THE BOX SUPPER
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The Box Supper
I attended a one room school until I was in eighth grade. The one room school was the center of community life. It ofter served as a site for health clinics, especially for immunizations. Every kid knew and dreaded Martha Cornett, the health department nurse. Often, it served as a church house too. The missionaries would come once a week and have Bible study with the whole class. This is not allowed in our schools today. More is the pity! However, the most anticipated event of the year was the annual box supper. Money was limited so every fall about late October the big event was a fund raiser for the school to buy Christmas presents for the children. An old fashion box supper was an event looked forward to by the whole community.
This was an event where the older girls and single women cooked a meal and packed it in a covered box . This wasn't just any box. This box had to be the prettiest one there for they were auctioned off to the highest bidder. Whichever single male purchased the box got to eat with the girl who had made it. There was a great deal of snooping by the boys. They would try to find out which box belonged to the prettiest girl. Of course, the girls were not supposed to let them know because it would spoil the fun. However, if one girl especially liked a boy sometimes she would let the secret out!
Decorating the box was a big deal and was weeks in the planning. Of course, there had to be a trip to town to buy the crepe paper. Then the box had to be prepared. Just the right size box with a lid had to be found. It had to be big enough to hold enough food for two but small enough to be held up for the bidding. A boot box was ideal. From the time it was planned the search was on for the just the right box. When the right one was found it was saved back until it was time for the decorating to begin. The box would be covered with bright colored crepe paper, both the bottom and top. There would be every color of the rainbow: red, green, yellow, pink, purple or blue for the bottom and white for the top. Back then the art of making crepe paper flowers flourished. Mothers taught their daughters just as they would teach them to cook or sew. It was not necessary to life but was a desirable skill. Nobody wanted their daughter to have an ugly box. The crepe paper would be cut and fashioned into beautiful roses, peonies and dahlias surrounded by crepe paper folage and lavish ribbons and bows. Complimenting colors were chosen carefully. Everyone wanted the best box. I wish I had been big enough to have learned this art before the school consolidations of the 1960s made it obsolete. I don't even know if they make crepe paper anymore! I haven't seen any since I was a child. One time sister Jewel had one of the older women help her with her box. Myrtle Lewis was an expert at making beautiful boxes. She did Jewel's box in orange and it was the prettiest box there. Jack Lewis bid on the box and got it, he told Jewel he knew the box was hers because he knew Myrtle, who was his aunt, had helped her with the box and recognized Myrtle's handiwork.
Once the box was ready and the day came, meal preparation had to begin. We did not have a refrigerator to store prepared food so everything had to be prepared on the day of the event. There was no running out to the store to pick up anything. Everything either came from the smoke house, the chicken lot, the garden or the canning room. In fact, mom and dad raised or grew almost everything we ate. Everybody else did too. Mom and the girls would start early in the afternoon. Just the right fat hen had to be chosen for chicken and dumplings and two or three tender fryers for mouth watering, southern fried chicken. Potatoes had to be peeled and cut up. Green beans and corn had to be taken from the canning room and cooked. Someone had to go to the root celler for a cabbage head or two for coleslaw. Enough had to be prepared for the whole family as well as any hungry or poor neighbor who might not have enough to eat at the affair.
First, a good hot fire had to be kindled in the cook stove and a kettle of water set to boil. Some times if there was more than two chickens to butcher mom would have one of the boys start a fire outside between the canning rocks and set a washtub or canner over the fire so there would be enough boiling water to scald the chickens..Usually the chosen chickens would have already been caught and they would be put under a turned up washtub so they wouldn't get away again. Momma would go out and reach under the tub and grab a chicken right quick so the others wouldn't get out. Wringing a chicken's neck is no easy task but momma was an expert. When some of the older children would try they would just end up making the chicken dizzy by slinging it round and round. If it was set down it would get up and wobble off. I even tried it once but I was to little. I always had to try everything I saw my mom do. She had a lot of patience. She would always let me try anything unless it was dangerous. Mom said wringing a chicken's neck was not in the shoulder motion but in the wrist. Anyway, a few circles from her wrist and the chicken was a gonner!There was always a choping block and a razor sharp, double bit axe in the yard. Before the chicken even stopped flopping she would throw it up on the block and chop off it's head. She would lay it somewhere upside down so all the blood could drain. It was important to cut the head off quick while the heart was still beating to pump all the blood out. Mom said it was a sin to eat the blood of an animal. Each chicken under the tub met the same end. After they had stopped bleeding she would hold them by the feet and dunk them in the tub of scalding water. This loosened the feathers so they could be plucked out. Then she and the older girls would pluck out all the feathers. Next she would hold it over an open flame and singe it to burn off the little hairs and pen feathers. Then the striped chickens were put in a dishpan of cold water for gutting and cutting up. They would be dreged in flour, salt and pepper and placed in big cast iron skillets and fried crispy brown in hog lard.Um, Um, good! The fat hen would be cooked in a big pot so there would be room for the rich, yellow dumplings .
