There were many log rollings in Leech. When a man had deadened and cut huge trees, he set a day for a log  rolling and told his neighbors. All came to help, rolling huge logs into piles and burning them. The women came too and helped prepare the dinner. In the afternoon, the women quilted for the hostess. There were many community work plans, helping one another.

With the coming of the combines, the threshing dinners became a thing of the past, but they had become
such an institution over a period of many years that they deserve a detailed description. Im those days the men
got a neighborhood traded work. They organized threshing rings. Each man helped the other. He brought his team and wagon, if he was asked to do so. All morning children hauled water to the working men, water in jugs fresh from a well, not iced. The jug was a common drinking utensil. If the children had time between hauling jugs of water to the men at the thresher and those in the field, they filled a wash tub with water at a cistern or well. That was the common washing pan. The sun warmed the water for the washing. If the children did not get that task done, it was the work of the women.

While the men were busy threshing wheat and oats, the women were busy preparing that big dinner, and it was a big dinner. Sometimes the men told at home what was special at the neighbor's dinner table. That was an incentive for the wife to prepare an equally good dinner. It was so-called country style, all on the table for each to help himself to as many helpings as he wanted. There were white linen table cloths on the long table too, not the oilcloth cover.

There were always two kinds of meat prepared; chicken was usually one, for the farm had plenty of chickens, perhaps chicken and dumplings. If a ham was cooked, that was done the day before, A little later it was popular to have roast beef, for that could be bought at a butcher shop and save preparation time. The butchers were prepared for that rush at threshing time. too. At first the women baked alt the bread. It was a labor-saving device when it became popular to buy bakers bread for threshing. That habit was formed about the time of World War I. She made her own butter too and hung it in the well so that it would be cold and hard. In the earlier days salads were not too plentiful except cabbage slaw and sliced tomatoes; the garden furnished them. If by chance, one neighbor did not have a tomato supply at threshing time, another did and supplied the demand. In fact, food was prepared that was supplied on the farm. The garden furnished potatoes. sweet potatoes, green beans, cabbage. and corn. There were always two kinds of pickles, cucumber pickles and beets. A hold-over custom from the earlier days was the famous rice pudding, full of raisins. There were also baked soup beans. Sometimes in the earlier days, a mutton was pie- pared for threshing, as killing a sheep was called. A hot drink, coffee, and water, not ice water,  were served.

There were always four kinds of pies, fruit pies and custards. There were three or four cakes, different kinds. The cake was sliced and placed on a tall glass cake plate and put on the table at the beginning. It was quite proper for the men to "sample" two or three kinds of pie and as many kinds of cake. There was usually a fruit on the table to eat with the cake, if the men wished.

The table would not seat all the men at one time; the number of men was usually about twenty or twenty-two. But that was not the crowd. The women and children were there too. Usually the children were handed helpings in the kitchen or placed at a kitchen table to eat as the men ate, if the women had time to serve them.  As a man finished, he left the table, did not wait for the group. His plate was removed at once and washed and returned to the table to be ready for the next. table. In that way, the second table was ready for the men in a short time. One woman was usually dish
washer, and she was kept busy. One woman was kept busy while the men were at the table by carrying the water pitcher around filling glasses. Those hot days called for lots of drinking water. By this community work, the second table of men was soon ready and the
men served.  **  Margaret Allison's home dinner is described. She also told of the dance (1880).

As the men ate, they returned to the barn. Often the threshing began again before the second table of men had finished. Little time was wasted. It is true that the lateness of the hour dimmed the appetite of the women by the time they were seated. As they sank into their chairs it was a matter of resting time as much as eating.

In the early years the Threshing stayed for supper also. But later some men went home to do their own chores. The men who had no chores grumbled a bit that first year no suppers were served, but they accepted it That made the task easier for the women.

In the early years the threshing rig was pulled from farm to farm by horses or oxen. The oxen furnished the threshing power too by walking back and forth, back and forth. Later the steam engine pulled the rig from farm to farm. The men with the rig stayed all night at the home where the threshing was to be done, usually four of them.  Curt Xanders, still a Leech resident, did much of the threshing here for many years.

The extra men in the home over night sometimes crowded the family, but that was an expectation. There were no cars to rush the men home at night; they stayed with the threshing rig, The slow moving of the rig sometimes made it late when the thresher arrived at a farm. That did not matter; the woman had supper for those men, whether seven or nine. She prepared their breakfasts too. Then she began the preparation of the big dinner. The idea that the latch-string was always out was likely a carry-over to those threshing dinners. There had to be loads of food left over, or someone might think the woman was stingy.  And so she prepared abundantly, tempting and delicious food.

Apple butter making time often called for  the help of a few neighbors.  When the threshing was done, Curt Xander operated an apple butter mill.  Before his time, Uncle John Wagoner made apple butter.

