But the food for the winter was grown in the plot, with the whole family going down to work on it. We hardly ever had to go to the store except for matches to light the fire ... we even made all our own bread!

In the fall when it was time to dig up the potatoes and carrots, Eddie would pull his wagon, and we'd all go down to harvest what we had grown, pile everything in the wagon and pull it home. Then the real work began. Everything had to be washed and dried so they wouldn't rot, then taken down cellar where we would dig a hole in the dirt floor and carefully lay the potatoes, carrots, onions in for the winter. The cabbage was thoroughly cleaned and cut in half. Then, it was shredded, using a board, with a blade that you passed the 1/2 cabbage head over, and over. There was a box underneath that collected the shredded cabbage. That was put into a big crock with a certain amount of salt and water. My mother never measured, she always knew how much to use. My father made her an iron wheel shape, on a pole, to test the sauerkraut when it was ready to use. My brother and I used to fight over who would shred the cabbage.

Then, of course, the pigs! Two brothers-in-law, (Alma and Otto's fathers,) came down to help my father kill a pig. But we had no idea, that when they killed a pig, it made such an awful noise! My brother was brave and I was trying to be, as we stood there, and they took a butcher knife, to cut a certain part of the neck ... and that pig started squealing. I think you could hear it all the way to the middle of Albany St.! Eddie and I couldn't stand it! We both ran into the house, and under the bed, with pillows over our heads, until the pig stopped squealing. When we could stand it, we went back outside, but I cried for the poor pig. My father was trying to show Eddie how to shave the pig. Well, if Eddie can shave it, I could shave it! My father used one of those old fashioned straight razors, and when I asked to try it, he went up to the 10 cents store, next to Barney's, and bought me a blade. Meanwhile, my mother had to keep heating and bringing hot water to pour over the pig in a great big tub, to soften the hairs. Eddie started shaving the pig, but he looked scared to me. "Why can't I shave him now?" So I did, with one blade! They knew just how to butcher it up, so we had ribs, chops, hams, and that was all put down in crocks, in the cellar.

When I remember some of the things we used to do when we were kids, and we got a kick out of it! We thought nothing of trying anything. The only thing is, I was shy and scared to do some things ... but if Eddie could do it, I could do it! That was when people were starting to complain about different things, like chickens in your yard were dirty, and so forth. We used to have a lot of fun going down to the Ferry St. bridge over the canal, and "riding" the bridge up, as the bridge tender raised it, to let boats through. I was scared, but I did it because all the other kids did it.

In 1914 there was a bad flood, and we were living on S. Ferry St., not far from the Erie Canal. There were 2-two family houses, a blacksmith shop, (Walt Knowlton, the blacksmith was Chuck McRorie's Uncle), and two small houses. We lived in one of the small ones.