So , probably three or so years back I post some pics of my uncle and some of the old heads making sausage, crackins' n the like. Talked a lil about how it was a microcosm of what we used to do.....some things I remember being a Lil kid growing up round here ,and alot of folks found it interesting. Well somone inboxed me a month ago asking about if we still did the big ones and I said no but I said I'd do my best to find some pictures, my grandma was some kinda bad about her picture takin and her photo albums....now I know why..... And honestly,wish she took more ,or at least I could find more. So I looked and looked. Bugged my mom and dad a bunch finally was going though a ole zip up bad full of these Lil photo albums found old pics of me my parents wedding just genral this that pics from my dad when I was still in the army then I found this...

Honestly didnt know what it was till I opened it up


You know, this was a few years before I was born ( 1997) but most of these faces the sights ,I can smell and hear every one of these pictures. Alot of these older guys in these pictures where still around when I was coming up. And they held this Lil backwoods community or whatever you'd call use on these back roads they call the Causey Quarters together.. they did this every year. Tradition, honestly I think this goes all the way back to slave times...but I'm not sure
But yeah it's almost all the same. I remember being 7 or 8 waking up and hearing mom or dad or grandma if I was at her place say "Get your coat and gloves on we're going up to the camp". I remember loving and hating it man lol. Yeh them old heads would watch the weather like hawks and they would pick the coldest days to do this so the meat wouldn't spoil. We had deep freezers and coolers and all but ,that's just the way they did it. "Cold made you a man " they said. But yeah I'd bundle up hop in the car and we'd head to the camp up on the hill. The camp ,well best way I can describe it was a larger multi purpose building for the area. Many many get togethers ,cook outs, reunions ,trail rides , and Killin' went on up there. Remember one of my favorite parts what's tole old pool table they had in there. Was coin operated and the old guy would sit in there an smoke telling stories about huntin' fishing life and would grin ear to ear when one of us would as for some quarters so we could get the balls out and play with them mangled ole pool cues...
Somtimes you could hear guns being shot off the back porch off into the cow pasture at a bucket or bottle. Guys making bets and showing off how they where crack shots. The whole area was surrounded but big ole oaks and pecan trees hickernuts too . And down past it on the back side you could see " Uncle T's pond" . Honestly wasn't a late pond as was a medium sized lake. Boy it was massive. When it was dig all the trees they cute where stacked on piles before they filled it making virtual islands in the middle. Lots of talk about there being world record catfish living in there..... Remember going fish there as a kid seeing the big alligator snapping turtles cruise by in the murky water by the bank , might as well have been a sea monster lol.

But the main attraction was the hogs. Eveyone chipped in and the hogs where bought and raised by certain individuals who knew how to feed and tend to them so they had the best meat and they got big. I remember getting there early enough one time to see that big ole red goose neck cow trailer coming up the 1/4 mile long road up to the camp. The way that ole deisel was pinging in the early morning, that sound has greeted me many times over my life,but that was something special. And they would climb up the side of the last thing with a ole .22 long . And "pat pat pat pat" drop em all like a sack of brick. Right between the eyes. Then they haul em out hang em and bleed them out before gutting. All of this was usually don't before the main group of folks came with the kids.

Then once most everyone showed up folks would start working the carcasses. Eveyone had their own specialties. And not much went to waste at all. The heads where cut just right and carted off to be sectioned for hog head cheese. The intestines were handled with the utmost care and cleaned out for sausage casings or chitlines . I remember this was my grandma and her group of women's specialty. I remember her saying " Boy imma need alot if tooth paste tonight after this !" Apparently it was one of the best ways to get the smell off .
Remmber walking past and seeing guys pluck and scrap the individual hair off the hides occasionally rising it off with scalding water. Then they singe it over a bed of coals and scald it again and it would be lilly white and ready to be turned into crackings.
The trotters would be cut off and sent to a guy who was gonna clean them up and prepare them for pickling. And on and on and on it went. The carcasses was then sawed length wist then cut into chops. Scraps of that being sent to the large table where they were diced and prepped for sausage making. The meat was all had seasoned with special mixes known only to the creators. Plain mild hot. Eveyone had their own little spin that made it all work. Eveyone got there share
I honestly cried a lil bit looking though all these ... remembering how it used to be, I hate to say but this is a bygone Era now..... With the passing of all these older guys so went these traditions , the love , the community........ I can walk to jaut about eveyone of these area I talk to in less then 15min ...... But their not the same anymore.... The camps still there ...but it's a husk of what it used to be...where there used to be loud story telling ,drunken laugher, a sense of real community. It's gone . At least for me and everyone who still really remembers. But we still try to carry on a little of the tradition ,now where near what it used to be....but it's not gonna die. So as to a tribute if days gone past a bygone Era ... I wrote this and posed these pics.... Only wish I had more....



















