"Sucking Cider through a Straw" (1874)

[Michael McKernan]

Barry,

this memoir excerpt is from roughly 1830-40, but not published until 1894,
but I thought you might appreciate the description of the activity in the
song.

>I have very pleasant recollections of the neighborhood cider mill. There
>were two rollers formed of logs carefully rounded and four or five feet
>long, set closely together in an upright position in a rough frame, a long
>crooked sweep coming from one of them to which a horse was hitched and
>pulled it round and round, One roller had mortices in it, and projecting
>wooden teeth on the other fitted into these, so that, as they both slowly
>turned together, the apples were crushed, A huge box of coarse slats,
>notched and locked together at the corners, held a vast pile of the
>crushed apples while clean rye straw was added to strain the flowing juice
>and keep the cheese from spreading too much; then the ponderous screw and
>streams of delicious cider. Sucking cider through a long rye straw
>inserted in the bung-hole of a barrel was just the best of fun, and cider
>taken that way "awful" good while it was new and sweet.

http://www.death-valley.us/dv49/dv49_3.html@@@Death Valley in '49

[nb: url needs to have the final text pasted in!]

By Williams Lewis Manly; Important chapter of California pioneer history.
The autobiography of a pioneer, detailing his life from a humble home in
the Green Mountains to the gold mines of California; and particularly
reciting the sufferings of the band of men, women and children who gave
"Death Valley" its name.

PUBLISHED San José, California, The Pacific tree and vine co., 1894.

Michael McKernan