like manna FROM GOD: THE AMERICAN CHESTNUT TRADE IN SOUTHWESTERN VIRGINIA

Environmental History, Jul 2004 by Lutts, Ralph H

The task of collecting the nuts was often a delight to children, who remembered it fondly in their elder years. A Grayson County, Virginia, woman remembered:

On a windy night, we'd fall asleep dreaming of the ground covered with chestnuts which wind-shaken trees had let go. The next morning, breakfast was gulped down as we hurriedly put on old coats, caps and everyday shoes, grabbed buckets or baskets and headed for the closest big chestnut trees, calling back to remind our father to be sure to write an excuse for tardiness at school. Many of the nuts had already fallen out of open burrs and were hiding under masses of brown frost-bitten leaves. Some were still inside of very prickly outside burrs but partly open revealing the velvet inside lining. Sometimes we had to use a foot to squash a burr to give up its fruit.16

To get the nuts, people often had to compete with animals, including domestic animals. "There was another chore that had to be taken care of on the farm," wrote a Floyd County, Virginia, resident, "the picking up of chestnuts. You gathered the chestnuts, every one that you could get. If you didn't have turkeys, you could get a pretty good supply. But you had to beat the turkeys to the chestnut tree in the morning if you were to get very many." Another Blue Ridge resident recalled his impoverished childhood: "There was a time of year when we had food. That was in late fall after the gusty winds of a chestnut storm left the ground strewed with nuts. Pa and Ma would take us out by lantern light to beat the hogs to them."17

More affluent folks enjoyed nutting as recreation. One author recalled "certain city folk in whom the country heart is still alive and whom memories of boyhood drive to take the night trolleys to the country on blowing October dawns." One morning in rural Pennsylvania, for example, he met a gatherer who was "the proud possessor of a long stocking stuffed full, [who] told me that he must hurry back, as he had to be at his optician's bench in the city by eight o'clock." Urban and suburban families ventured to the countryside to gather chestnuts. Boys would go "clubbing," throwing sticks high into the trees to knock the nuts down. They would often weight the sticks with pieces of metal, sometimes with nuts removed from the bolts that joined sections of railroad track. In the autumn, railroad track-walkers carried extra metal nuts with them to replace those that were missing.18

For mountain folk, chestnuts were more than a source of food for themselves. The nuts also fattened their hogs, which foraged freely through out the local forest. In addition, the chestnuts were a source of income. They were sold at the local general store, or exchanged for merchandise or store credit. Each autumn, many children exchanged nuts for shoes, clothes, and schoolbooks. "A small little kid could pick up chestnuts," recalled a Georgia man. "We'd get up before breakfast and go to these trees where a lot of chestnuts had fallen overnight, beat the hogs there, and pick them up. Take them to market, sell them, and get shoes, clothes, or other things with them." A woman recalled that when she was a girl, "I'd pick them up and get the money for 'em, and I was glad to get to pick 'em up 'cause I'd get the money for 'em. And I was stingy with 'em as I could be, I'll just tell you the truth! When I was little I thought every chestnut I picked up had to be sold."19