Memory's Storehouse Unlocked, True Stories: Pioneer Days In Wetmore and Northeast KansasBristow, John T.
Philosophy
Memory's Storehouse Unlocked, True Stories: Pioneer Days In Wetmore and Northeast Kansas
Bristow, John T.
Nemaha County (Kan.) -- History; Wetmore (Kan.) -- History
Here is one more of the many incidents attributable to the free grass
range. Without refrigeration in the early hot summers the farmer’s wives
had difficulty keeping butter made from grass-fed cows fresh until it
could be brought to market. On the whole the women managed exceedingly
well under trying conditions—it was before the day of screens on the
homes—but there were some that didn’t know how, or just didn’t seem to
care.
At that time I was clerking in Than Morris’ store, along with Curt
Shuemaker, George and Chuck Cawood. We had already accumulated a full
barrel of off-grade butter that would have to be sold for soap-grease,
when Morris told us all that should a certain woman bring in butter
again for us to reject it. It so happened that it fell to the lot of the
“cub” clerk to wait on her. Morris and the three other clerks stood by,
grinning. I carried her jar into the side room, and without uncovering
it, brought it back and told the woman we could not buy it. She appealed
to Than, saying, “Mr. Cawood here,” nodding toward me, “took my butter
away and got it all dirty, and now says he won’t buy it.” Morris knew
what to look for—and it was there for all to see. He said, “Look!”
pointing to the uncovered jar, “ Cawood didn’t put those wigglers in
your butter. Don’t bring us any more of that stuff.”
The woman insisted that “Mr. Cawood had dirtied it up”—and Morris paid
in full, gross weight. And she was permitted to take the whole mess back
home, along with her purchases. I was thankful that Morris, in dealing
with her, also called me Cawood—minus the “Mister.”
Still calling me “Mr. Cawood,” this woman later told me she had
rheumatism—that she had, unfortunately, spilled her cooling bucket in
the water well, and that her man would no longer allow her to cool her
butter in the customary way — suspended on a rope deep in the well.
After she had passed on, the second Mrs. L. made good butter—so good in
fact that the town customers called for it by name. But even this could
not correct the damage done to my delicate stomach during that summer
in the Morris store. I have never tasted raw butter since that time. And
with me, after that sheep herding experience, mutton is also taboo. Old
Morgan’s sheep were scabby.
Again, while clerking in the Morris store I was put to the test—and
though this has nothing whatsoever to do with the free grass range, I
am sure you will observe that it is neatly wrapped in fast green. A Miss
Sumerville, a relative of the Zabel’s, visiting in Wetmore—I believe she
was from Pennsylvania—asked for variegated yarn. I told her we didn’t
have that kind, but I would show her what we had. I admit that I was not
very bright on some matters — but at that, I wasn’t as dumb as one of
the standbys that I could have named.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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