I realize that last week’s tip and this one is not helping you do your genealogy. But for the youngest researchers among us, I think it is important that we realize how our parents, grandparents or great-grandparents lived. Then, the next time we write down their names and dates of birth and death, we can sit back and have a little better appreciation for how hard it was by today’s standards.

Without exactly publishing my age, I remember, barely, the threshing party. Have spent about 9 years living in the country on my grandparents’ farm, but thankfully being too young to get involved in the “hard stuff”, I was aware of what happened on these occasions. I asked my Mom a few questions; she is 94 and said that in the “really old” days, in her childhood, it was a lot harder than I remember in my childhood. She was the “water girl”. She would load buckets of cold water which she’d pumped from the well, swing them on the back of a wagon and take her horse and visit every farmer to quench their thirst. An old jug with a corn cob to plug the hole; she would take the wagon from farmer to farmer who all drank from the same jug. When done, it was back to the well for more until everyone’s thirst was quenched. She was paid a small amount of money for her efforts.

Much of this “tip” will come from my own memories. I will look at the farmers first and then the farmer’s wife; they both sweat off a few pounds at harvest time. I don’t remember when my grandfather upgraded from old Doc and Molly to a tractor, but I remember the tractor (having tried to drive it once and running it through my grandfather’s fence and taking it down). But, neighbors helped neighbors, especially at harvest time. Not every farmer could afford a threshing machine (also spelled thrashing) and if this was the case, the farmer who owned one went from farm to farm and for a fee would thrash. If the farmer had his own thrasher, all the neighbors – men, women and children, piled in and get the crop harvested. They went from farm to farm until all the crops were in.

One farmer would drive the tractor pulling the thrashing machine. I have no memory of what it looked like except my web searching to find pictures. I know there was a lot of dust. The thrasher was pretty complicated; bundles of grains were tossed in one end; straw and chaff blew out the other. The kernels of the grain were caught either in bags or in a wagon at one side of the thresher. My grandfather had a wagon and as a young girl, along with my younger boy cousin, we rode in the wagon. (Not acceptable today – we might have slipped down into the grain and suffocated, fallen out, etc. but we survived and had a ball too!). And, if I remember right, the direction of thrashing depended a lot on from which direction the wind was blowing; this would keep the chaff and all out of the wagon.

It was possible that other farmers brought their thrashing machines too so one would see several tractors, machines and wagons going at the same time. This was the perfect situation – a lot less time spent. Many farmers waited for a harvest moon before starting the thrashing. If the field was a large one and the helpers few, the harvest moon allowed him to work until the late hours of night to finish up.

Other farmers would begin collecting dried bundles of grain which hade been in the fields in what was known as shocks. This was the farmer’s way of drying the grain so the thresher could separate the grain from the straw and chap. Now, each shock contained 1-20 bundles of grain. They were stood up with several bundled across the top. The bundle making required either hand effort or a machine called a binder. The binder would cut a wide swath 6-8 foot wide of standing grain. Without explaining all the steps … the stalks were collected into a “bundling area” and tied together with twine. Each bundle was a heavy 20 pounds. Then the farmer would be ready as the helpers tossed the bundles into the feeder. They went in lengthwise and feeder knives would cut the twine.

If a farmer was “lucky” he had eight or more neighbor farmers helping and after a few hours of tossing the bundles, emptying the wagon, working on a contrary tractor, etc. they were exhausted …. and hungry!

Enter the farmers’ wives. Now, they hadn’t been sitting inside watching a soap opera or gossiping about the widow lady down the street. They had been up before dawn cooking. And, they didn’t serve dainty sandwiches with a glass of tea. These men were hungry and they had huge appetites. I remember (and with help from my Mom) all that was served. There was always fried chicken, and usually pork chops or some other meat. Many vegetables were served (fresh from the garden or from the basement canned storage area) – mashed potatoes, gravy, peas, corn and anything else in abundance. Fresh tomatoes were sliced and cornbread stuffing was always tasty. Glasses of ice tea or lemonade which needed filling frequently … and desert. From apple pies, peach pies, rhubarb pies; sometimes topped with home-made ice cream. I have one vivid memory of my aunt fixing the chickens – before they were fried. My grandfather had killed the chickens before going out into the field (and you youthful readers would not want to know how he killed them!) Then the chicken was dumped into boiling water I believe, and then the feathers were plucked and singed to get every single one off. I was at the age that I became one of the feather pluckers. Great job.

Tables were set up outside on the lawn in a long line; farmers brought every table they had or set up planks on saw horses. Just as the men started coming in from the field for supper/lunch/dinner (the name depending on what part of the country you lived in). The wives were in and out of the kitchen; one carrying a huge bowl of homemade biscuits with honey and butter on the side. The men ate first while the women watched and refilled the bowls. When they were through, the women and children got to sit down and eat whatever was left over – and normally cold! When the men headed back into the fields, the left-overs and dirty dishes were carried back into the kitchen, trip after trip and the dish washing and drying began. Ladies gathered up what they had brought and loaded it their wagon or car. They knew that the next day, it would begin all over again. The wife of the farmer whose field was being thrashed was responsible for providing all the food for the day; on the next day; she would be a helper and likely bring more food to help out.

As a young lady, it was all a day of fun. All the neighbor children played outside; no computers or electronic games; we ran; played hide and seek, and every childhood game that burned up energy! None of us ever got into trouble with the law as juvenile delinquents; we were just farm kids and life was a ball …. until we got older and more responsibilities were thrown our way.

My apologies to any on the list who are farmers or sons and daughters of farmers and could do a better job of explaining all the steps involved in a threshing; of the mechanics of the machines used or other steps that were taken. I am taking a simple look through the eyes of a child at the old time threshing parties.

© Copyright 12 November 2009, Sandra K. Gorin