The Huron Expositor, 1978-11-02, Page 21•
771, ic,71 ,
SE/WORTH, ONTARIO, THURSDAY, NOt/EMBER 2, 1978 • iSecond Section' Pages IA — 8A)
aM
Betty Gauthier her Canadian
songs. likeiatemal0...Robert'$erVic0
Betty Gauthier, foster mother and poet
• .
poetry she's writing on life in Western
Ntagdeatsw. hichrshe'd title Canadian Golden „ .......
The writer has her application ready to
&op into the mail, but she won't learn
whether her appeal has been successfid or
not until next spring.
In the meantime, whenever the mood
strikes her, usually late at night, she sits
down at her kitchen table and composes
some more songs. '
One of her personal favorites is the tale
of a city gal who tries her hand at farming.
After `being raised in the. city, Mrs,
Gauthier first raised horses on a farm near
Mount Forest - the horses were a "hobby
that got out of contrel" and then tried
mixed farming in' MeKillop Township for
Six years.
City Gal
Her poem about buying. a Jersey cow is
based on her own experience as a "City
Girl Turned Farmer", the title of the' work.
I went out to a sales batn
I bought a jersey cow
I thought I'd like 'to milk her
But I never was shown how
• • Bein' a gal 'from the city
I thought I was quite smart
So •1 got me a little stool
And decided to make a start
Isat down on the stool
And got my pail in,place
Gave a couple of pulls
I got a wet tail across the face
The cow she started steppin'
And I couldn't figure why
I thought she _must be bothered
By an old barn fly
I couldn't get much milk out
Of the first two things I tried
So my stool and pail and I
Moved to the, other side
When a neighbour happened in
With advice worth its weight -in
You milk her all from one side
And make sure your hands ain't cold.
Mrs. Gauthier might have stayed in the
horse dealing business but she discovered
she was becoming too emotionally involved
with her colts - and it was costing her more
to feed them than to feed her family. Also.
she had a serious fall and a doctor told her
she had suffered a s'iroke and warned her
that her time was, limited.
Today Mrs. Gauthiet said the doctor is
dead' and "I'm still here!"
But while she didn't give, up farming
entirely uAl{il last year when she moved to
Egmondville, Mrs. Gauthier has had
another occupation for the past 15 years.
'This second career is foster parenting.
Today the upstairs of Mrs. Gauthier's
Egmondville home is filled with bunk beds
and the assorted accumulation's of her own
son, Sioney,', a pupil at Seaforth Public
School, and her five foster boys. all
teenagers.
by Alice GIbb
Betty Gauthier of Egmondville is looking
for two things in life - a good washboard
and a singer-guitarist, preferably male,
with some spare time on his hands.
The reason Mrs. Gauthier wants a
washboard is simple-along with the mouth
organ and the spoons, it's the instrument
she likes to play wheyer she gets a chance;
Her playing style, she admits, is "kind of
bluegrassy."
But the first priority in Mrs. Gauthier's
life right now is finding a singer-guitarist
to help her arrange the music for the score
of songs she's written over the years.
Mrs.. Gauthier has composed tunes for
the lyrics in her head, but she needs
someone to sit down with her and work out
written arrangements for the music, with
the hope that someday the songs will be
recorded. The songwriter prefers a man
just because many of her songs are written
from the • m ale point of view.
Love Songs
Mrs. Gauthier's songs range from
country love songs reminiscent of Carroll
Baker's work to ballads about prospectors
and Indians, Canadian nostalgia piecesand
even some rock lyrics which just need some
hard driving music behind them.
Mrs. Gauthier, who described herself as
a "tomboy" when she was younger,
started writing, songs when she was a kid
and has kept on from there writing "for My
own enjoyment - it's my way of expressing
myself." •
In high school, Mrs. Gauthier's columns
on teenage life appeared in the now
defunct Toronto Telegram, the Toronto
Star and the Canadian High News.
The persoulnost responsible for encour-
aging her songwriting was Mrs. Gaut-
hier's grandfather, who lived on a farm
near Sparrow Lake in Muskoka, where she
spent her summer months.
