The Cherokeean. (Rusk, Tex.), Vol. 126, No. 33, Ed. 1 Thursday, January 17, 1974 Page: 12 of 12
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PAGE TWELVE-THE CHEROKEEAN OK RUSK, TEXAS, THURSDAY, JANUARY 17, 1974
Luke Maneas Maintains One of These
Good Old Days Not Always So Good;
But Some Traditions Continue Today
"Oh, for the good old da^vs!"
But, don't say that to one
Rusk man! Likely as not, he'll
reply, "You're crazy as H—"
And even though Lucious O.
(Luke) Maness doesn't yearn
for the good old days, he
continues one of the old time
traditions that especially be
longs to the period most people
remember as "the good old
days."
Maness today, butchers his
own pork at his home "Time
was when everybody did it.
You couldn't go to the grocery-
store and buy everything you
wanted then," he says.
Maness, who was born in
1920 at Atoy, can ! remember
the exact year that he saw hogs
butchered for the first time
But he does recall an incident
in his early life that must have
been when he was about five
years old. "It was before I
started to school, I know that,"
he states. "My mother and a
Negro woman, Pauline
Gossett, were getting ready to
kill and dress a hoe It was
cold and Pauline had on three
or four dresses to keep warm.
Well, we had a bulldog then,
and when Pauline hit that hog
in the head with a sledge
hammer, the dog went wild
and attacked hei The dog
Mrs. Coupland
Is Hostess
To Social Club
Mrs Frank Coupland hosted
the regular meeting of the
Wednesday Social Club at 2
p.m. Jan. 9 at the Pineview
Restaurant.
Mrs. G. H. Thomas, presi-
dent. presided at the business
meeting. Officers elected for
the coming year are Mrs.
Thomas, president; Mrs. J. E.
Wallace, vice president; Mrs.
W. W. Finley, secretary and
Miss Flaye Black, treasurer.
Following four games of
"42" Mrs. Guy Guinn held high
score for club members and
Mrs. Bryan Stovall held high
for the guests. Each received a
nice gift.
Refreshments were served
at a table covered with a white
linen cloth and centered with a
flower arrangement in the club
colors of purple and gold.
Members present were
Mesdames Coupland. Thomas,
Finley, Wallace, J. S.
Brewster. L. C. Coats, W. H.
Hanna, A. S. Moore. C. F.
Mehner. Guy Guinn. Jack
Pinson, Forrest Reagan, J. C.
Turney and Miss Black.
Guests attending were Mrs.
Stovall. Mrs. Egbert Copeland
and Mrs. Lois Henry.
Mrs. Pinson
Is President
Of Library Club
Officers for 1974-75 were
elected at the regular meeting
of the Library Study Club Jan.8
at Singletary Memorial
Library.
The officers elected were
Mrs. Jack Pinson. president;
Mrs. W. W. Finley. vice
president: Mrs. Lois Henry,
recording secretary; Miss
Audrey Simmons, treasurer:
Miss Carolyn Forester,
corresponding secretary: Mrs.
W. H. Hanna. reporter . Mrs. C.
P. Bruce, parliamentarian and
Mrs. Metz Heald. critic.
Others attending the meeting
were Mesdames Egbert Cope-
land, T. W. Fisher. Guy Guinn.
W. S. Johnson, A. S Moore and
G. H. Thomas.
Lioness Club
Has Meeting
Mrs. Norma Black hosted
the regular meeting of the
Rusk Lioness Club at noon
Thursday, Jan. 10 at the New
Southern Motor Hotel.
President Mrs. Del Cox
presided at the meeting. Plans
for a social in February were
chased the woman all over the
place and tore those dresses
off, right down to her
underclothes. The hog killing
stands out in my mind as one of
the firs; 1 remember."
Today, Luke, as he is called
by his friends, continues the
tradition of supplying his
fi^iily with fresh and smoked
pork He raises hogs, selects
one in the 200 lb weight range,
kills and dresses the meat.
Maness does his own cutting
and stocks his larder wife
home cured hams, bacon and
sausage Other cuts include
spare ribs, tenderloin and
backbone, or pork chops,
shoulder roast and hog jowl
and ham hock for boiling.
He says he has helped with
this winter work every year
since he was about six or seven
years old. The only exceptions
were during the war years-
1941 to 1945-when he was
away, and the past two years
when his smokehouse burned
Now, with a new 12x12 foot
facility, he is back in business
and says he intends to continue
his work as long as he is able.
And those who know him
expect that to be a long time.
Maness is big in size-more
than 200 pounds-and his frame
is matched by a bigness in
energy and spirit. He
maintains a pulpwood opera-
tion and holds down a job at
Husk State Hospital.
Maness approaches hog
butchering much as it was
done in the old days. The
animal must first be slaugh-
tered Then he dips it in
scalding hot water to which he
has added a few handfuls of
lime, to help take the hair off
the hide "Before people had
lime, we used ashes in the
water to help with this," he
recalls.
After the animal is dressed
and cut, he soaks the meat for
smoking in salt for 21 to 28
days. Then the meat is washed
in hot. scalding water to which
he has added some 20 Mule
Team borax. After another
washing. Maness is ready to
dry the meat and rub it with
red pepper, salt and salt peter.
Then it is smoked for eight to
ten days
"After it is smoked, you can
leave it hanging, ready for
eating when you are," he
states. "I can remember that
we used to let it hang as late as
cotton picking time, which
would be around August, but it
was getting a little rancid by
then. But you could still eat
it." says Maness.