Cakes and pies had to be baked and covered with icing. Nothing on earth was as good as mommy's apple stack cake! A big pan of cornbread had to be made. The Typical box supper meal was fried chicken, chicken and dumplings, green beans or shucky beans, corn , potatoe salad and coleslaw, cornbread and fresh cow butter, peach, apple or blackberry pie, apple stack cake (or some other kind) and fresh, sweet milk or just churned buttermilk chilled in the spring down below the house. While everything was preparing and being boxed to go, we all
had to take turns getting cleaned up and ready to go. Once everyone was ready we would walk to the school house in the cool of the evening. The event was usually held on a Saturday evening when everybody was off work and could come.
The last day of school before the box supper classes were suspended after lunch. The school house had to be ready. All the desk were moved out of the middle of the room and placed side by side around the sides and back wall. The whole room was cleaned and new sweeping compound applied to the floors. We usually got to go home early after the school was clean.
While everyone was gathering in the children would run and play, the men would slap each other on the back and see who could tell the biggest or funniest tale. The women exchanged the latest gossip and fussed at their rowdy children. The older boys and girls would flirt a little. There was comradarie and good will all around. When everyone had arrived, the festivities began.
There was a pretty girl and ugly man contest. Someone would put a dollar on the girl they thought was prettiest. Since not everyone sees alike, somebody else would vote with their dollar for another girl. Which ever girl could get the most "votes" won the contest. The fellows would have to keep putting up money to keep their gal on top. This same process was followed for the ugly man contest. Men nominated each other in gest. There was no hard feelings, just fun and laughter.My sisters, Jewel and Delphia, were always nominated. Jewel said that Delphia was real pretty and she felt she wasn't as pretty as Delphia. Usually Delphia would win the prize. There was a gift for the one who won the contest. One of the boys, Edgar Howard, was struck on Delphia so he nominated her and was determined that she would win. Dillard Coots nominated Jewel and was just as determined that Edgar was not going to out do him. He ran the bid up untill Edgar ran out of money. The prize was a beautiful, ornate compac and Jewel said she wishes she had kept it for a keepsake.
There was games played with everyone participating. Pass the thimble was the one I remember most. There was a passer and a guesser. The other players kept their hands in their lap palms togather. The passer held a thimble between the palms, going around the room and running their hands between each player's hands. At some point the thimble would be passed to one of the players. The guesser had to guess who had the thimble now. If he guessed correctly the one with the thimble was out of the game. If he did not guess correctly, he was out of the game and the one with the thimble got to be the guesser. This went on until everyone was eliminated but one. Another game that was great fun was Laugh and Go Foot. In this game the men would line up facing their women as partners and they would hold hands. Two people, one on the men's side and one on the women's, would go down the line whispering a short phrase in in each players ear. Next, the man at the head of the line had to repeat the phrase three times and his partner would reply back with their phrase 3 times. If either of them laughed they had to go to the foot of the line. If they could say it without laughing, they could sit down. Of course, the phrases were always silly and the combinations produced much hilarity!
There was always a cake walk. All the couples formed a circle and as someone played music they marched around hand in hand. The cake was placed on a table in the center on a desk or table. A mark was placed on the floor and whichever couple were on the mark when the music stopped got the cake. Another event was a guess cake. In this event someone brought a cake with something baked in the cake such as a marble, boby jack, etc. Everyone had to guess what was in the cake. The correct guess won the cake.
The main event was the auctioning off of the boxes. An auctioner would hold up a box and the men would bid on it. All the men would bid even the married ones. They liked to run the bid up on the single men just for fun! After all, the money raised was for a good cause. When all the boxes had been bought, evverbody set down to feast!
The final event of the evening was the square dance. There was always musicians there. They would clear the middle of the floor for dancing and everyone would pair up for dancing. When they started playing the banjo, guitars, mandolin and fiddle the party was on! Someone had to do the calling. This was a person who called out the dance moves or steps that the couples was supposed to do. I don't remember the calls or the steps since this is another skill that has been almost lost to our Appalachian culture. Again, I missed learning it by being to little before the box supper became obsolete. The dancing would end when everyone got to tired to go on.
As goodbyes were said, we would walk home. Married folks and small children in one group and the single couples a little bit ahead or behind so they might get a chance to steal a kiss without being seen.
The air was crisp and cold The stars seemed to shine a little brighter and the moon to be a little bigger on those nights! Both body and soul was satisfied for now and a good warm feather bed was waiting.