The family picked up apples and had a large supply at the house for peeling and for coring and cutting into  eighths. The close neighbors came in the evening to help with that task. especially the women and girls, but the men sometimes came too and lent their aid.  When an apple peeler was owned that was really a time saver.  A child could soon peel a bushel of apples.  The  elders cored and cut and visited.  No food was served.  If one  were hungry, he ate a slice of apple as he worked.

The woman had plenty sugar "on hand" and  spices and lemon, She took "dinner" with her next morning as she and her husband or son went to the apple butter mill; the trip was made in a wagon, and it would be dark when the return trip was made.  In the wagon were many apples to make cider to add to the apple butter as it cooked, also stone jars in which to pour the finished product. It is true, however, that Mrs. Xander insisted on those who waited at the mill to come to the house for dinner.  Her table was surely full of guests all fall.

After dark the couple jogged home with their jars of apple butter. Those stone jars, gallon jars, two-gallon jars, even three-gallon jars, were tied tight with a clean cloth and stored in the smoke house for winter use.  Maybe apple butter was not so delicate as jelly, but it did save the woman much time.

One rather peculiar custom for the neighbors to gather was at the time of a death.  At the house where one had died a big dinner was served to all who came.  Slow travel made that necessary sometimes but some neighbors, whole families, also came for dinner.  People always "sat up" with a corpse.  On the day of the funeral a large dinner was prepared all work done within the home too.  Food was not brought in by neighbors, as is often done to-day.

Those early parties and dances often furnished the only social life the people knew. Because they were so much a part of the life of those people, they deserve a detailed description. One specific (lance will be descrIbed. Word was passed around that a dance would be held at a certain house at a specified time. That was all that was necessary by way of an invitation.

A fiddler would he notified, and he would be present, oven if lie walked several miles. He was paid by men passing a hat at the close of the dance, the men throwing in whatever they felt they could.

At this special dance. a young man drove a wagon loaded with his sisters and the young people of the neighborhood. They had. been told he would "be by."  it was cold, hut there was no radio or weather bureau to keep the people informed about the conditions for that night. They hoped the weather would not be too bad, There was some snow, and so the young man drove to a neighbor's home whom he knew well, a neighbor of the dance home, and put the horses in the barn. He knew the barn of the dance home would be full. This group of young people walked across the field to the dance home, about a quarter mile from the place where the horses were put. The crowd was gathering when they arrived, in spite of the cold weather. The rag carpet had been removed from the floor of the living room and the parlor so that there were two rooms in which to dance. The two rooms joined each other and so the same "fiddling" served both rooms. If a "green horn" did not know the dance step, the fiddler sometimes stepped to the middle of the floor and showed the newcomer what to do. All that time he kept the fiddle under his chin and did not miss a note. Sometimes the whole song, or maybe just the chorus, was sung by the group. "Old Dan Tucker" was a favorite, and this tune was often played and sung.   "We'll All Go Down to Rosters" was also a favorite. The tunes of both are noted.

PUT  MUSIC SHEETS  HERE
 
 

Here is a typical dance call used:
Advance to partner and to lady on the left. Swing your partner. Promenade the girl behind you until you get around; then swing her. Swing the girl on the left; then give your partner your right hand and go right and left. When. you meet your partner, once and a half. All promenade Swing your partner. Promenade the girl behind you. Then four gents to the right. Swing the corners. All first couples to the couples on the right. Right hand cross left hand. Back circle. Four hands and one-half hand round. Balance to the next couple. Circle same. When all four gents get round, then swing your partner

"Put on the Big Pot, Put on the Pan" was also a popular dance song. There was one couple inside the circle, holding hands crosswise; they danced inside the revolving circle. The first couple then went back to the circle and a new couple went inside the circle,

While the dance was in progress, refreshments were being served in the kitchen. If a couple wished to rest, they went to the kitchen to eat. At this particular dance the family had been prepared. They had killed hogs and had plenty of fresh tenderloin and country sausage. So hot sausage or tenderloin with hot biscuits, milk gravy, butter and country sorghum, with plenty of hot coffee, were being served at all times. As the night grew colder and a fierce snowstorm arose, the dance lasted all night. It was not fit weather for anyone to be out with a team in a blizzard. That hot, full meal fortified the dancers all through the night.

At daylight, the young man who had left his team at a neighbor's barn, gathered his group together and started toward the wagon. The snow had stopped falling and the wind had lowered. He trudged ahead, making a path through the heavy snow. Behind him in single file came his crowd. Although he had eaten during the night, he felt that it was too much to expect his host to furnish breakfast also. Gallons of coffee bad been consumed throughout that night. The hostess had made many pans of hot biscuits. Their meat supply was lower than it had been, but it was still plentiful.