The man was, Mrs. Gauthier recalls, ""a
great tale carrier" and when his grand-
daughter hitchiked up from Toronto to see
him, he told her Indian legends, myths,
stories about prospectors and hunters and
other tales he'd picked up as a young man
when he travelled across the country on
horseback.
Canadian Nostalgia '
Today, Mrs. Gauthier still likes to write
about Canadian nostalgia - "incidents in
our past that are colorful and meaningful"
and indeed, her work is reminiscent of the
ballads of Robert Service. The songwriter
also confesses she would have loved to
have lived one hundred years ago in the
colorful days of the tours de bois, when she
imagines she'd have. been a lady trapper.
But Mrs. Gauthier didn't spent all her
youthful days writing• songs.
For a while, she studied tap and
. acrobatic dancing, and in the years from
three to 15 she danced on the Toronto
stage. Her brothers and she also worked up
a recitation using the works of A.A. Milne
and won the Hepburn Medal for their
acting at the Canadian National Exhibition
(CNE).
Then there's the story of Mrs. Gauthier's
ill-fated try at parachute jumping. When
the song writer was 14 years old: she lied
about her age. and started taking a course
in parachute jumping,
After successfully jumping from the
practice tower. Mrs. Gauthier and two
companions were offered' a prize of $100
each if they would jump from a plane
landing on the CNE grounds.
This poem, titled Indian Prayer, is
dedicated to Betty Gauthier's gra;idfather,
Manville Bennett. who "livid to be nearly
100 and instilled in me his love of nature
and respect for the Canadian Indian and
Eskimo and our animals. His stories of old
times were so vivid and colorful that every
track in the snow told you a tale."
Indian Prayer
Great Spirit Manatou
Great Spirit, Father of us all
Who looks into our hearts
And finds our inner thoughts
Guide me on the right path
Straight as an arrow from the bow
Keep my. spirit pure and clean
Just like the driven snow
In her carrer as a foster parent, Mrs,.
Gauthier has been responsible for an many
as'2l boys at a time: She started taking
boys on parole frorn reformatories and now
takes in boys who are developti*Iitaliy
handicapped.
• Recently Mrs. Gauthier received an '
award from Family and Childrens' Services
for completing five years as a foster parent
in Huron County. °
' Foster Parenting
•
Foster parenting, Mrs. Gauthier said,
has been "a lot of fun" and she's using her
experiences with her teenagers as the basis
foramo thebroro,
On a more serious note, Mrs. Gauthier
k called "Don't Be Ridiculous,
said her concern about kids in reform
schools and other institutions is that the
teenagers become so institutionalized they
Can't think for themselves. The result is the
teenagers can't or won't. fit into. society
when their stay in the institution ends.
Mrs. Cauthier also believes teenagers
have been "maligned too much" and that
often they're condemned before being
.e'given a chance to prove themselves. Her
own foster sons have spent much of their ,
. spare time in the past year helping the
songwriter renovate her home and fix up
the grounds.
Now while many writers fear their career
will end when they run' into a crippling
writer's block and the ideas stop, this isn't
one of Mrs. • Gauthier's worries. If
anything, her problem is the exact
opposite. •The songwriter, who thinks up
titles first, and then produces a song to go
with them, has school scribblers brimming
with ideas she'd like to 'tackle - songs with
titles like The Shivaree, Prairie • Schooner
and The Trail Boss. Each time she finishes
a song, she strokes off the title, but she still
has enough ideas to keep her busy for
goid -years.ahead., • - • - --..•
' Inspiration
Every writer also has a' favorite time to
work, and Mrs. Gauthier's most productive
periods occur late at night, sometimes
when there's a good storm brewing,.
She also ha ,s a secret formula which'
helps get the creative juices flowing -' a
ua sns aof s uwelscietseswtui ne i,gphict e dr pigs'au ft ehei et r andeana
prplate u
produce
ef t hc hreoecoolra..tfeoucrookies.
sitting.
original works at one
Mrs, Gauthier's enthusiasm, not only for
her writing, but as Marion Duke, editor of
The Listowel Banner, wrote in Mrs.
'Gauthier's letter of reference for the
Explorations grant, "She has a positive
outlook on life that rubs off - I expect on
everyone she meets, whether they be nine
'or ninety years of age."
