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Nostalgia Item— WillidHog-Killing Time MeantjKilgorEating High on the Hog(EDITOR'S NOTE: Gilmer Mirror reader and sometimes contributor A. D. Covin, who lives In Houston and Is retired, here shArcs his recollections of hog-kllllng time*’ In Upshur County during his boyhood. Since 1074's hog-kllllng weather has lately arrived we are pleased to be nblc to offer It as n timely piece of nostalgio.)BY ALVIN COVINMy Grandma Covin’s maiden name was Oliver.Pormella, Priscilla or Penelope. I think It was Por-mello. She was a pioneer woman! A resident of Texas, on the Frontier, when it was the true border between civilization and savagery. Comanches. robbers, killers. mean men, and good men. My Grandma Covin was a contributor to bringing stability, sanity and security to the frontier as 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 a black dress that swept the ground. There was a pocket in this dress where she carried a few articles, such as small pocket change, a snuff box and a hickory or black gum tooth brush.My Grandma Covin married my grandfather in 1867. She was one of many children In the J. B. Oliver family. She had a full brother who wos in partnership with a man named Roberts, in the Roberts Oliver Hardworo 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 frontierwas hard and most people of whathad to raise most they ate or else go hungry. Grandpa Covdn was a cotton farmer, also a cotton ginner und 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-conewalnuts by the barrels full, which my grandmother would use to put In cakes, etc., for the Christmas season. when all the kids wouldcome home and bring their ndbaked hen and' all kinds ofa bring noisy horde of offsprings and feast on country-cured hacakes and pies for day.wholeChristmas Meant Egg-Nog On the side they’d fill upwith coffee, or maybe eggnog which Grandpa always made, with the help of “oldafter hog-killing was n full pot of boiled backbones, where every one hod a bait of the tastiest part of thehog. I believe they get pro-ocnt-dny pork chops from the back bones.Sausage-making consumed on awful lot of time, hardwork grinding up the meet, and making the stocking-type bags which she pushed It In until full, and later storing It In lard for safeAunt Dosioh, 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 a cloy pipe. And. according to her own statements, she wos the only person alive who knew how to moke the perfect egg-nog, and Grandpa's anual egg-nog making was sure to bring an argument between the two, and Grandpa usually lost tho argument. They all loved Aunt Doslah, and sho never suffered for want of the necessities of life.For Grandma Covin, tho major event of her busydays, wos hog-killing time. This event nearly olwoys consumed a week or tendays.First, Grandpa would put the hogs, two or three unusually big ones, on a floored pen andfeed them all tho 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 come. Maybe there would be a frost on the ground.Then preparations began in crnest. A barrel was buriedholfwoy in the ground with the bottom end slanted from the top at about a 45-degree 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 werekeeping. The rendering of lard wos last on the list, osby this time all the pure fat had been trimmed away and went Into the washpols for the process. Now. lard, pure pork lard, wos all they had In those days to cook with. All the frying, such ashams, bacon, eggs, and the ted to alike were treated to a skillet filled with hog lard over a hot fire. Grandma's chores were not over when hog-killing time arrived, until the loot bucket of lard was stored away, 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 see that the hams, shoulders, bacon sides he wanted smoked, were exposed to a bath of hickory smoke until they were “cured exactly like ho wonted them.When we stayed with them and went to school at old Emory School, reached by going out the road toward Ore City, turning off on a side road, by the Mattox Cemetery, and going on toward the Dalton Mattox place, until you come to tho small school house, long since removed from the scene.It wos then we had a gourmet's breakfast: Bis-William 1 President I: and gas e Penn roil Co a former sti College, ha dowed an ship to be r Masters S honor of th crllus of KThe gift C. Watson, gore Col leg* 300 shares « the Income used to enc ship. In thlt; Income shot amount nee the scholar: has propose ilonol cas The fund year with contrlbutlorCertaincompany tl scholarshipannunlly to ■llegliIntcrcoll .. necessarily ball. The exhibit effr room studie His ntlituccults as big as a hamburger ttor,hung head down from a polestrong enough to hold weight, about 300 poundseach. Before this hopponed, however they hod beensoused in the barrel of scolding hot water.every year to make up a big batch of ribbon-cone syrup.Also we built a potato mound, or bank, wherein he placed the sweet potatoes— you call them yams, now— they would need for the days ahead. The potatoes they raised were Nancy Halls, and when baking the syrup would break through the skin and run out into the baking pan. No potato this day and time will do that. Ibelieve they say that dehyd-s takenrating the potato has this sugary feature away from the sweet potato.There were four immense black walnut trees in my grandfather’s barnyard, and they used to pick up blackThey were scraped, freeing the carcass of all thohair. Then the process of cutting up the meat began. This was a long and carefully executed operation. Then the meat would be salted down on a platform in the smokehouse to await later action, such as smoking hams, shoulders, and that part of bacon sides they wanted to have. Most of bacon sides went into what we call todoy salt pork, but which they colled sowbelly.Now, Grondmo Covin's work was just beginning. There was sausage making, rendering of lard and the making of hog-head chccso.The first big meal rightHomeowners:State Farm has rates that currently averagebun, fresh country but pure ribbon-cone syrup, fried ham, with plenty of; sopping gravy—boy. oh boy, was thot living high on the hog!GILQUITMAN HIGHWAYSiOPEN MONDAGROUNDCHUCKLb. 89^MinuteSTEAKlb. 99cBEEFLEAN CAIRIBSlb. 49cDECKER'!WEINER12-Ox._aFkg. 59Cf /
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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