GOTTA BE OVER 40 TO UNDERSTAND *

• Mom used to cut chicken, chop eggs and spread mayo on the same cutting board with the same knife and no bleach, but we didn't get food poisoning.

“Sister Edith” sent me the above today in an email. It was titled “you had to be over 40 to understand”. I read the very 1st one and thought how true it was. I thought back about all the chickens that we plucked and mom froze/cooked just to have food on the table and/or money to purchase things. In fact we kids plucked chickens all summer, just so mom could purchase a washing machine to help her out with keeping us clean. Thinking back, if we hadn't had to clean all those chickens then maybe we wouldn't have had so many dirty cloths to clean.

One summer mom raised over 500 chickens to butcher. At least that is a number that sticks with me and it sure seemed to me that we never completed that job. Mom would go out to the chicken house and select the ones to butcher. We then headed over to a large stump that was placed next to a grove of trees. 2 nails were in the center of the stump and we would place the chickens neck between the nail. With one swift swing of an axe off would go the head and mom would toss the headless bird into an old cloths dryer that no longer served it original purpose. There the bird would flop around and bleed out. Once that was completed, the birds where quick dipped into hot water, handed of to one of us kids and we headed off to the fallen tree to pluck.

This fallen tree was in the grove and was our bench for summer, As we plucked chickens, our feet/legs would slowly turn white with feathers. If it became to much for us, we would just move down the tree trunk and continue the plucking. Once one side were we sat was full of feathers, we would face the other way and work our way back. Once that job was done, we would take the chickens into mom and she would singe the pin feathers off, and then proceed to carve the birds up for freezing.

Now re-read that very 1st line. If the FDA saw how we processed chickens out on the farm, they would rewrite their books 2 or 3 times just to cover all the things they thought we did wrong. But all my sisters and brothers grew up and we are now well on our way through life. We didn't disinfect the stump. We never hosed out the old dryer, and we sure didn't worry about the chicken being placed on the fallen tree if we had to suddenly go do something else. Nope we just plucked, singed, carved, and froze. To my knowledge none of us ever came down with food poisoning.

I always joked with mom that it seemed like we had chicken twice a week and once on Sunday that summer. Little did I know at the time, those chickens were our primary meat source that summer, plus she had raised so many more for income. Times were tough for mom at that time. There was little money for her to spend. If she needed something, then the money was in-hand before it was purchased. Credit was not an option for her. I wonder how many families today can say they do not need credit.

Thinking back, I feel that plucking chickens on a fallen tree made me a better person somehow. It wasn't that bad a job, and there always was a sister or brother out there doing the same thing. We talked, and horsed around a little, but we did it as a family. Now days children would rather play a video game or watch TV. The only interaction would be “It's my turn” or “ you turned the channel on me”.

Maybe every family should have a small chicken coop out back just so the family can interact better.