Trew: Is this really progress?

Once upon a time, here in the Panhandle, groceries and other supplies were available only at Tascosa, Mobeetie, New Clarendon and Dodge City. This is a long way from our modern Quick Stops and Super Stores. Imagine making out your grocery list for enough staples to last six months or more at a time. Or, list the items needed on your chuck wagon to feed eight hungry, hard-working men on a cattle drive lasting for several months. Of course the fare was simple, mostly flour, salt, baking powder and dried pinto beans. Meat was butchered as needed whether at home on the frontier or on the trail. One of the most important facilities for a frontier home was a dirt-walled root cellar where almost anything could be stored in an effort to preserve food a little longer. When meat-packing companies developed home meat cures, everyone built a large wooden meat box to hold cured hams, shoulders, bacon sides and sausage after the fall hog killing. Another fall practice that worked well was hanging sides of fresh beef, wrapped in old bed sheets, in the windmill towers...more