Friday, 30 September, 1966, The Frances Hubbard Diaries

Friday, 30 September 1966, The Frances Hubbard Diaries
Partly cloudy and very windy.  I took the car to Stamford to get it serviced and did grocery shopping, home at about 1 pm and go ready to go to Niagara Falls, left here 610 pm and arrived 1130.  Doug was home over the weekend.  The leaves were beautiful.
Comment:  One of several trips to our location so they could "picture us" there.....and this is them on that very trip.....53 years ago tomorrow.....everyone looks good...Mom, Dad, Carol, Sue....

Thursday, 29 September, 1966, The Frances Hubbard Diaries

Thursday, 29 September, 1966, The Frances Hubbard Diaries
Cloudy and cool.  I canned tomatoes, peas, did some ironing, went to prayer meeting at night.  Lyle and Madelyn went with me.  Called Gerald and Mary Ann at night.
Comment:  Me and brothers in the old kitchen.  Looks like I'm holding a paint brush....

Wednesday, 28 September, 1966, The Frances Hubbard Diaries

Wednesday, 28 September, 1966, The Frances Hubbard Diaries
Partly cloudy, 50's.  Girls went to school with me and I went on to Roberta's to get John but she was sick and John and I went on the mail route with her.  They were here for supper.  Had letter from Gerald and Mary Ann.
Comment:  Neither rain nor sleet nor dark of night.....

Tuesday 27 September, 1966, The Frances Hubbard Diaries

Tuesday 27 September, 1966, The Frances Hubbard Diaries
Nice day, frost in am.  50's.  Lavilla and I went to Schoharie after yard goods in early am.  We stopped at Janet's and I had lunch with Lavilla, got home 230 pm.
Comment:  First Autumn frost then a pleasant day.....

Monday, 26 September, 1966, The Frances Hubbard Diaries

Monday, 26 September, 1966, The Frances Hubbard Diaries
Nice day, cool and windy, 50's.  I did a big wash and did a crate of cauliflower.  David worked for Earl and went to National Guard at night.
Comment:  I guess she canned a crate of cauliflower.  LaVerne used to haul cauliflower from the Imer Conroe farm next to where the Rendezvous "beer joint", (as my mother would say) used to be which was run by Imer's son and wife for a long time in the 50's and 60's.  He took it to the NY markets and I went with him several times on some hair raising trips down and up Palenville Mountain.  Imer was an alcoholic and I remember him sitting in a booth at the Rendezvous briefing LaVerne and I on a trip and also telling us how sick the drugs used to make him when he was in rehab..sounded like tough duty.....we also hauled brussel sprouts by the truckload.....

Sunday, 25 September, 1966, The Frances Hubbard Diaries

Sunday, 25 September, 1966, The Frances Hubbard Diaries
Mostly sunny but cool.  Girls and I went to church and Sunday School then we went to Wayne and LaVerne's for dinner.  Doug and David too.  We went to Mount Utsayantha then, over the mountain to Roxbury.  Nice ride.  I went to church at night.  LaVerne's here for short time.
Comment:  Very family oriented Sunday.  I remember many rides around the area.  On a nice day it was very beautiful.....another family gathering in the mid forties around Earl's first pond.....back row is Rudy Blakesley, Clarence Ellis, Clifford Taylor, Uncle Earl with I think Glenn Taylor on his shoulders.  Front:  Unknown holding Barry Taylor, Aunt Winnie, Aunt Ina Belle, the Proper girls.....

Saturday, 24 September, 1966, The Frances Hubbard Diaries

Saturday, 24 September, 1966, The Frances Hubbard Diaries
Still rain showers, cool.  Had headache all day again, girls did most of the work.  The boys took Carol and Sue to Cobleskill in am after parts, Sue a sweater and Carol a jacket.
Comment:  The boys are fixing a car again...a never ending chore on the hill with those old cars....Betty and Evelyn dancing....

