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Archiver > ILJOHNSO > 2003-07 > 1058140597
From: Bill <>
Subject: [ILJOHNSO] Little Egypt Heritage, 13 July 2003, Vol 2 #26
Date: Sun, 13 Jul 2003 19:56:37 -0400
Little Egypt Heritage Articles
Stories of Southern Illinois
(c) Bill Oliver
13 July 2003
Vol 2 Issue: #26
ISBN: pending
Good Evening Ladies and Gentlemen of Little Egypt,
>From the section on Social, A History of Johnson County, by
Mrs. P. T. Chapman, January 1925, page 82:
"One great social with our people, perhaps
not with the very first settlers, but a custom begun early
and followed religiously until a few years ago, was the free
barbecue. The cattle, sheep and hogs were furnished by the
neighbors. These animals were dressed the day before. On the
morning of the day of the feast, men versed in the art,
began their work long before the dawn of day. The animals
were roasted whole or in halves over a hot fire which was
built in a vat or hole dug in the ground. The animals were
turned and basted with a dressing until by noon they were a
delicious viand fit for a king. One very famous barbecue was
held at Simpson, 1892. There were said to have been 10,000
people present. Long tables had been spread, under the heavy
leafed branches in the grove, with bread, salad, pickles,
cakes, pies, coffee and all the necessities for a good
dinner, including an abundance of barbecued meat.
"The most wonderful part of the story is
that, this was all free. After these dinners and sometimes
before the crowd was entertained by a good speaker, a
minister, a candidate or some friend of the candidate.
Everybody visited with everybody else, meeting those who
lived at a distance and making new friends. On the whole
these were pleasant days."
Well, the Largest Picnic in the World was yesterday. It
was sponsored by the Toledo [Ohio] MetroParks. Yours truly
was there, as a volunteer, dishing out stuff that makes for
picnics, greeting visitors, directing traffic, serving some
seniors and even holding an impromptu nature lesson about a
lunar moth which appeared on the ground. Imagine, if you
will, twenty-five hundred [2500] pounds of hamburger and ten
thousand [10,000] hot dogs served at one picnic. The picnic
was so large that it took place at four [out of nine]
different MetroParks in the Toledo, Ohio area. Due to high
water in the Maumee River, some parks were closed, and the
festivities shifted to other parks in the system. The park
officials envisioned, to celebrate the system's 75th
Anniversary, the biggest, the largest, picnic ever. The
[Toledo] Blade article is on line at:
<http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20030713/NEWS08/107130109>;
Two grands are visiting and earlier this week they "allowed"
us grandparents to take them to the Hayes Presidential
Center in Fremont, Ohio. We have visited the center often,
toured the home each time. The most fascinating thing is
that we have learned something new each time we visited.
One of the guides, Sandy Wagner, had only "us" for her tour
and since we had been "frequent" visitors emphasized more of
the personal family interrelationships and activities,
rather than the furnishings in the home.
The Ayes' were an active family, with the parents working
along side their hired help in all the domestic activities
involved with running a farm. For "Mother Lucy" this
involved helping to prepare the meals, even when there were
guests to entertain. She also was a seamstress, in that the
President said in his diary/journal that he always wore a
"home-made" shirt while President.
Other regular activities of the President were to walk six
miles a day; answer an average of five letters a day; help
with things like trimming the trees and reading, reading,
reading. Our guide said that the President boasted of not
only maintaining a very large library, but having read every
single book in it. My guess is that the President did much
of his reading while on his daily six mile walks. So we
talked with our guide about our reading habits as well as
other activities. We gleaned that she, in addition, to
reading as many as seven books a week, beyond her household
duties' she was a quilter. So was my grandmother.
Grandmother wanted to make and give a quilt to each of her
grandchildren and great grandchildren. She would always
inspect the stitching of any quilt and would comment if it
was hand or machine stitched and her value [opinion] of the
stitching. Our guide does both; hand and machine stitching.
Speaking of quilts; I'm beginning to think that next to
genealogy, quilting is the next largest avocation in the
nation. There are displays of quilts everywhere one goes
these days ... not just county fairs. There have been
several large shows in Little Egypt recently, and for six
weeks, beginning August 1st, there will be a display at the
Hayes Presidential Center; quilts from forty- nine of the
USA's "top" quilters depicting themes from patriotic to
spiritual.
"A quilt lives in the maker", Grandma would say. I suppose
that she meant that you could tell a lot about the maker by
the design and stitching of a quilt. It is too bad, that
often, you cannot identify the maker with a name and maybe a
biography.
According to Grandma, folks would gather pieces for the top
of a quilt and then would invite their neighbors and friends
for a "qultin'" or quilting bee. The quilt could be for the
person who invited them, or for a community event such as a
baptism or a wedding. Of course, the person who did the
inviting would be sure to furnish the "dinner", even if
there were twenty women there. If it was a community
project, then all would share in bringing the food ... like
a pot-luck' dinner.
Grandma always said that many times they could do a quilt in
a day, or even, two a day if they "got out" at breakfast. I
would guess that they rather determined for themselves how
much they wanted to do at a "sitting" ... after all it was
also a social event.
Grandma would, as I said, inspect every quilt between her
fingers. Even with severe arthritis, she could judge the
stitches. I once heard her say something to the effect that
the stitches on one quilt were so "long" you'd catch your
toes in them.
Today, if you need something done, you do it yourself or
hire it done. In Grandma's day folks helped each other with
things. Quilts were just one of those "neighborly" things
folks did with each other. There was canning, or barn
raising, or cabin raising, or butchering, or corn husking,
or pea "thrashing", or any number of "excuses" to make a
social event. Remember in gone-by days, folks lived far
apart and human company was rare outside the nuclear family.
It probably would be a great idea to be historically
accurate and thus dispell the myth portion of the above
social and community activities, especially as it applies to
quilting. Readers of these articles are familiar with
stories, traditions as far back as, say, 150 years ago.
This is due to many of us remembering the stories of our
grand and great grandparents. Thus, we must remember that
our colonial grandmothers spent their days spinning, weaving
and sewing to keep their families in clothing. They didn't
have the imported fabrics with which to make quilts. It
wasn't until the 1840s when textiles became available and
affordable to our ancestors.
e-la-di-e-das-di ha-wi nv-wa-do-hi-ya nv-wa-to-hi-ya-da.
(May you walk in peace and harmony)
Wado,
Bill
-=-
Other sites worth visiting:
http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index/SOIL
http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index/ILMASSAC
http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ne/state/BillsArticles/LittleEgypt/intro.html
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