Things Remembered

by Pamela Murphy

Of times past, one thing I remember my mother talking about is butchering day. She said they would all get up about 4 a.m., she, her 6 sisters and her parents. Relatives would travel down the hollow usually on horseback or in a wagon to help.

Everyone had a job to do. She remembers boiling the casings to sterilize them in a kettle over a fire outside. One of her jobs was to take a pin or needle and pop the bubbles in the casings as they were being stuffed.

After a lot of the work was finished the women would fix a huge meal for everyone. After the meal the guitars, fiddles and harmonicas would come out and they would sit on the porch and sing and relax before racing the nightfall home.