The county I live in has several organizations dedicated to the preservation of our history. The town I work in is no different. They have been working for years to get a building and succeeded in doing so. Sunday they had an open house--even with its limited resources it was way cool.
In addition to its community holdings, the museum has several pieces or historic equipment used in farming. During its open house, the museum had volunteers that shelled corn (both popcorn and field corn,) spinning and rope making. Some of the equipment hasn't been used in daily life for a very long time, but the volunteers both estimated that the rope making and sheller where probably used into the 50's. The rope maker was purchased by one of the volunteer's father 75 years ago for 49 cents. It is hard to imagine something we see as so simple being such a time savor and so essential on a farm.
Both were also described as tedious and frustrating. The gentleman who had been working on shelling the corn showed us his fingers from manual shelling--the dry cracks looked like they hurt. Even as slow as this simple sheller was, it sure looked better than doing it with fingers! My daughter had come with me and we both got to bring rope home--it was neat to have. My boys both regretted not coming with...hope they think about it next year!
No comments:
Post a Comment