Friday, 23 September, 1966, The Frances Hubbard Diaries

Friday, 23 September, 1966, The Frances Hubbard Diaries
Rainy and showers all day, 40's.  Sue didn't go to school, she and I canned tomatoes and peas.  Lavilla went to Grand Gorge with me in am.  Laverne here in evening a few minutes.
Comment:  Harvest in full swing.....

Thursday, 22 September, 1966, The Frances Hubbard Diaries

Thursday, 22 September, 1966, The Frances Hubbard Diaries
Cloudy, warmer, rainy, 50's.  I got up with sick headache and didn't do much all day.  I went to prayer meeting at night.  The girls and I went after Doug at 12:45 am.  Got home 4 am.  Clifton home late.  Doug was sick with intestinal upset.
Comment:  A long day with a sick headache....Doug in California with Dean.....

Wednesday, 21 September, 1966, The Frances Hubbard Diaries

Wednesday, 21 September, 1966, The Frances Hubbard Diaries
Rainy day, cool, 40.  I canned pears, tomatoes, pickles.  Wrote to Marily and sent Gerald a birthday card and letter.  David left home 230 pm for Buffalo again.  Wayne's here for supper.  I gathered everything from the garden in early am.
Comment:  Another busy day..David is interviewing for a job at the Buffalo Stamping Plant where I was working....the California family.....

Tuesday, 20 September, 1966, The Frances Hubbard Diaries

Tuesday, 20 September, 1966, The Frances Hubbard Diaries Cloudy, some rain, strong east wind in am, 40's 50's, clearing, mostly sunny in pm.Heavy rain at night.  I canned tomatoes in am and went to Home Bureau with Madelyn at Viola's in pm.  Letter from Mary Ann and Gerald.
Comment:  Rather extensive weather report, getting a  little brisk on the Hill.....and just to show that brutality, barbarity and viciousness is not restricted to our times and non-western cultures, on this day in 1777....

Redcoats kill sleeping Americans in Paoli Massacre...stabbing or setting fire to those that tried to surrender: 

.On the evening of September 20, 1777, near Paoli, Pennsylvania, General Charles Grey and nearly 5,000 British soldiers launch a surprise attack on a small regiment of Patriot troops commanded by General Anthony Wayne in what becomes known as the Paoli Massacre. Not wanting to lose the element of surprise, Grey ordered his troops to empty their muskets and to use only bayonets or swords to attack the sleeping Americans under the cover of darkness.
With the help of a Loyalist spy who provided a secret password and led them to the camp, General Grey and the British launched the successful attack on the unsuspecting men of the Pennsylvania regiment, stabbing them to death as they slept. It was also alleged that the British soldiers took no prisoners during the attack, stabbing or setting fire to those who tried to surrender. Before it was over, nearly 200 Americans were killed or wounded. The Paoli Massacre became a rallying cry for the Americans against British atrocities for the rest of the Revolutionary War. 

Monday, 19 September, 1966, The Frances Hubbard Diaries

Monday, 19 September, 1966, The Frances Hubbard Diaries
Beautiful day.  I washed in am and did some tomatoes.  Had letter from Marilyn.
Comment:  Doesn't sound like much but she probably worked all day...the "new" Hubbard  Hill.....

Sunday, 18 September, 1966, The Frances Hubbard Diaries

Sunday, 18 September 1966, The Frances Hubbard Diaries
Beautiful day.  Wayne's and we went to Mother's after lunch and put down her new rug and changed the one in the dining room.  Got home about 530 pm.  Girls went to Young People's and I went to church.
Comment:  Wayne was selling carpet for Sears at this time.....Wayne in his prime about 1978, pretty big guns........

