The Red Flannel Rag

he stripped from trees. He pulled the loaded sled down the mountain where all the bark

the men had peeled in one day was loaded on a horse-drawn wagon and hauled to a

central location in Broadway or Harrisonburg then taken by train to the leather tanning

industries.

Animals were hunted and trapped for furs that were sold on “court day” in

Harrisonburg. My dad told me, “People trapped and hunted skunks, raccoons, foxes,

and on court day, the third Monday of the month, they took them to town where the fur

buyers met them.” One winter Uncle Shirley killed and skinned two hundred and forty -

four skunks. He made enough money to feed his family for several months.

Uncle Shirley posed with 244 skins before he took them to Joe Kimbal’s junk yard

to sell. His favorite dogs, are posing with him.

Some of the younger men walked across Little North Mountain morning and

evening in the summer to help Shenandoah Valley farmers. Uncle Shirley told me he

worked for a farmer for four dollars a month. In the fall he picked apples for a penny a

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