Now, if Betty Gauthier could just find
that collaborator she's looking for, every-
thing would be perfect!
Great Spirit, Giver' of life and death
Who holds our future in his hands
Teach "me as one would teach 'a child
To live with my brothers
And creatures of the wild
And when my time is over
, Let me come to, be with you
L.4 ''For these things I pray"to you
Great Spirit —Manatou"
It's still one of Mrs. Gauthier's regrets
that CNE officials called her father to tell
him his daughter's skydiving event had
been cancelled due to the high winds. Mrs.
Gauthier's surprised father quickly put •an
end to his daughter's skydiving career.
• Exploration Grant
Today, while Mrs. Gauthier is waiting to
find the right person to put her words to
music, she's also applying for a Canada
Council Explorations grant to explore more
at Canada's history. These grants are
' awarded annually to people who hay en't
been published previously, to encourage
' artistic expression.
Mrs. Gautliier has applied for a grant to
enable her to travel to Western Canada
next summer and talk to oldtimers whO
worked on oil rigs, panned for gold and
hunted grizzlies, for a, living. 'The writer
hopes to use the material from the
interviews to form the basis 'for a 'book of
.0^
Cold night when the,moon was right....
Hog butchering time
By W.G. Strong
The prime source of meat for the family
of early settlers. was hogs. These were
raised, fed. slaughtered, cut tip; cured and
smoked at home. The actual slaughtering
was done in late November when the
weather turned colder and would probably
stay that way until spring. Since there were
no meat freezers, one had to rely on the
wilter weather to keep the meat from
spoiling while it cured. •
Many paid strict attention to the phase of
the moon and killed on the first cold day
they could get when the moon. was just
right. As one said, "YOu've got to kill it on
.the right time of the moon, never at the
time of the new moon."Others would kill
on the full moon or just about that time.
They maintained that if the moon were
shrinking, the meat would shrink too.
Early in the morning of butchering day
the scalding water was readied. Some
farmers had a huge cast-iron kettle some
three or four feet in diameter. It was
suspended from a stout pole placed in the
crotch of two adjacent apple trees or
between two forked upright poles firmly
planted in the earth. The bowl was filled
with water and a fire built beneath. Some
used a large oaken barrel to hold the water
heated in pots of the kitchen Stove. At
tithes an Oil drum was tipped half over and
filled to the lip with water into which
heated stones were &Wed. The water in
all cases Was ,heated !hearty to, the boiling
point and, Ottationalist, ashes were added
to help loosen the hair.
Boiling Point
While the water was raised almost to the -
boiling point. a shed door was placed on
blocks of wood set at each corner of the
form about knee-heiiht for convenience in
scraping away the hair..
The hog was killed by a. sharp bloW on
the _head just above the -eye level: The •
prostrate animal had its jugular vein on the
left side of the 'throat about 'three inches
back from the jawbone pierced immediate-
ly. As one described it, "Stick him right."
An old way mule told about the time the
-butcher delayedthe operation. The animal
recovered from the shock and took off for
the bush. About six months later she
returned to the farmyard with a bunch of
pigs ready fist. market. Truly a tall tale.
When the bleeding slowed or subsided.
the hog was dragged to the, scalding place
and dipped in the hot water nose down, A
few heaves later the animal was reversed
and rolled over to better loosen the hair,
Once on the 'table' the scraping process
began. A not-too--sharp knife was used so
as hot to damage the skin, If the hair did
not shave off easily, burlap bags or
anything to hold the heat were used to
cover the body and boiling water was
poured to loosen the hair.
When the hide was scraped clean, the
hamstring was exposed on both hind legs
'and A gambling stick sharpened at both
ends in the shape Of a 'crochet hook was
slipped behind the exposed tendon. The
hog was then strung up on a stout pole tet
firmly in forked supports. head downwards
Hot water was again dashed over the
carcass and any spots st ill not completely
clean were scraped again.