Saturday, 17 September, 1966, The Frances Hubbard Diaries

Saturday, 17 September 1966, The Frances Hubbard Diaries
Beautiful day, 60's.  Clifton, I and the girls went to Cobleskill and to Mother's for lunch. Clifton and  I went to Blenheim to a turkey dinner at 5 pm, drove over to Wayne's but not at home.  I washed early in the am.  David went to the National Guard.  Doug didn't come home.
Comment:  And just about 48 years later, in 2014, I and my family were in Blenheim, the bridge was gone but my grandson Hayden was there......

Friday, 16 September, 1966, The Frances Hubbard Diaries

Friday, 16 September, 1966, The Frances Hubbard Diaries
First frost.  Thirty degrees all day, warmed up and it was beautiful and clear.   Evelyn Bailey went with me to pick tomatoes at Barber's.  I got three bushels and she one bushel.  I picked cucumbers and made pickles in pm.  David came back from Niagara Falls.
Comment:  Busy day.....still don't know what David was doing in Niagara Falls....a bushel weighs 53 pounds and yields about 20 quarts of canned tomatoes...that's a lot of tomatoes.......

Thursday, 15 September, 1966, The Frances Hubbard Diaries

Thursday, 15 September, 1966, The Frances Hubbard Diaries
Foggy, rainy, clearing at night, 40's and 50's.  I sewed nearly all day.  The girls and I went to Jefferson after the meat and Sue and I packaged it and got it in the freezer.  Clifton home late.
Comment:  Big job done......it was a big deal when the times were good enough for us to get a refrigerator and a chest freezer.  Before that, we had to can and cure all the meats and vegetables.  I remember helping Dad "cure" hams with salt water in large earthenware tubs that we placed in the cellar.  He put a large stone in the tub on top of the meat to keep it under the salt water before he put the top on the tub......this is very like our first freezer......

Wednesday, 14 September, 1966, The Frances Hubbard Diaries

Wednesday, 14 September, 1966, The Frances Hubbard Diaries
Rainy day, 40's, 50's.  I canned peaches and did some sewing.  Louise here in am.  Clifton home late.  I started letter to Marilyn.
Comment:  Dad's been out a couple of times this week.......Louise and Grandpa Elmer's wedding...from left:  Roger Vaughn, Uncle Earl, Elmer, Louise, Aunt Ella, Rudy Earl....interesting wedding party...now all deceased except Rudy Earl.....

Tuesday, 13 September, 1966, The Frances Hubbard Diaries

Tuesday, 13 September 1966, The Frances Hubbard Diaries
Nice day, 50's and 60's.  Roberta, John and I went to Cobleskill to see about yard goods but all were gone.  They were here for lunch and came back for supper and Sue went home with them as LaVerne was driving mail and stayed in Albany overnight.  I washed in early am.  David went to Niagara Falls again tests.
Comment:  Not sure what the tests are about.....David is 75 today.....here he was in the seventies comforting Jason, Carol's first baby who was very sick at the time....

Monday, 12 September, 1966, The Frances Hubbard Diaries

Monday, 12 September 1966, The Frances Hubbard Diaries
Nice day.  Doug home, girls and I took him to Kingston at night.  David drove mail. Sent a pig and calf to have butchered.  I made pickles and relish.
Comment:  Hmmm, times are changing, we used to do it ourselves:  Take a look..
.

Kill It, Cook It, Eat It...Pistols And Pigs

We did not see many pistols on Hubbard Hill because they were really not very useful for hunting. Pistols were a  luxury only “city people” could afford.  “City people” included various family members and friends that did not live or work on the farms in the area.  

My dad had a .38 revolver that he had got when he became a deputy sheriff and that was about the only one we came across.   Once, when I saw him preparing to go on a call, I wondered why he did not act like the sheriffs I’d heard on the Lone Ranger and Tom Mix radio shows.  I wondered because he did not carry the .38 on his belt in a holster but placed it in the glove compartment of the car when he was called.  I went with him on the call and I also remember that he did not take it with him when we got to house of Pansy Reed who had called about Albert being drunk I guess.  I stayed in the car when he went to talk to Pansy.  I do not remember Albert being around.  Dad came back shortly and we went home.