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That was some good times Wolfdog.

I recall helping out when I was a young'un. My grandpa raised hogs on his dairy farm. On hog killing day, my job was to cut the fat into cubes so it could be rendered down into lard. I still remember them dipping the hog carcasses in barrels of boiling water, then scraping the hair off. Good times back then. I also recall grandma saying she needed me to get a chicken ready for cooking. I would catch the chicken she wanted, tied it's legs on the clothes line, and cut off the head. Dang those critters would flap and spray blood everywhere.

Great post!

Wolfie, if you were not born till 1997, you should really keep these pictures somewhere safe to pass along. I'd print the whole post. Your kids won't even believe how it used to be done.
Case.

Nice write up. I enjoyed it. You should try to keep the tradition going with your generation.

1991 doesn't seem long ago to me at all though. Your 1991 would be my 1964 and some of the oldest guys here's 1930s. I was born in 1970.

Keith

Brings back some memories. There was still some on the river in Illinois that still do this each year. They skin instead of scald and scrape though. I worked with a guy that if he liked you he would sell a hog at market price and as long as you helped would cut and package. Worst part was the clean up of the equipment.

Seems once the Grandma's died the glue that binds is lost. Truly a shame so much has been lost over the years.

Thanks for Sharing

good times right there wolfie... no need to let it die... get some buddies together and butcher... even if just one and split it up......
draw a imaginary x from the eyes to the ears... then shoot right on top side of intersection of the lines !!

Thanks for sharing, enjoyed it

Thanks for sharing, brought back memories of when we did this back in Louisiana when I was a kid. Good times

Yup remember hog butchering time. One weekend was hogs , the next it was beef. Thanks for posting Wolfie.

Wolfe, try to find as many of the people in those pictures as you can. Write the names down for each picture. I have boxes of old photos from my parents and grandparents of people that I know are kinfolk, but I have no idea who they are.

thanks for sharing

When I was a kid it was a family get together. Hogs and steers were fun. Deer and Elk. But when it was time to do 100 chickens I wanted to pass. Me and my sister had to scald and pluck the stinking things when they quit flopping. Not a fun job. Chicken guts are incredibly fowl smelling too. I never wanted to eat one for at least a week. We ate chopped onion, mayonnaise, and raw ground burger sandwich's though when doing beef. ( No way i would do that with an animal I wasn't helping to process)


Wolfie, in 91 to take pictures you needed film and a place to get them developed. Nobody took pictures like we do today.

Those are dandys for sure and need saved for your descendants.

Wolf, this is one of the best threads I’ve seen in a long time. This was a time when everyone knew where food came from.

Thanks for sharing

When I was a kid my dad would put up two hogs every fall. Fresh spare ribs for lunch it was a family thing.I tell my grandkids this they say why. I tell them for something to eat it was great time in my life,

one of my buddies growin up said his gramma would be right there with a big pan to catch the blood & she would keep stirrin' it so it wouldnt coagulate. idk if they made blood sausage or what but i do know the only thing got wasted on a pig was the squeal! lol

Excellent post Wolfdog, brings back a lot of memories for me. The first thing I thought when I looked at the pics was, "It's too warm to butcher." Then I looked at where you're from and then read this:



I helped a farmer butcher through the 70's and 80's. I was friends with his sons. Just like your event, Butcher Day was a big deal. Neighboring farmers and their kids would show up, everybody helped. Also like your event, Butcher day up here was done on the coldest of days.

Once a hog was scalded, scraped and skinned, one of us young guy's jobs was to carry the quarters from the barn fore bay to the butcher house across the street. I remember there being snow and ice on the ground and knew there would be heck to pay if any of us slipped and dropped a quarter.

The old guys got the cushy (warm) jobs sitting around the fire in the butcher house stirring the scrapple or blood pudding.

Thanks for the share!

That was a normal thing for us every year wish I had pictures like that brings back a lot of memories.