Page 18 - barefoot-in-the-sand-remembering-the-waning-days-of-the-hopewell-community-(1998)-bruce-c-gragg

Barefoot In The Sand: Remembering the Waning Days of the Hopewell Community (1998) Bruce C. Gragg 14/123

HOPEWELL-A UNIQUE COMMUNITY

The Hopewell Community was quite unique, some 12 to 15 miles SW of
the Okefenokee Swamp. Yes, this is near POGO territory, (The
newspaper comic strip somewhat mythical character of several years
ago.) and I too am a bit like Pogo, neither of us can actually be
described. He could have some prophetic comments at times. He once
declared "We have found the enemy, and it are WE." At times I can
very much relate to his philosophy of life. No one really knows what
either of us are. There was lots of game to hunt and plenty of places
to go fishing. At that time there was a good mixture of ponds,
hardwood stands, wetlands and farmland to support a vast assortment
of wildlife and birds. A lot of the neighbors hunted and fished as
recreation or an afternoon ’’off.” As I grew up there were only about
6 family homesteads left. Several other families lived there for a
year or two then moved on.

Many of the families would help each other during ’’cane grinding” or
’’hog killing time.” With cane grinding and syrup making it was more
visiting than hard work. The hardest work was for the individual
feeding the cane into the mill for grinding, not really hard physical
work but you just had to stand there and feed the mill. Not a very
dangerous job, you had to be a little careful. There was always that
small chance that a careless operator could get a hand caught in the
rollers. The biggest problem was not get careless and move too far
from the mill and let the sweep hit your head.

The mill was made up of two or three big rollers ten to about 15
inches in diameter with large cogs on the top end and mounted onto a
heavy wood frame. These cogs insured that all the rollers turned
properly to crush the stalk of cane, extracting the juice. One of the
rollers had a long shaft on the top end that extended through the top
of the frame and a sweep was fitted onto it. A horse or mule had the
job of walking in a big circle pulling the sweep that in turn, turned
the big rollers to crush the cane to extract the juice. As the juice
was extracted from the stalk of cane it drained down to a catch
board, with channels cut in it, to direct the juice to a barrel. The
juice was collected in a barrel to be processed in a large iron
kettle. It was constant work for several hours a day, yet it was done
in a more relaxed mode. The best part was just before the syrup was
fully cooked, the "polecat" was ready to eat. This is the froth that
forms during the cooking and accumulates on the edge of the large
kettle and turns into candy. I am not sure of how the name of it came
about, it was not very appropriate. Some people would use a spoon
when

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