The only other time I saw the .38 used was when we were butchering pigs.  Dad tried to shoot a hog between the eyes but the slug bounced off the pig’s skull.  He finally shot that pig and the remaining two pigs right into their ear to put them down.  We shot only the larger pigs that we could not hold down to slit their throats.  

We’d roll the smaller ones over on their back and sit on their belly while Dad used a “sticking knife”;  a knife with both edges of the knife blade sharpened.  He would stick the knife in the middle of the pig’s throat and moved the knife left and right to sever the two main arteries running up both sides of the pig’s neck.  The pig would shriek with piercing squeals as this happened.  We would then let the pig up and it would stagger around as it bled out and finally, drop over dead ready for scalding, scraping and gutting.

When we butchered a cow or calf too big to hold down, I remember shooting them between the eyes with a .22 rifle from about six inches.  We tried to shoot them very close to where the rigging was that we used to pull them up by the hind legs for gutting and skinning because they would drop straight down without a sound and they were too heavy to drag very far.

After the animals were gutted, we let them hang till the carcass could stiffen up and then, for the smaller animals, we’d take them inside to the dining room table, (covered in a newspaper) and cut them up.  The larger cattle had to skinned outside then cut up into portions outside that could be handled to bring inside and cut up into smaller steaks etc.

The knives were always very sharp, the scalding water for the pigs was very hot and the weather was usually pretty cold.   We’d sometimes cut ourselves with the knives, wet ourselves with the water, and our hands would get very cold and stiff as we were working but, we usually got through it without major trauma.  I do remember that we had to be very careful with the two-edged sticking knife and I remember my Dad cutting himself with that.

If you would like to see a sanitized view of the butchering we did on the farm, the BBC has a new show called “Kill it, Cook It, Eat It. Kill It, Cook It, Eat It.

Sunday, 11 September, 1966, The Frances Hubbard Diaries

Sunday, 11 September, 1966, The Frances Hubbard Diaries
Lovely day.  Girls and I went to church and took Mother and Norm on picnic and ride through Huntersland and Crystal Lake, etc.  Papa and Billy went too.  Nice time.  I went to church at night.
Comment:  Sounds like a nice day, here is another outing of both couples, Mom and Grandma Barber about 40 years or so prior.....From left:  Grandma Barber, Norm, Frances, Bessie, Clarence, Billie...46 years later from 1966 an earth-shakingly momentous day day for the world and 45 years later to the day on 9.11 my own momentous day, a bike accident that put me in the hospital for 21 days with a broken leg, broken arm and multiple severe cuts and abrasions..seems kinda trivial compared to the following year's 9.11......

Saturday, 10 September, 1966, The Frances Hubbard Diaries

Saturday, 10 September 1966, The Frances Hubbard Diaries
Nice Day, 60's.  Girls and I went to Cobleskill to shop and Carol had her eyes fitted, got boys shirts for their birthdays.  Debbie came after Carol at 4 pm.  Clifton gone all day and most of the night.
Comment:  Dad on a "toot". "Earl's Pond", this was the first one he built and a major element in our lives, skating, fishing, swimming, bathing because we had no bathroom.  I well remember the rickety "diving platform" and Uncle Howard and other diving off it.  This is about 1943 or so..the city people called it Hubbard Lake.

Friday, 9 September, 1966, The Frances Hubbard Diaries

Friday, 9 September, 1966, The Frances Hubbard Diaries

Beautiful day, 72.  I washed, Doug went to Schoharie and got his license.  Clifton had to be at work 6 am.

Comment:  An early start......Doug with David, looks like the 70's....

