Local History: Tillard Pen Pictures, 1911, Altoona, Blair Co., PA - Corn 
Huskings

Contributed by Judy Banja jbanja@msn.com

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               Pen Pictures of Friends and Reminiscent Sketches
                               by J. N. Tillard

            Altoona, PA: William F. Gable & Co., Mirror Press, 1911 

                       Sketches of Early Local History

AUTHOR'S NOTE - The following articles were written for the Altoona Mirror at 
odd times, several years ago, the subject matter having been gleaned by the 
author partly from various publications; partly from the folk lore stories he 
beard told in the old Pottsgrove flour mill during his childhood, and partly 
from personal observation.

                                             J. N. TILLARD DECEMBER 1, 1911

                         Corn Huskings of The Long Ago

           They Were Great Frolics of The Fall In The "Good Old Days"

MAN is a gregarious animal and in all new communities every excuse is taken 
to establish a community of effort, not only for the reason that their is 
truth in the adage that "many hands make light work," and indeed can 
accomplish some things that the individual alone cannot accomplish, but 
because the natural craving for companionship leads men to seek the 
companionship of their kind.
  The first "frolic" to take place in an old time clearing in this section 
when the settler gathered his neighbors together, was the log rolling at 
which the fallen timber that had been "belted" was hauled together for 
burning and the mighty muscles of men and oxen were applied to the "canthook" 
and log chain.
  After that came the farming operations and while they occasionally bunched 
together to the grain with sickle or cradle, when the autumn came and the 
severe rush was felt to be over, the "frolics" become more numerous. There 
were "dung haulings," butter boilings and every other community affair that 
would serve as a reason for getting together. Some of these merry makings 
were stags and were likely to break up in a row as the result of a too 
liberal supply of "mountain dew" distilled somewhere in the neighborhood.
  A writer on the customs of the times says "the dung hauling frolics are 
nearly out of vogue, and never ought to have been practiced because a man can 
do it himself. The corn husking is done at night. The neighbors meet at dark; 
the corn has been previously pulled and hauled in a pile near the crib. The 
hands join in, the whiskey bottle goes round, the story, the laugh and the 
merry song is heard. Three or four hundred bushels are husked by nine or ten 
o'clock, a plentiful supper is provided and the frolic ends with a stag 
dance; that is the men and boys dance like mad devils to the tune of a 
neighbors catgut or horse hair not always drawn with much judgment.
  But as the years went on the children of the pioneers grew to manhood and 
womanhood and the softening influence of the daughters, who found more 
leisure for social functions that their ox driving, log rolling mothers 
enjoyed, began to be felt and the corn husking and apple butter boiling was 
no longer a stag affair at which the chief attraction was the whiskey bottle. 
The men shaved, cut their hair, greased their boots and put on their best 
clothes before attending a function of the sort, and instead of the corn at a 
husking being piled on a heap in the open air, it was hauled on the floor of 
the commodious new bank barn and boys and girls sat around in a circle while 
they tore off the shucks. The whiskey bottle was absent unless an occasional 
one might be concealed in the boot top of a swain of the rougher sort, but 
there was another attraction that was even stronger.
  Among the bushels of yellow corn there was an occasional red ear, the 
finding of which was a matter of much consequence. If uncovered by the young 
man it entitled him to kiss any or every girl present, a privilege that he 
seldom failed to exercise, and if the red ear was caught sight of by a 
blushing damsel the privilege of kissing her belonged to whatever masculine 
husker she might toss the ear. It is alleged that red ears were preserved 
from year to year and surreptitiously carried to huskings for service in the 
event that they might prove too scarce in the year's crop; in any event, the 
coy maiden was always sure to find the color when she wished to attract the 
attention of a favored beau.
  There was still the supper after the husking and original barn dance whose 
praises are now being sung in the theatres. These were brave old times and 
boys and girls were just the same as they are now and though their methods 
may have been cruder and their environment less refined, their capacity for 
enjoyment of each other's society was just as great and the memories of the 
"frolics" of their lives' springtime as full of gratification as any of their 
grandchildren.

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