Howard Herron Memoir - University of Illinois Springfield
Howard Herron Memoir - University of Illinois Springfield Howard Herron Memoir - University of Illinois Springfield
Howard Herron 25 A: Oh, we had a cow one time, we bought a gurnsey cow and we had to milk her three times a day. She gave so much milk and we had an over supply of milk. We'd just feed it to the hogs. And I'll never forget my father said to me one day, he was going out to thrash and he said, "Howard, I want you to put some lye, worm them hogs with a little lye." I didn't know. I got a can of lye and a bucket of water and dumped in there and in the trough and the pigs would drag one way and then they'd squeal and bite the dirt. So anyway it didn't kill them but it killed all the worms. Dad would be gone all week thrashing wheat. They'd go from one house to the other thrashing and when he got home well, he didn't know about this and I didn't tell him. I learned not to put that much lye in the water. That was too much. Q: Well, when you were ten years old, you said you worked on a farm. A: Oh, yes, I went work for Beansy Blockly out here. I had what you call a sulky low. Three horses. All you had to do was sit on there and drive the horses and then kick your foot. I got two bits a day and my board, and the next year I got fifty cents a day and my board, and then the next year I finally got a dollar and my board. Q: Wow! A: That was when school was out. Everybody had something to do in them days. If you didn't work, well, you didn't eat I guess. I remember mother used to say, "Boys," we'd play out in the yard and she'd say, "wash them feet," and we'd go back and pump the water on them. And I tell you I'll never forget, she said, "Now I want to see them feet, them sheets are getting too dirty too quick." We didn't wash them, we just pumped water. It was cold, you know, coming out of the well and we didn't want to get our feet cold and so we just pumped and she'd hear the pump going and think we were washing them, but we didn't wash them. Q: Did you go barefoot a lot? A: Oh, yes. We didn' t take our long underwear off until the 1st of May, then we got to go barefooted. Then we would go barefooted until frost. We'd go swimming out here and we just ran off and went swimming out in the creek out here. And she forbid us to go unless some elderly people went with us so we would come home and have dirt on our face and I suppose she knew we had been swimming. Q: Did you learn how to swim by yourself? A: Oh, yes, had to. If it hadn't been for Charles Martin, I wouldn't be here today. There was a log across the creek and there came a big rain and Sugar Creek was coming out. And I went and jumped in the water out there before I could really swim very good. The current was so fast it took me and Charlie Martin out on that log and a board was on the log and he grabbed me by the hair and throwed me up and walked me back and got me out. Q: Howard, how old were you then?
Howard Herron 2 6 A: Oh, about ten, twelve. Maybe fifteen, I don't know. But I learned to swim good from that time on. Q: Did you ever have a pet? A: Oh, yes, we had dogs. I had a dog. I had a little terrier and my brother he had an "old red" they called him. Loren Gates, my neighbor, had a shepherd dog and in them days, they didn't plow the fields where the wheat was in the fall of the year because they didn't have time then. They just had all horses and the horses couldn't get the work done like a tractor does. End of Tape One, Side Two. Q: Howard, do you want to continue on about your dog story? A: Well we generally had a weenie or two around, we had a ice box with just ice and a lid and we would get up about five in the morning and one of us would go down and take a weenie and go down to ~ave's house when they got up, we'd give Old Water Boy a piece of that weenie and we'd lure him over to our house. Then all three of us, I and my brother and Ron Gates, would take our dogs and go out in the fields in the country, the rabbits were thick then. We would go down to those fields and we would holler, "Here it comes," and Old Water Boy would stick up his head and he made about two or three jumps and he reached over and grabbed those rabbits. We'd cut their heads off and slit them in the stomach and throw their intestines out. It was nothing to go out and get fifty rabbits and skin the hair off. We went over to Wineman's store. He would give us fifteen cents for those rabbits and he'd sell them for twenty cents. He'd hook the hind leg and he always left one foot on, They'd hook those rabbits all over that pole and the women would come in and see a rabbit that they want and then they would freeze them. We had cold winters and lots of snow in those days. More then, than they do now, I think. Bobsleds, everybody had a bobsled, every farmer did. So that's the way we earned our spending money. We'd easily get fifty rabbits in a day. They were just thick. Q: Did you shoot them with a gun? A: No, the dogs would catch them, we didn't have any guns. Guns cost money and shells cost money. We just had a knife so we could cut their heads off and we just cut them right down here and give them a pull like that, (indicating) and the guts would fall out and we'd pull the hair and the hide off of it. Then take them up to Wineman's. Q: Did you take some home to Mom to cook? A: Oh, she had rabbits whenever she wanted them. I ate so much rabbit I could hop. (laughs) We enjoyed it. Q: So besides your farming, what else did you do as a young boy for a job?