That young man dogged ahead through the snow against his host's advice.  The group reached the barn where the team had stood all night.  They loaded into the wagon and started home.  The road was a winding one through the woods.  The snow had piled deep in many places, but the horses plowed through.  As they passed a neighbor's house, about a mile from the home, They saw the man going to the barn to feed.  He stopped to talk to them and insisted on their stopping for breakfast; he knew his wife would be delighted to have a wagon load of young folks for breakfast.  They stopped.  The wife prepared more sausage cakes to fry, and the young ladies assisted her at the stove.  She made another pan of biscuits.   She gave each girl a task, and the breakfast was soon ready.  The home folks were not surprised when the group did not return in the night.  The young man was in a habit of taking wagon loads to dances, so they felt the group was in safe hands.  The only surprise to the home folks was that the crowd had stopped at another neighbor's for breakfast.

Since this is of Leech. gatherings. it would not do to omit an unusual dance that was held at Barefoot. Just west of Golden Gate near the Little Wabash. two platforms were built.  Hot weather had meant that many children  went without shoes. but the children were not alone. Some of the adults scorned shoes, dance or no dance. They danced on that rough board platform in their barefeet. and they could do it as well as many do on polished floors.  **  James Glover visited one Barefoot dance when he was a small boy to watch the barefoot dancers. He described this dance.

Some women and some men were barefooted. And they kept both platforms busy. They could dance a they enjoyed it thoroughly. Formal dress was not part of the  program; the thing was to know how to dance. It would not be fair to tell of those dances there about seventy years ago without naming a popular dancer.  Aunt Jane Cook, a large woman who liked to dance. She was quite a character, plain and outspoken. She rather
enjoyed being called the Queen of Barefoot.  She had daughters at the time mentioned, who were as large as she, and they danced as vigorously as she.

It is true that there was a compromise type dance or play party. There was no fiddler; there was no music, but they sang the songs and went through the dance steps. To some that was a substitute for lack of a fiddler; to others it was not a real dance as there was no music.

Although it is true that many enjoyed the square dance, there were also some who, because of religious beliefs, refused to attend a dance and looked upon such an entertainment as work of the devil. Those people had their own type of social get-togethers.

The taffy pull was a common type of entertainment. It was not usually a large crowd but often a "sticky" one. Sorghum was common in all homes, thick sorghum that would not run. In fact there was usually a barrel of sorghum in the smoke house. The taffy candy, made with sorghum, was cooked and tested until it was the proper consistency to pull. All youngsters had washed hands ready. They buttered their bands and each was given a chunk of taffy. Each pulled it back and forth, hack and forth, from one hand to the other. That work was kept up until the taffy began to harden, too stiff to pull It was then spread on a buttered platter and cut into small pieces when it set. Sometimes a taffy puller made his candy fancy by twisting it into ropes before he put it on the buttered platter. When the candy was set, everyone ate candy.
 

There was another party for time non-dancers, the play party. It was called play party because they played games. All the family attended. The young people had a. room where they congregated to play games, perhaps the kitchen.  A popular game was to spin the plate, the spinner calling a number The girls had even numbers and the boys had odd. If a boy spun the plate, he called an even number. The girl whose number was called was supposed to run to the center of the room and catch the plate before it stop spinning. If she caught the plate, she paid no fine, but if she did not, she had to pay a fine. One person collected fines.  He took a ring, a pin, a handkerchief, a pocketknife, or any object the person had. When all had paid fines, one person held one of the fines over another's head and said, "Heavy, heavy hangs over thy head."  He asked, "Fine or superfine?"  If the fine was from a boy the answer was "fine", if from a girl it was "superfine." Then the person with the fines asked, ‘"What shall the owner do to redeem it?" The other suggested something for the person to
do.  Maybe it was to play post office. There was much laughter as the doorkeeper, the postmaster, permitted one couple to pass through to a darkened room. The one who had to pay the fine had chosen a partner. If the couple returned in a short time, the greeting was that it was only a post card. If it took a longer time for them to return the jeer was that it was a letter, an important one. That couple then named another person to go to the post office. The process was repeated.

Picking cherries was a common fine to pay. Strong kitchen chairs were placed with their backs toward each other. Then two more chairs were placed at the sides of those chairs, backs toward the other chairs. The one who was to pay the fine chose a partner. Each stood on the lower round of the first two chairs, on opposite sides. They kissed across the top of the chairs, holding themselves in place by holding hands. Then the second one chosen selected another person; that one chose his partner. That couple stood on the upper rounds of the other two chairs, held themselves in place by holding hands and kissed across the chairs.

There were other games equal to picking cherries.

