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the modern day Habitat for Humanity), hog-killing to help feed families, quilting parties to make quilts for the winter, we were giving of ourselves for others.

Those were social outings — we enjoyed ourselves while we worked to be good neighbors — and we invested in community service without realizing it. If was natural. Many folk learned to read by reading theBible. Wegainedthe ultimate in satisfaction in making do.

We expected ourselves to share, to be good neighbors and to be inclined to help get our neighbor’s ox out of the ditch.

For the record, however, I would have been willing to starve before I would eat chitlins, souse meat and pickled pig’s feet. A country boy knows how to survive and to live off the land, but he can also find a way to sustain himself without eating the worst parts of a hog.