051
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Title
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051
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Transcription
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HUSKING CORN
For more than a month, Dad has gone to the corn field early in the morning. When it got light enough to see where he had worked the day before, he turns the team into the ripe corn field so the wagon straddles the last row that he had husked. He gets out of the wagon, the teams walks slowly down the field, and he will husk the two rows next to the wagon.
Dad takes an ear of corn in his left hand, with a hook on his right hand, he quickly removes the husks from the ear and throws it in the wagon. He does not look up, the ear hits the bang boards that are built high on the far side and the ear drops easily into the wagon. As regular as the tick of a clock, one ear follows another, they hit the bang board and becomes apart of the load. He will get two loads today, each will have 40 or 50 bushels of ear corn.
It is 5:00 O'clock in the morning, and it is dark and cold. I don't want to get up, but Dad says that if we work this week end we can finish husking corn.
This is a holiday week end, and I will take a team of horses and a wagon and follow him to the field. I will also take one ear at a time, wrench the leaves from it and throw it into the wagon. Dad takes the lead and pulls into the field ahead of me. I work as fast as I can but he gradually pulls ahead and leaves me far behind.
Noon arrives, and it is time to go to lunch. My wagon is only about two thirds filled, his is so full he has to place another board on top to keep the corn from falling out. He calls to me as he get on his wagon. "How are you doing Son?" I merely groan, get up on my load and follow him to the corn crib.
My back aches, my hands are sore, I can hardly straighten up. The wind had blown some of the cornstalks down, and I feel as if I have been crawling on my hands and knees most of the time. I am certain that Dad is having a good time, watching me struggle. He is 35 years older than I, but he can out class me in this operation. I never was able to keep up with him. Some times he would let me start ahead of him. The first time he let me start ahead, I thought he wanted to take it a little easier. When we came to the end of the field, he said he would like to go ahead this time, so I pulled my team over and let him pass. It wasn't long until I found out why he wanted to go ahead. While he was waiting on me to husk my two rows, he reached over and took a third row. Now he had only one row to husk, and soon left me far behind.
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Metzger Memories