There were other gatherings different from the (dance and the play-party, the literary society. They sprang into existence as soon as the old log school houses were built. There was always a literary minded individual in each community. He organized the society. There was always a debate, usually on some problem of common interest.  The political debate was avoided, as politics was a  "hot"  subject.  Those people took their politics seriously, each dead certain that his party was the only one.  For that reason it was best for the sake of harmony not to debate political problems.  The debate was sometimes between only two but sometimes there were four.  There was usually a reading.  Someone usually liked to repeat poems.

Scottsville, first called Wabash, being on the old stage coach line, was a popular place for literary societies.  The people walked to the meeting, often two or three miles.

When the literary societies began to wane, the school pie and box supper became popular.  The purpose was to raise money for the school.  Many school libraries began from money made from such suppers.

The woman or girl took pie or fancy decorated boxes filled with lunch.  Each pie or box was given a number, the the same number was kept written beside the owner's name.  That was usually done by an older school girl.  The numbers were suppose to be kept secret, but sometimes a young man asked a small school boy to take a peep at the list of names and numbers and to find the number of a certain girl's pie or box.  Often the man bought the pie or box not knowing who was the owner.  An auctioneer sold the pies and boxes to the highest bidder.

There were other prizes offered.  There was always a cake for the most popular girl.  The idea was to have candidates named.  Each vote was a cent.  The boys stayed together in groups.  At one box supper one young man's "girl" was voted the most popular; at another box supper another young man's "girl" was the one selected.  That is how the group stayed together to vote.  There were always opposing groups.  When the voting lagged, the teacher announced that the voting would end in so many minutes.  All money had to be on the table when time was called.  Men crowded around the desk, money down and covered with hands opponent could not see how much was being voted. Then the count was made and the winner cut the cake and passed it to her supporters. Often she did. not get a piece.

There were other prizes, some not too nice. There was often something for a couple, maybe a lamp for the slowest couple. Sometimes there was a cake of soap for the man with the dirtiest feet.

After all the prizes were awarded, according to the vote, the pies and boxes were eaten, the couples sitting together to eat.

There were always gatherings, mostly men, at the time the mail came in. At first it was a meeting to wait for the stagecoach. Then it was to sit in the depot until the train came.  In summer, winter work and. sports were often related In winter, wheat was harvested and corn raised. The country store was also a favorite place for  such gatherings. The mail keg and the boxes made good seats for the loafers. They told tales and watched the customers. Often that was the only get-together the people had. Of course they gathered. at church early  enough to have a chat before the 'predating'  began.

At Halloween time there was a different group gathering.  Usually a few boys visited homes and. made tic-tacks. A string was fastened to the weather boarding. It was held taunt, some distance away and rosin rubbed on the string. By pulling it. a weird noise was the result.  The house occupants ran outside to detect to tic-tackers.  The boys ran, often in fun pretending to try to get away. One in the group was often an admirer of the girl of the house. It was usually known who the boys were.

Chowders furnished another get-together possibility.  They were held in summer or autumn when the weather was warm.  The chowder was cooked in large ion kettles in the open, cooked a long time and stirred all the time with a large wooden paddle.  Any old hunks made good fuel for the kettles.

There was always a meat base, chicken, beef, and squirrel.  The common vegetables were potatoes, tomatoes, oinion, and corn.  Others could be added. When it was cooked, the fire was pulled away from the kettle, or the kettle was lifted away, by means of a pole through the handle. Then the signal was given for all to eat. Each ate all he desired. There were usually pickles and relish and cratkers also served. Sometimes there was also pie. Chowders are still popular, big chowders sponsored by towns, or smaller ones sponsored by clubs and smaller organizations. Sometimes all the members of a family have a chowder, all the uncles, aunts, cousins, and in-laws. At chowders, sometimes, a collection is taken to pay for the beef. The rest is donated.

Another get-together that was of vital importance to the country school children was the "last day." That term was always used and meant the last day of the school year when there would be a picnic and a program. For many years that was in March, for schools lasted only six months. As gatherings had been scarce in winter, the children looked forward with great anticipation to the last day. For weeks they had drilled on "pieces" and dialogues and group songs. There had to be curtains to shut off the stage. School girls took sheets from home.  The boys put wire across the front of the room to which the curtains were fastened. On each side of the stage, a small room was curtained off. The ones who were selected to draw the curtains were proud of the office.

At noon boards were placed on top of the desks to form long tables. On that the women spread table cloths and set their food on the table.  It was a time for the women to vie with each other to see who made the best cake or could bring the most attractive looking baked ham. There were not garnishes then to be bought. One woman skinned the baked ham and then put black pepper on the ham in spots the size of the pepper shaker. That was the decoration.

After dinner the program was given.

The "sing" was a common custom. Neighbors met at one home at night and sang, usually hymns.