One of the things I liked just 2^nd only to baling hay was picking corn. In fact, when I was much younger, I always said I’d rather make hay than make love. Now I can’t do either one very well! For one thing, the corn really smelled good and I was always fascinated with the corn picker and how it picked it. We had a 1-row New Idea corn picker. It took forever to pick a whole field of corn in those days. As a matter of fact, with a 2-row corn planter, it took forever to plant the field too. While our father or Uncle Ned harvested the corn, Tim and I would usually sit in the wagon and watch it all pile up. In those days, everyone picked corn in ears. It really came out of the picker at high speed and a lot of force. Most of the time it would hit the chain across the wagon sides and bounce off. We had to be careful we didn’t get hit with any ears because that would really sting! If we wanted it shelled, we had to take it to the local elevator and have them shell if for us. After picking, they would either put it in a round silo made from layers of red wooden snow fence, or in the old corn house. (See pics below). Tim and I used to have great times in the old corn house. One of the neat things in it was an old hand cranked corn sheller. It looked a lot like the pic below except it was all colored silver. We could really get it going fast by cranking on the big flywheel crank. When we shoved an ear of corn in it, it would shell it in no time! Most of the time we didn’t actually use it for shelling corn, we just like to crank it and see how fast it would go, then how long it would “coast” to a stop. We also used to burn the corncobs in the old cook stove in the downstairs kitchen.

 

Once and a while we’d find a red ear of corn which was really neat! It looked like Indian corn! We usually kept it somewhere so it wouldn’t be exiled to cattle feed. THEY wouldn’t have appreciated it! I’ve always liked Indian corn, I think it’s really pretty. One time I put a nice bunch of it hanging on my door and the birds slowly ate it until there were just cobs left. Our Grandmother “Ollie” used to string necklaces with dried Indian corn kernels. They were very nice and she sold most of them.

 

Another type of corn we enjoyed was sweet corn. We used to have a small stand when we were kids and sell sweet corn along the road. (See pic below). Tim has picked up this tradition and sells not only sweet corn, but many other homegrown vegetables along the road with his big stand. Back then, as now, I always like to cook fresh sweet corn. As a matter of fact, if the water isn’t boiling right after I pick and husk it, then it isn’t fresh! One year we raised a field of sweet corn for Stokley’s in Norwalk. When it was ripe and before Stokley’s would come to harvest it, we would pick a lot of it to sell at our little stand. We were always careful not to pick too much in one spot so they wouldn’t get suspicious. Now that I think back, I don’t think the guy that picked it really cared since we were paid by the ton. I think it was $16.00 per ton if I recall correctly. I used to help my grandmother Sommers make corn relish. Now that was really good! I haven’t had any corn relish since. I mean how would it compare to hers?

 

As long as I’m on the subject of corn, we used to have a lot of fun popping pop corn at home. We used a pan with a cover and first got the oil very hot. We always let it get so hot that a pop corn kernel thrown into it popped almost immediately. At this stage, we emptied the pop corn into it. As it popped, we had to continuously shake the pan back and forth on the burner, or it would burn. What happened more often than not is that we put too much corn in the pan and as it popped, it would raise up the lid on the pan. After it was popped and poured into a bowl, which was usually too small to hold all the popped corn, we added salt and melted real butter and poured it all over the top and mixed it in. WOW! Talk about GOOD! Sometimes I pop corn the same way even now and I still put too much corn in and the lid rises up. Corn popped this way tastes a whole lot better than the microwave popcorn sold these days.

 

Related story link:

 “COB JOB” 

 

Hey, wait! Before you leave or click on the above link, take my “Corny” Quiz! (Read the other story later). Click on the “Professor” at the bottom of the page.