With a sharp butcher knife, one long.
deep cut was made down the middle of the
underside from crotch to chin. being
careful not to slice the envelope or
inembra ne hOlding the intestines. The
large. inftstine was. cut free, tied firmly
shut, the Membrane holding the' intestines
sliced and the entrails allowedtofall into a
large tub placed under the carcass, The
liver was cut free and allowed to soak for
later use. Likewise set aside and say ed
were the heart and kidneys. The bladder
was frequently given to the young son who
with the aid of a length of oat straw blew it
up while still moist to make for himself a
miniature ball to toss about or throw
upwards to be retrieved upon its downward
flight.
Allowed to Hang
When the inside of the carcass was
completely cleaned, it was allowed to hang
for a few hours until cool enough to be cut
up. If sufficient help were availabe the
carcass was cut down the backbone with a
saw after a sharp knife had cut the skin. At
other times the prostrate form was treated '
differently. While placed on its back, the
ribs were cut down each side of the
backbone with an axe et hatchet and the
meat fell into two pieces. The head had
previously been severed. The neck was cut
around the base of the head so that the
backbone, was ringed completely and the
head twisted off. Tenderloin lay on either
side of the backbone's cavity.
After finding the joints, the shoulder and
hams were cut off. The ribs were then
separated from the sides and set aside to
make succulent. tempting morsels after
being chopped into judicious lengths.
What was left was called side meat. When
cured . and smoked it was the source of
country bacon which had to be cut or sliced
in the same direction in which the ribs
originally ran, The head, legs,-hocks and
portions of trimmed meat were destined for
the sausage grinder. Before being Conni;-
letely cooked on the kitchen stove because
it had to be reheated when served, the
mixture was packed into jars until about
three-quarters full. While still hot, hot
grease was poured over the top, the jar
closed and turned upside down to cool.
This sealed the lid' shut and the sausage
would keep until the head of the house was
inclined' touse it. It has been known to
th oroughly clean the small intestines,
attach a sausage filler to the grinder and
force the sausage meal into the. casing
which was tied off at both ends and stored
likewise in crocks and embedded in lard or
grease. The fat trimmed from the carcass
and entrails was cut into pie, es about the
size of a hen's egg. put in a pot containing
j st enough water to keep it from sticking to ,„
the sides when cooked, The pot was placed
over a fire and allowed to cook slowly while
being stirred often. The grease will have
boiled out, the water evaporated and the
hard' residue fallen to the bottom. The
grease or lard was poured into containers,
allowed to harden and was used during the
winter for cooking. Some folk called the
resitine `cracklins' and was considered a
treat when spread on freshly baked bread.
The hams, shoulders and side meat were
taken to the smoke-house as soon after
slaughtering as possible. Some farmers
made a relatively open smokehouse
constructed of two or three inch slats with a
three-quarter inch crack between each.
The, roof, however, was made rain
repellant. Neighbours passing by on a,
spring morning saw grey smoke billowing
out the sides and adv iced the owner that
the smokehouse was on fire.
Smokehouse
The closed or sealed smokehouse was
often built from logs with the chinks filled
with mud. Such a structure kept the-insects
out, kept it from freezing in cold weather
and cool in slimmer. To begin the curing,
each hunk of meat was covered with gait in
liberal proportions and placed on shelves
waist high the better to receive proper
ventilation and to be turned front time to
time. If meat were needed during the
winter months, the family simply cut what
was needed off the curing pork. washed off
the salt, soaked it over night, parboiled it .
the next day and then cooked it.
When the weather began to get warmer,
usually about the time the apple trees
began 'to break into bloom, the second
phase of the operation began on the meat
that was left. It was taken out of the salt
mix, washed and treated in different ways.
Some coated it .with a mixture of brown
sugar and pepper to which was added a
little borax to keep off the flies, The treated
meat was placed in cotton bags and hung
up in the smokehouse. Holes were poked
through the meat to be suspended from the
joists of the building. A fire was built
inside the house. The floor was generally
earthy. The fire itself was made of hickory
of oak chips and bark or even corncobs in
some cases. Using this fuel the fire emitted
smoke which billowed through the house
for two or more days until the meat took on
the bro-wn crust that was desired for
'flavour.
Time marches on. Old ways give place to
new. One wonders if the fresh meat,
bacon, ham and sausage purchased at the
.riulderti supermarket does excel those
products of yesteryear. Few there are who
can answer.
Mr. Strong, a gifted amateur historian and writer
who a native of this area, lives in Ottawa