My mom, from Tennessee, told me they raised hogs at that time. Thanksgiving was not a day for feasting, it was hog killing time.
My dad, who was raised on the high plains during the dust bowl, told of eating lots of fried rabbit.
Hamburger was mixed with oatmeal and beef heart was ground to mix with it.
Lard was used to fry everything in and even as late as 1965, my aunt would make soap because she could not stand to see it wasted.
Then there was any wild meat you could find. Armadillos were not called “Hoover Hogs” for nothing. While armadillos were not in their corner of the state, others ate raccoon and woodchuck. Many of the garden vegetables were cooked green and are considered a delicacy today. Fried Green tomatoes, squash,various other gourd plants and nothing was wasted.
One of my favorite foods in the 1960s when money was short was brown beans and fried potatoes.
We ate lots of brown beans, often three times a week. Even today my brother will not touch a brown bean.
We cooked eggs from our own chickens, and my sister loved sliced bread with a hole in it, fried with an egg in it.
My kin on the high plains ate lots of biscuits. They ate so many when they went to town they hoped they would be late getting home. Their mom would then buy store bought bread instead of making biscuits.
After they all grew up and left home, they often wished they had some of their mom’s home made biscuits.
One of my aunts would go back to visit every few years, and insist on being taken to the old home place. There she would cry and have a nostalgia fit as she went through each room.
One day she visited and had them take her to the old home place when the wind dust happened to be blowing.
She was shocked to see the dust filtering in through the cracks in the windows, hanging in the air, collecting on everything. She remembered how it was when she was small. She went out, got into the car, and said...”I NEVER want to see this place again!”
I happened to come across a youtube video where they were interviewing an old guy, and how poor he was. But out in back he had several dogs and I thought (”get rid of some of your dogs”).
Turns out they were coon dogs. The old guy had a freezer full of coons. One for $15, 2 for $25. Detroit!
Armadillos are easy to catch. Just run them down and bash their heads. Fry them up or boil them. They're just as good as any other meat. Boil squirrel. Fry frog legs and rattlesnakes. Fried sweetbreads and moutain oysters aren't bad either. Good eats!