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Nostalgia Item— WilHog-Killing Time MeantjKikEating High on the Hog(EDITORS NOTE: Gilmer Mirror reader and sometimes contributor A. D. Covin, who lives in Houston and Is retired, here shares his recollections of hog-kllling time” In Upshur County during his boyhood. Since 1974's hog-kllllng weather has lately arrived we arc pleased to be able to offer it as n timely piece of nostalgia.)BY ALVIN COVINwalnuts by the barrels full, which my grandmother would use to pul in cakes, etc., for the Christmas season, when oil the kids would come home and bring their noisy horde of offsprings andfeast on country-cured ham.after hog-kllling was a full pot of boiled backbones, where every one had a bait) of the tastiest part of the hog. 1 believe they gel present-day pork chops from the back bones.baked hen and all kinds cakes and pies for a whole day.My Grondma Covin’s maiden name was Oliver. Permcllo, Priscilla or Penelope. I think it wos Per-mclia. She was a pioneer woman! A resident of Texas, on the Frontier, when it was the true border between civilisation and savagery. Comonches. robbers, killers. mean men, and good men. My Grandma Covin was a contributor to bringing stability, sanity and security to the frontier os much as anyone else.My Grandma Covin was a religious woman, dedicated to the Baptist Church, and a firm belief that no one could be saved unless they were cleansed of their sins by complete under-water immersion.My Grandma Covin usually wore n black dress that swept the ground. There was o pocket in this dress where she carried o few articles, such as small pocket change, a snuff box and a hickory or block gum tooth brush.My Grondma Covin married my grandfather in 1867. She was one of many children in the J. B. Oliver family. She had a full brother who was in partnership with a man named Roberts, in the Roberts Oliver Hardware store in Gilmer for many years. Another full brother, Tom Oliver, was a county clerk, or district clerk in the Gilmer Courthouse for n long time. A half brother, Dick Oliver, had a store, first at Graceton, and then Gilmer, for many years.Pioneers Worked HardMy Grandma Covin learned to work and work hard because life on the frontier was hard and most people had to raise most ' of what they ate or else go hungry. Grandpa CoVin was a cotton farmer, also a cotton ginncr and operated a grist mill, where nearly everyone in the community brought their corn to be ground into meal. They came horseback, mule-back, in buggies, wagons, and some even walked.Grandpa Covin always planted enough ribbon-cane every year to make up a big batch of ribbon-cane syrup.Christmas Meant Egg-Nog On the side they'd fill up with coffee, or maybe eggnog which Grandpa always made, with the help of “old Aunt Doslah, a black woman who had been a slave. She lived In a small cabin on top of a hill, raised her own tobacco and smoked o cloy pipe. And, according to her own statements, she wos the only person alive who knew how to make the perfect egg-nog, and Grandpa's nnual egg-nog making was sure to bring on argument between the two, and Grondpa usually lost the argument. They oil lovedMA.imI null bHaAunt Doslah'', and she never suffered for want of the necessities of life.For Grandma Covin, the major event of her busy days, wos hog-killlng time. This event nearly always consumed a week or ten days.First, Grandpa would put the hogs, two or three unusually big ones, on a floored pen and feed them oil the corn they would consume. No kitchen slop went to tho hogs that were to be killed, nothing but corn and water. And then the watch began for weather that would bo favorable. Hog Killing weather! They knew It when It came. Maybe there would be a frost on the ground. Then preparations began In crncst. A barrel wos burled halfway in the ground with the bottom end slanted from the top at obout a 45-dcgrco angle. Then Grandma's two wash pots were placed close together and a hot fire built under them. Then the hogs were killed and they were hung head down from a pole strong enough to hold their weight, about 300 pounds each. Before this happened, however they hod been soused in the barrel of scalding hot water.They were scraped, frcc-i ing the carcass of all tho hair. Then the process of cutting up the meat began. This was a long and carefully executed operation. Then the meat would be sailed down on a platform in the smokehouse to i await later action, such as smoking hams, shoulders, and that part of bacon sides they wanted to have. Most of bacon sides went intoSausage-making consumed an awful lot of time, hard work grinding up the meat, and making the stocklng-typc bags which she pushed It In until full, and later storing It in lord for safe keeping. The rendering of lard was last on the list, as by this time all the pure fat had been trimmed away and went Into the washpols for the process. Now. lard, purerk lord, was all they had those days to cook with. All the frying, such as hams, bacon, eggs, and the like wore treated lo a skillet filled with hog lord over n hot fire. Grandma's chores were not over when hog-kllling time arrived, until the last bucket of lard was stored awny, sausage safely ensconced in containers for the long wait until time to eat sausage, at scattered intervals throughout the year.Taking care of the meal In the smokehouse fell to Grandpa Covin. It was his task to sec that the hams, shoulders, bacon sides he wanted smoked, were exposed to a bath of hickory smoke until they were cured exactly like ho wanted them.When we stayed with them and went to school at old Emory School, reached by going out the road toward Ore Citv, turning off on o side road, by the Mattox Cemetery, and going on toword the Dalton Mattox place, until you come to tho smoll schoolhousc, long slnco removed from the scene.It was then wc had a gourmet's breakfast: Biscuits as big as a hamburger bun, fresh country butter, pure ribbon-cane syrup,fried ham, with plenty ofWlllli Preside and g Pennso a form College dowed ship to Master honor • erllusThe C. Wat gore C 300 shi the Inc used t« ship. I income amoun the scl has pr» tlonol Tho fiyear v conlribCerti compni scholar annual Interco ncccRu ball. 1 exhibit room t His asopping gravy—boy. oh boy, Ing hig'wos that living high on the hog!JGlQUITMAN HIGHWAY OPEN MOfGROUNDCHUCKLEANRll
Newspaper Details
Gilmer Mirror
Gilmer, Texas, US
Thu, Dec 05, 1974
Page 12
Full Page
Clipped by
Donna J.
USA 03 Feb 2018
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