- Page 1: University of Illinois at Springfie
- Page 5 and 6: Table of Contents (cont.) Auburn Bu
- Page 7 and 8: Howard Berron 2 A: I wouldn't know
- Page 9 and 10: Howard Hexron 4 A: Eighteen hundred
- Page 11 and 12: Howard Herron 6 b- it's a fact beca
- Page 13 and 14: Howard Herron 8 started in and I ha
- Page 15 and 16: Howard Herron 10 Q: When you were a
- Page 17 and 18: Howard Herron 12 kid in school had
- Page 19 and 20: Howard Herron 14 always been gratef
- Page 21 and 22: Howard Herron 16 A: Oh, pumpkin pie
- Page 23 and 24: Howard Berron 18 father bought this
- Page 25 and 26: Howard Herron 20 eleven inches in c
- Page 27 and 28: Howard Herron 2 2 Q: A rod or a gui
- Page 29: Howard Herron and he had these pink
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- Page 35 and 36: Howard Herron Q: Like the bank does
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- Page 39 and 40: Howard Berron 3 4 about 8:00 in the
- Page 41 and 42: Howard Herron 36 Q: What was your f
- Page 43 and 44: Howard Herron 38 Q: Straight in? A:
- Page 45 and 46: 1 Howard Herron 40 Q: Did you read
- Page 47 and 48: Howard Herron 4 2 of it and put abo
- Page 49 and 50: Howard Herron 44 It was below zero
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- Page 59 and 60: Howard Herron 5 4 A: Yes, mostly, t
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<strong>Howard</strong> <strong>Herron</strong> 25<br />
A: Oh, we had a cow one time, we bought a gurnsey cow and we had to milk<br />
her three times a day. She gave so much milk and we had an over supply<br />
<strong>of</strong> milk. We'd just feed it to the hogs. And I'll never forget my father<br />
said to me one day, he was going out to thrash and he said, "<strong>Howard</strong>, I<br />
want you to put some lye, worm them hogs with a little lye." I didn't<br />
know. I got a can <strong>of</strong> lye and a bucket <strong>of</strong> water and dumped in there and<br />
in the trough and the pigs would drag one way and then they'd squeal and<br />
bite the dirt. So anyway it didn't kill them but it killed all the<br />
worms. Dad would be gone all week thrashing wheat. They'd go from one<br />
house to the other thrashing and when he got home well, he didn't know<br />
about this and I didn't tell him. I learned not to put that much lye in<br />
the water. That was too much.<br />
Q: Well, when you were ten years old, you said you worked on a farm.<br />
A: Oh, yes, I went work for Beansy Blockly out here. I had what you<br />
call a sulky low. Three horses. All you had to do was sit on there and<br />
drive the horses and then kick your foot. I got two bits a day and my<br />
board, and the next year I got fifty cents a day and my board, and then<br />
the next year I finally got a dollar and my board.<br />
Q: Wow!<br />
A: That was when school was out. Everybody had something to do in them<br />
days. If you didn't work, well, you didn't eat I guess. I remember<br />
mother used to say, "Boys," we'd play out in the yard and she'd say,<br />
"wash them feet," and we'd go back and pump the water on them. And I<br />
tell you I'll never forget, she said, "Now I want to see them feet, them<br />
sheets are getting too dirty too quick." We didn't wash them, we just<br />
pumped water. It was cold, you know, coming out <strong>of</strong> the well and we<br />
didn't want to get our feet cold and so we just pumped and she'd hear the<br />
pump going and think we were washing them, but we didn't wash them.<br />
Q: Did you go barefoot a lot?<br />
A: Oh, yes. We didn' t take our long underwear <strong>of</strong>f until the 1st <strong>of</strong> May,<br />
then we got to go barefooted. Then we would go barefooted until frost.<br />
We'd go swimming out here and we just ran <strong>of</strong>f and went swimming out in<br />
the creek out here. And she forbid us to go unless some elderly people<br />
went with us so we would come home and have dirt on our face and I suppose<br />
she knew we had been swimming.<br />
Q: Did you learn how to swim by yourself?<br />
A: Oh, yes, had to. If it hadn't been for Charles Martin, I wouldn't be<br />
here today. There was a log across the creek and there came a big rain<br />
and Sugar Creek was coming out. And I went and jumped in the water out<br />
there before I could really swim very good. The current was so fast it<br />
took me and Charlie Martin out on that log and a board was on the log and<br />
he grabbed me by the hair and throwed me up and walked me back and got me<br />
out.<br />
Q: <strong>Howard</strong>, how old were you then?
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