I started thinking about this the other day while I was trying to clean out one of the freezers in the basement. I saw apple perogies we made as a neighborly group last winter sometime. There must have been 10 of us and we made dozens and dozens of all different varieties and it was so much fun. I wondered how many people gathered like this to do a big job with a big group to make it less work for one person.
I remember when I was little spending the summers in Canada when everyone would take turns working in each other’s fields. They’d do one farm at a time and all the neighbors chipped in. This way it was less work for one man. The women made all the meals at whoever’s farm they were doing that day.
I also remember staying with my Aunt Annie. I have the greatest memories of her. Her and a group of friends she knew took turns one day each week helping each other do the laundry. This was back in the time when you had to haul in your water and boil it if you wanted to wash your whites in hot water. To then do all this work by hand was so much work. I can’t hardly believe how hard they had things back then with no running water.
Do you have any “chore” memories? Do you remember in your lifetime that someone didn’t have indoor plumbing? Do you or anyone you know ever “get together” to do a big project like this? Or do you ever get together and do this kind of thing just for fun. I love doing it.
Us Girls..Our Views 
That picture made me laugh! I remember being so sick at that time cause I just had my wisdom teeth out and I tried to help, but I was so miserable! Just had to share that with ya…LOL
I remember the parities thing. There were some stick horses in the picture someone had made!
I remember when I was younger and everyone got together to butcher chickens. Remember Jenny?! We weren’t allowed down in the ‘barnyard’ – could only stay on top of the hill. I will never forget a chicken who had just been beheaded getting away from my dad and running through the barnyard and my dad hopping over the fence after it! Good times!
LOL!
haha yes, you can’t really forget about watching a chicken run around with its head cut off!
I’m not sure I could eat chicken after that! We had to butcher chickens too. Man, what a stench and horrible job! Now that that memory surfaced, why do I eat chicken????
I remember one time we butchered chickens and Aunt Bernice and Dorothy came to help and she brought fried chicken for our lunch!AH,I could not eat that in the middle of butchering.I hated that smell too..horrible job is right!!Only fun part was when one chicken would run around with the head off,lol!
Yummm! Chickens!! I like the smell of wet chicken!! I liked cleaning the gizzards! That’s the most fun!
Remember teh time the decapitated chicken chased Jer all over the yard? LOL LOL LOL!!
I hope your being sarcastic!Wet chickens=gross!
Yes I remember that,lol!
NO, I actually don’t mind the smell. Seriously.
I remember cleaning the gizzards too. That was our job for YEARS!!!! Ish! I love them now too though!
gyuk.
This is why my chickens come cellophaned to styrofoam. Even when Steve could still hunt, I’d tell him to butcher whatever-it-was somewhere AWAY from the house. I’m too softhearted.
He did a squirrel once. Shot it. Ok, HE says he shot it. I’m convinced that it saw him coming and had a heart attack before the bullet got anywhere near it. It was that old. Anyway, he went to clean it. And apparently, when you clean a squirrel, you’re supposed to step on the tail and pull the skin off? (gyuk) Well, he tried that and the tail snapped off. So he had to skin it a different way. But he eventually did, and brought that squirrel home. Cooked it all freakin’ afternoon. It was still rubbery and tough when we ate it. That squirrel had to be about 60 years old.
We used to do our annual Christmas wrap-a-thon together at my mom’s house, which was great fun. Once or twice my sister came to my house to help after I had kids, but that ended when she became a mom.
I can remember some group chores like painting our new office and such, which were fun for a nice change.
When I was in my old job, I used to lead a lot of charity projects, and participate in others. My sister would help me get stuff ready for the kid parties I would throw, and then it would be a whole group of people working together on the day of. It was a lot of work, but it always felt good. We also did stuff like Habitat for Humanity and other day-long, hands-on community projects. It was one of the few times I actually liked working with a lot of the people there.
We used to always do those ‘get togethers’, i remember doing about 120 chickens at one time, we had like assembly lines and each person did there thing, we’ve donemany dozens of corn as a group, potato sausage and some german thing called gredvoosh or something like that its actually oatmeal sausage, i remember sitting in snowbanks to stir that stuff because it had to cool really fast or it would sour. last year it was the peorgies.
What should we do next??????
I remember watching you guys do the potato sausage
I remember when I was about 7? My parents put up a garage, and my brothers and uncles helped with it. I remember the big trenches they dug for the foundation. My friends and I thought they were so cool, and ran around in them.
And through the years, my mom and i, and occasionally my brothers, would get together and wrap Christmas presents. That was a lot of fun, too.
I didn’t grow up with doing anything like this, but it sounds fun. I’d love to do something like this now, as an adult.
Oh, I just remembered something! Chili cook-offs!! My mom and ex step dad and their friends would have this every winter, as far as I can remember. And my moms best friend growing up (like another mom to me) would make spaghetti sauce from scratch, and we’d all go over to her house to help. Well, the kids didn’t help, and I hated her sauce. It was so chunky!! I never told her that, I just ate it!
LOL! It was fun though wasn’t it?
I have only good memories about it! Well, other than the sauce! I wouldn’t dare even tell her now! lol