In the early, but hard years,
everything had to be utilized.
"We used all of the hog then.
The hide and intestines were
SMOKED BACON-The smell of fried bacon is common at the
Lucious Maness house. Maness raises, butchers, cuts and
smokes the pork in his own smoke house for home consumption.
Sausage and ham are his specialties, along with the bacon.
-staff photo
rendered for lard, and nobody
would kill a hog then unless it
weighed enough to make about
five to ten gallons of lard," he
states. That called for an
on-the-hoof weight of ap-
proximately four to five
hundred pounds. Today the
best butcher weight is ap-
proximately 200 pounds.
The hide has still further use.
After it is stripped for lard fat,
the skin is delicious as
cracklings in cornbread.
"When it got too rancid for
eating, we would take what
was left and use as the base for
lye soap." Maness remembers.
And the soap was used in more
ways than one. Primarily, its
usefulness was as a detergent,
but it was also used to treat
what was commonly called
"the itch."
"Even the intestines were
used, and can still be bought in
some stores," says Maness.
"Chitterlings can be one of the
best parts of a hog. You just
need a good cook who knows
how to cook'em. You fry like
bacon, in deep grease, just like
oysters."
Then there were the pickled
pig's feet, hog brains and eggs,
and hog's head souse or
cheese. "We used the feet and
head for the hog's head cheese
and it was really good, really
rich. You could eat too much
quick. And lots of people find
brains and eggs a rare treat,"
says the Cherokee County
native.
Born into a family of nine
children at Atoy, Maness
learned early the value of
making something from
everything. "But I'm not
anxious to go back to those
days. Bad as it seems today,
we're still living good days. I'd
rather have a little money in
my pockets and pay the high
prices," he says.
"We may have to re-learn
some of the old ways if the
world keeps going like it is.
There's going to be some
changes made because when
the farmer starts going down,
everybody goes down. You can
go to town with a pocket full of
money, but if you can't find
what you want, it does you no
good. We can do with less, but
it's mighty hard to do."
It is possible that today's
adult will have to learn quickly
some of the lessons in living
from the earlier years, but one
man, Luke Maness of Rusk,
will have less trouble in
adjusting to the "good old
days" than many of his
contemporaries--since he
remembers and continues
some of the hard time
traditions, just because he
wants to do it. Butchering his
on pork is one of these.
HHERIesda r
Dupree, Black. Cox. Joy NoU
Stover, Grace King, Juno
COopar, Mary Byers, Patricia
Newton, Jerry Bock, Sue
and Ethel Pledger
[RUSK EAGLETTES-Members of the Rusk High School Girls and Gwendolyn Sanders. Back row, same order, Paule
3asketball team are front, left to right, Gwen Wick, Sandra Carter, Jana Birdwell, Patricia Thedford
.hristopher, Lori Pye, Dorothy Coleman, Kathy Clark and Patricia Brazier. -staff photo]
RUSK EAGLES UPCOMING SCHEDULE
VARSITY
Jan. 18 Lindale Here 6 p.m.
Jan. 22 Brownsboro There 6 p.m.
EAGLETTES
Jan. 17 Brownsboro Here 6:30 p.m.
Jan. 21 Kennard Here 6:30 p.m.
NINTH GRADE
Jan. 21 Kennard "B" There 8 p.m.
THIS MESSAGE COURTESY OF THESE FRIENDLY MERCHANTS
GETTING THE FAT Ot'T--Lucious Manes*
demonstrates the technique of cooking those
portions of a hog which produce Inrd In
earlier years, farmers slaughtered big hogs
which rendered from five to ten gallons of the
animal fat -staff photo
JUST SAY "CHARGE IT"
RUSK, TEXAS
ISAACS MOTOR
COMPANY
CHEVROLET-PONTIAC-
BUICK-OLDSMOBILE-GMC
PHONE 683-2202
MATHEWS-
MILLER
DEPARTMENT STORE
RUSK, TEXAS
SLOVER'S CRATE
AND
LUMBER MILL
RUSK, TEXAS
FIRST
STATE BANK
MEMBER F.D.I.C.
RUSK, TEXAS
SOUTHWESTERN
ELECTRIC
SERVICE
COMPANY
J. C. WILLIAMS
TEXACO
RUSK, TEXAS
GREGG
INSURANCE
AGENCY
SINCE 1869
RUSK
PLUMBING
AND ELECTRIC
PHONE 683-4056
CHEROKEE COUNTY
ELECTRIC
COOPERATIVE
ASSOCIATION
JoEd
ANDERSON
m REALTOR
LiJ PHONE 683-5423
REALTOR
BUCKH0RN
GROCERY $j|
& MARKET V
1205 N. MAIN
PHONE 683-2215
DUPREE BUILDING
MATERIAL
FUTIMINO I2fi£l PAINTS
1 ^COOKJ
RUSK
MOTOR SALES,
INC.
FORD HAS A BETTER IDEA
PALESTINE I
SAVING
AND LOAN
ASSOCIATION
PALESTINE, TEXAS
■
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The Cherokeean. (Rusk, Tex.), Vol. 126, No. 33, Ed. 1 Thursday, January 17, 1974, newspaper, January 17, 1974; Rusk, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth151053/m1/12/: accessed July 2, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Singletary Memorial Library.