N.C. Farm Wives Convert Skills, Surplus Goods, Into Cash, 1951

By F.H. Jeter, Extension Editor, N.C. State College, Raleigh, as published in the Carolina Farm Observer, Jan. 1, 1951

North Carolina farm women found last fall that one way to have Christmas money was to convert those extra things about the farm into cash. Many of them have been adding many a home comfort by this means. Mrs. Robert Abernathy of the Union section of Lincoln County has what you might call a slogan, “Sew and Save.” Her adept needle has added many comforts to the Abernathy home and has saved the family many a badly needed dollar. She is the same person, you recall, who this past summer won the North Carolina Farmers Cooperative Exchange prize for making the best dress from feed sacks. She was not always so adept with the needle however. She began sewing when she was married but knew little about it. She would get help form a neighbor or friend and progressed along the “trial and error” way.

When she joined the local home demonstration club in her community and the members began to study sewing and how to make their own clothes at home, she really was overjoyed because this was one of the things she had always wanted to do. She became expert in the handling of freed sacks. In starting with her prize winning dress, she exchanged sacks with neighbors until she got enough cloth to make an attractive blue and white dress like she wanted. It took four flour sacks but since some of them had holes in them, she had to do a little careful maneuvering. But she made a dress on which she spent 30 cents for a zipper, 10 cents for thread, and 20 cents for two cards of buttons, or a total of 60 cents plus one or two cents for sales tax. That same dress won the local FCX contest in Lincoln County and finally the state contest, in Raleigh last year.

Mrs. Abernathy was awarded $50 for first prize and since she wanted the money to be used for something she could really appreciate, she bought inlaid linoleum for her kitchen floor.

She has just completed a new brown suit at a total cost of $4.20. She now makes nearly all of her own clothing, using modern, up-to-date patterns that provide her with attractive and becoming suits and dresses. She also makes the clothing for Kathy, the Abernathy’s small daughter, for Bobby, the young son of the family. Miss Ainslee Alexander, Lincoln home agent, says Mrs. Abernathy has saved $140 this past year alone in making the family clothing at home. This fall, she made and sold several blouses to earn pin money for the Christmas presents she has been busily buying recently.

DAVIE COUNTY

Mr. and Mrs. John N. Anderson of Mocksville, Route 1, have saved money by renovating their ancestral home in Davie County. They have used their own labor to make this home more comfortable by adding those necessary conveniences now found in all modern rural homes. The Andersons and their little daughter, Perry, live in a quaint brick house over a century old. They are the third generation of the Anderson family to live there, but the home is not the same place it was when the first generation built it. This young couple have beautified and renovated the house inside and out and they live comfortably and well.

Miss Florence Mackie, Davie home agent, says that the Andersons grow all of their own food. Mrs. Anderson put up 500 quarts of canned food this past year. They have a frozen food cabinet for saving and storing their surplus. They are also using electrical current for an electric range for cooking, an automatic washing machine for the laundry, and an electric ironer. They also have a refrigerator as well as the freezer cabinet. The floors are cleaned with a vacuum cleaner; the coffee made with an electric percolator; the clothes made on an electric sewing machine; and water is pumped to the kitchen and bath by an electric pump. Right now they are working with others in the community to get a rural telephone line.

The husband, John, served in the last world war for five years and was discharged with the rank of captain. Alma, his wife, is a registered nurse. She is the county health leader among the home demonstration women and the two of them are an inspiration to their community.

POLK COUNTY

Over in little Polk County where the folks grow lots of peaches as a cash crop, Mrs. G.L. McIntire finds that it pays to have an extra income. The peach crop is none too dependable because of late frosts and freezes in the spring, so Mrs. McIntyre guarantees the family income with a flock of laying hens. This yeark she has grown 270 hens and she gets a premium for her eggs because she sells them to a local hatchery at a price of about 30 cents a dozen above that offered locally for just plain food eggs.

She says, however, if you don’t think 270 hens can keep you busy, just try it. The flock must be watered and fed regularly and the eggs must be gathered every day, sometimes every hour, and kept clean and cool. Until the cold weather, Mrs. McIntyre was gathering and selling 138 dozen eggs a week. Now the number has dropped to 113 dozen. Each egg is carefully candled and all the culls are removed. Only the best eggs go to the hatchery and that explains her premium price.

Just as soon as the season is right and there is a profitable peach crop in the foodthill country, Miss Ruth Kesler, home agent in Polk, says that Mrs. McIntire is going to appropriate a p art of the peach money to build another laying house so as to increase her poultry business. She knows of no better way by which the farm wife can supplement her family income.

MECKLENBURG COUNTY

Just as individual farm women make contributions to the family loving, so do their home demonstration clubs make contributions to the life of the community. Miss Helen John Wright, Mecklenburg home agent, says the Glenwood Community club was organized on the outskirts of Charlotte on October 31, 1932. This club met first in the local Glenwood ARP church but later moved its headquarters to the old home of Sydenham B. Alexander, one of the historical landmarks in Mecklenburg County. During World War I, this old mansion was the headquarters for Brigader General Dickman, commandant of Camp Greene. The community club used the Alexander home for a year and then formed a corporation to buy it and make it over into a community center. That was done on May 20, 1936.

The old home is surrounded by beautiful oaks and contains about two acres of grounds—an ideal spot for the community center. In 1935, this community club became affiliated with the Mecklenburg Home Demonstration organization and the women set to work to improve the place and to get it paid for. Once a month, the club members would have a social hour at the center and they suited all kinds of home crafts at their regular meetings. A plant exchange was conducted to so that each member might beautify her home grounds.

Mainly, the women tried to get the old debt paid off and a new gymnasium-auditorium built. They finally converted the house into four apartments and used the income from these to pay for the property. Finally, all the debts were paid and the club owned a piece of property valued at $10,000. Now, they have agreed to donate this property to the City of Charlotte so that the Park and Recreation commission can build a center, valued at about $75,000. This work is well under way and the women expect the center to be ready for use this spring. They have, however, reserved a special room with kitchen equipment as a place to hold their regular club meetings each month. It is one of the really great pieces of cooperative effort by clubwomen in adding to a better life for their community.

Such things are becoming more common all over the state as rural farm families seek to live better and to have, out in the country, those good things which make for a happy and convenient living.