Thursday, 8 September, 1966, The Frances Hubbard Diaries

Thursday, 8 September 1966, The Frances Hubbard Diaries
Mostly sunny, about 70 but windy.  Lavilla went to Grand Gorge with me about noon after feed. Then we stopped by the parsonage and helped finish the hall upstairs. LaVerne's here in the evening.  The girls and I went after Doug, left here 9 pm.  Did some ironing.
Comment:  Doug coming in early for the weekend.....at Earl's Pond.....Ina Belle on left, Winnie on right with Barry And  Glenn Taylor, the girls in the back may be the Swartz girls from the "crossroad"....probably about 1943 or so...

Wednesday, 7 September, 1966, The Frances Hubbard Diaries

Wednesday, 7 September 1966, The Frances Hubbard Diaries
Cool and partly cloudy.  We worked on papering and painting the hall downstairs.  I wrote to Marilyn.

Tuesday, 6 September, 1966, The Frances Hubbard Diaries

Tuesday, 6 September, 1966, The Frances Hubbard Diaries
Cool, partly cloudy, windy, 60's.  I washed, picked some cucumbers and made pickles.  Girls started school at noon.  David left for Niagara Falls 830 am.  Wayne Laura and Michelle here in evening.  Had letter from Marilyn and wrote to Doug.
Comment:  I think David is coming to visit us but not sure.....Serenade on the HIll:

 Not sure who all the kids are.....

Monday, 5 September, 1966, The Frances Hubbard Diaries

Monday, 5 September, 1966, The Frances Hubbard Diaries
Mostly sunny, cool.  We went to Wayne's in am and on to Mother's.
Comment:  Terse....Rapt attention to something:  You name them....

Sunday, 4 September, 1966, The Frances Hubbard Diaries

Sunday, 4 September, 1966, The Frances Hubbard Diaries
Cloudy, cool, heavy rain until about 2 pm, 50' and 60's.  Girls and I went to church and Sunday School.   We went to Myrtle Wrights funeral in Greenville in pm.  Girls and I went to church at night, hard thunder shower.
Comment:  Lots of religious ceremony....Carol and Sue, late fifties.....I can't figure out what car that is......looks pretty hardscrabble....

Saturday, 3 September, 1966, The Frances Hubbard Diaries

Saturday, 3 September, 1966, The Frances Hubbard Diaries
Rained all night.  Cloudy and cool, 60's.  Clifton went to Middleburgh in am after feed and parts for Rambler.  Debbie brought Carol home.  Sue went to Melodie's in pm and at church at night.  Carol, I and Dad went to Cobleskill at night to get Carol shoes.  We stopped at Evelyn's and Clifford's on way home from Middleburgh.  Carol, Sue and I went to church at night.  David drove mail all day.  I wrote to Marilyn.
Comment:  hardly a day goes by without some sort of family or extended family interaction....here are three of the sisters of my Dad:  Must have been Evelyn's birthday:  From left:  Lorraine, Evelyn, Ina Belle....

Friday, 2 September, 1966, The Frances Hubbard Diaries

Friday, 2 September, 1966, The Frances Hubbard Diaries
Beautiful day, hot, 80's.  I washed in am.  Sue and I went to Cobleskill to shop. Debbie came after Carol in am.  Anita and Donna here in afternoon.  I cut their hair.  Sue and I went to church at night to hear Dr. Lowe.
Comment:  Another busy day.....Bonnie Taylor and husband, not sure when.....Born 7.11.46, Died 5.17.98 at age 52 of cancer, always smiling, always sweet..wish I'd known her better...

Thursday, 1 September, 1966, The Frances Hubbard Diaries

Thursday, 1 September 1966, The Frances Hubbard Diaries
Beautiful day, 80's.  Gerald, Mary Ann, the girls, David and I went to LaVerne and Roberta's for lunch and they were here for supper.  Clifton started worked on a (stone) crusher at Cairo for Keegan of Kingston.
Comment:  You put big stones in on one end and small ones come out the other end..this might be like the one Dad was operating.....lots of people for lunch and dinner.  Mary Ann and I must be on vacation over the Labor Day weekend.....