Threshing Days

From "Lexington" by Mary Wilson and Sharon Y. Asher, published sometime after 1975.

THRESHING DAYS

In the pioneer days nearly every farmer raised enough wheat to supply his family's need. Threshing time was looked forward to with eagerness for it meant spending days at the homes of all the neighbors. Each housewife tried to out do all others in providing for the men who did the work. She cooked dishes she was famous for, tried new recipes and laid a bountiful table for all. Each table was covered with chicken cooked in every way imaginable. Remember the home cured ham that hung in the smoke house for so long? The many times you looked at it with longing! It was on the table on threshing day in all its glory of pineapple garnish with alternate rows of whole cloves, one and one half inch apart! Think of the side dishes: pickles, preserves, jellies, pies, cakes, every vegetable and fruit in season and real cow butter from the old cedar churn:

What a bunch of workers, each skilled in his own particular duty; the engineer who operated the steam engine (a toot of the whistle spoke many things--need of grain or lack of water), one man to feed bundles of grain, another to set sacks back when full. Six teams and wagons brought grain to the machine and, if water was very distant, another six got it; and everyone furnished wood for fuel.

The children were happy to help as needed. And, oh, the dishes to wash: They helped their mothers clean them and then select and set aside those dishes the next neighbor would need to borrow for her table when her time came.

If machinery broke down and work was delayed a few days until repairs were made, one didn't give that "no mind." The children spent hours sliding down straw stacks and filling a "straw-tick" from the old four-poster with fresh new straw.

Today the old steam engine can still be seen at farm programs. The whistle blows and in our hearts we wish again for the happy, carefree days of our youth and threshing time.

After the threshing of the wheat it was hauled to the flour mill to be ground into flour for the next year's supply.

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