After the Day is Done

After dishes at night, all done by hand in a dishpan, wood was brought in, water was drawn from the cistern - or if it was dry, carried up the hill from my grandma's spring. All stock, chickens and pets were fed.

Then we could play and eat goodies, such as, home-grown popcorn from the ears hanging from the rafters to dry in the attic. We could make popcorn balls with sorghum molasses, make candy from sorghum, or sometimes if sugar was plentiful, we could make fudge.

We also like to parch mule corn in bacon grease until it was brown and crispy. This was a favorite on Friday nights because this was the night to shell corn for the gristmill for cornbread the next week. Enough corn to mill out a bushel was adequate if we did not get too much company.