N.C.) 1947-1959, 1954-09-24
DO YOU
REMEMBER?
Then You're
Country Boy.
BY CARLTON NORRIS
Editor Gates County Index


Remember the days before
power farming when we used to
gather corn by pulling it by hand
and tossing it in piles on a heap
row. Then we would drive down
this row with a two-barrel cart
and load the corn off the ground.
Then it was hauled to the barn
and dumped on the ground
again. Later it would be thrown
into the barn window a handful
at the time where it usually had
to be moved again.
Remember the old stone hand
mill that was once used for
grinding meal and chick feed.
The circular stones required the
strength of giant to get them
going and emitted hollow rum
BILE that could be heard for a
good distance so that all the
neighbors knew when you were
grinding.
Remember the days when fod-
der was the main source of win
ter feed for team and cattle. 1t
must be pulled in late July and
August, the warmest season of
the year. The corn blades were
stripped off and hung on the
stalk to dry, then it would be
taken off and tied in large bum
dies which were dumped in piles
in the field. Then it must be car
ried to the barn and always a
storm would start making up in
the early afternoon. This requir-
ed everyone's assistance and the
dry fodder had to be carried to
the barn. Red and angry skin
would be the order of the day,
around everyone's neck and chill
dren would climb into the barn
loft and leap out the windows on
to the large fodder pile, when
parents were not looking. Every
one packed a barn loft full of
fodder in the firm belief that he
was storing excellent feed for
his stock. From sheer hunger the
stock ate the dry powdery stuff
all winter long. A standard joke
of that era was to the effect that
''the road was so crooked that
the horse ate fodder out of the
back of the buggy on the
curves"
Remember when the best wa
termelons would be found under
the grass just before frost. All
the vines would be long dead and
small watermelon that had es-
capped attention during the sum-
mer would show up during cot
ton picking time. Dropped on a
hard packed alley, the little mel
on would be ice cold and sugar
sweet and taste twice as good as
did the big ones picked during
the summer and devoured on the
front lawn. The watermelon
must never be cut with knife,
but must always be dropped
firmly on the ground. Busting a
watermelon is quite an art. 1t
must be dropped firmly enough
to split it from stem to stern, but
never hard enough to spatter the
heart out on the ground. Then 1t
must be eat with hands and fin
gers and the dirtier they are, the
better the watermelon will taste.
Remember the hard winter"
apples and how they could be
packed away in barrels of sand
and kept all winter long and how
a few would remain on the tree
UP near the top. Hungry boys
would come across them in late
fall and never would there be a
handy stick or clod big or heavy
enough to knock them loose from
lofty perch. But any amount OF
trouble was enough cost for the
reward of securing a pockettull
of hard apples.
Remember the scuppernongs
and wild black grapes and how
they always seemed to grow
thicker and plentiful in the tops
| of the highest trees. Remember
how you were never full OF
grapes unless you could touch
them by sticking your finger IN
YOUR throat and how your tongue
would feel as if the skin was off
it from the large amount of acid
from the grapes. And then after
YOU had devoured all you could
hold, you would fill your over
all pockets and they would burst
leaving a dark stain.
Do you remember If you do
YOU are from the country and
nort of the earth from whence