| Show FROM PORKER TO PORK Vernon Larsen 3981 Fruitvale Avenue Oakland CA 94602 Senior Citizen Division First Honorable Mention Personal Recollectionremember it well my ninth birthday November 1915 Our neighbor walked slowly up the path to our house carryingtwentytwo rifle in his hands As children we were frightened of guns and had been taught they were dangerous Then we remembered what had happened last year and was about to happen again Daddy was prepared He had duglarge hole in the back yard and builtwooden platform in front of the wagon shed He had brought cur wooden barrel from the granary and placed it in the hole leaning the edge onto the platform These preparations were in anticipation of this day when one of our pigs was about to transformed from porker to pork The neighbor professional butcher carried two sharp knives together with ropes and pulleys that Daddy called block amd tackle He sald that with this equipment any man could 1ift heavy ts by himself He called it mechanical advantage The neighbor hadcup-shaped device with sharp metal edges It would be used to scrape the hair off the plg Because the hair was bristly and hard 1t would have to be soaked in hot water Daddy had prepared for that too We got the often-used circular iron tripod filledlaundry tub with water and set it onsagebrush fire The tripod held the tub about twelve inches above the ground so there was anple room forblazing fire The water must be boiling by the tine our butcher needed it During the sunmer Daddy had insisted that the pig be fattened so each daydouble portion of wheat bran was added to his regular diet of skim milk and kitchen leavings The pig got real chubby Now the daily chore of feeding an extra pig would be eliminated but it offered little confort We disliked what was about to happen ks we hid in the house we heardsharpshot Daddy said this was necessary so that the butcher could drain the blood from the animal Soonventured to the wagon shed There was the pig lying on the platform The butcher had placed hooks into each of its hind legs and was dunking it into the barrel of boiling water He dunked 1t in pulled it out dunked it again and finally determined that the btristles were softened sufficiently He used the cup-like scraper vigorously and soon there appearedclean white carcass It was then that the butcher hung one of the pulleys from the block and tackle onto the cross-beam of the wagon shed He fastened |
