The Red Flannel Rag

Left to right: Uncle Shirley, the ba ck of Jennings Shifflett’s head, Dad, my brother John, and Uncle Jim all

enjoying the delicious butchering day dinner with conversation.

Mom, Aunt Ethel, and Aunt Hazel had taken the ingredients Mom had gathered

during the week and converted them into an unbelievable feast. There was fried

potatoes, sauerkraut and dumplings, pinto beans, candied sweet potatoes, mashed

potatoes, fried apples, canned peaches, boiled “hay” beans, regular green beans, pickled

beets, several kinds of pickles — bread and butter, dill, and sweet pickles, homemade

bread and rolls, and, of course, gravy. The meat for this “Thanksgiving” meal was fried

liver and fried tenderloin from the hogs that were killed that morning.

Once Dad and the butcher were seated, the table filled up with other helpers. The

women served the men first, then the children, and finally, when everyone else was fed,

they sat down to eat. Dad was in charge of his household on hog-killing day. Sometimes

he got a little carried away and started ordering Mom around. She clamped her jaw

down as only she could do, walked into the kitchen, and whispered to Aunt Ethel, “He’ll

be sorry for that when everybody leaves here today.”

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