By the light of the fireplace

At far right Granddaddy is proud of his two sons and their families

Many years ago the older folks were called respectfully and lovingly, Uncle, Aunt, Mam, Sir or Grandfather. Arthur Willhite was my children’s grandfather so we call called him Granddaddy. He was my friend. He called me “Gal”. I could write a book just about him.

Without radios, televisions and few telephones, stories were told for entertainment. Reading material was scarce and not many people could read or write, anyway. Now I tell the stories that I listened to as we sat by the light of the fireplace working with our hands.

A toy one of the men whittled out for the children

Sometimes we were shelling beans or corn. Sometimes men were whittling, women rocked babies or cut quilt pieces. Most women could even knit by the dim light. If food was cooking on coals of fire, no one could spit tobacco juice in that direction as they usually would.

The whittlers were making something useful, wooden spoons, axe handles or pegs with which to set out plants. Women could whittle too. We all made braces to nail to trees for the first phone line. Grooves had to be made around them for glass insulators to screw onto. We even made a corn sheller and a cotton gin.

Ma’am, (my mother-in-law), was quite a scavenger. She did most of the going places and brought home strange things. Where she got the cotton seeds, I don’t know, but she and I had the only small patch I ever saw in that country. Then she came back with a real boom handle to make rollers for the cotton gin.

I am not an artist and it seems impossible for me to accurately describe that little old homemade cotton gin. The rollers had to turn together to let the fiber through but not the cotton seeds. It had a crank on one end of each roller turned by someone on each side as they fed the boles through. It made the worst screeching noise you ever heard. It was an awful looking contraption but was so much faster than picking out the seeds by hand.

A drawing of the Eli Whitney cotton gin

The cotton had to be made into batts by brushing them between cards (two wire brushes). When fitted smoothly between the quilt top and lining, they made soft fluffy, easily-quilted warm cover for beds.

I can’t remember how the corn sheller worked, but it too, was made of rough scraps of old lumber.  Many, many years later I saw it sold at an auction in Kentucky.

Whittled by Polly 1984