Tood's Town IV
Yesterday I wrote about some nicknames of people in Cairo. Today, I am going to write a little about one of those people, my blog's namesake Tood.
Nicknames often become permanent replacements for given names. In addition, there are people with multiple equally well known nicknames. Tood was one of those people.
To my knowledge, Tood never had a job with an employer where he was paid a salary or an hourly wage. Tood was self-employed and an entrepeneur of sorts.
In the summer, Tood had some type of contract with the owner of the local drive-in movie to keep the grounds clean. Basically, this involved picking up the food wrappers, popcorn boxes, pop cups and other paper trash. Tood tried to hire boys from Cairo to do the actual work of collecting the trash. He paid us the munificent amount of $0.10/hour to stab the trash with a stick with a nail in the end and put it into a cloth bag with a strap that we slung diagonally across our chest and shoulders.
If he found no boys from Cairo to help pick up the trash at the drive-in on a particular day, he would go to the Lima State Hospital for the Criminally Insane which was located next to the drive-in and find some trusty prisoners to help him. I never knew the details, but the trustys were allowed to walk free on the prison grounds and apparently allowed to leave the hospital grounds with Tood. I am certain that the trusty's also got $0.10/hour.
When the bag was full we would empty it into Tood's dark green pick up truck. I believe Tood had dark green pick up trucks from during World War II up until his death in the early 70s.
I don't remember Tood ever actually picking up any trash. My recollection is that he would stay near the truck in the shade, complain about how hot it was, and drink a beer or two while others picked the trash.
But, on to Tood's other nickname and his primary occupation. In the winter, Tood bought wild animals from local hunters and trappers and sold the skins and carcasses. Most of the animals were muskrats and racoons with an occasional mink or weasel.
Tood owned a prime Cairo commercial lot located on the Southwest corner of Routes 30 and 65. The lot was about 150' x 150'.
He had a 15' x 20' rickety, windowless, wood shack which served as his office, skinning area and more importantly a social club for the locals. There was electricity to the shack and a couple of bare light bulbs hanging at the end of cords provided some light for the skinning and socializing activities. Socializing was always just talking, lying mostly, but no card games, beer drinking or other activities.
This was not during the pioneer days of Ohio. The shack was there from as early as I can remember in the 1940s and was there until Tood's death in the 1970s.
In the summer, it was just an empty, ugly orangeish shack. But during trapping season, it was a beehive of winter time social activity in Cairo.
Tood was there every day between Opening and Closing Days of hunting and trapping season buying, skinning, stretching, drying and selling skins. He also sold the animal carcusses for animal and sometimes human food.
The fresh skins were put on stretching and drying boards and hung on the side of the shack to dry. Not that the shack was ugly, but the animal skins and stretchers improved the appearance of the shack.
The shack contained a cast iron wood stove that was used to provide some heat for Tood and the loafers who would come everyday to gossip and lie about what was and wasn't happening in the greater Cairo metropolitan area. As a result of the primary activity going on within the shack, i.e., the skinning of dead, sometimes long dead animals, the shack had a constant oppressive, sickening odor of flesh in various stages of decay along with other less pleasant odors. The animal carcusses were dumped into 55 gallon oil barrels.
Inside the shack, the odor was not helped by the presence of a boiling bucket of water on the stove. The water was used by Tood to wash blood and other animal by-products from his hands.
If I remember correctly, the bucket was not emptied and refilled with clean water during the entire trapping season, mid-November through Mid-March. From time to time, water was added to replace spillage and evaporation, but the bucket was never emptied, washed and filled with clean water. The water in the bucket and the vapor was always, despite the constant boiling, absolutely rank.
Odors didn't matter. Men and boys were constantly coming and going. Trappers with a few or many muskrats and coons would arrive, find out what Tood was paying for skins, either sell promptly to Tood or take off in search of a better price.
The other visitors were non trappers, usually from Cairo or nearby farms and villages. The men, young, old and in between, who would stand and sit for hours talking and laughing about issues both serious and inane. People were constantly coming and going. A lot of them would leave to perform errands or chores and return for more socializing.
Most of the visitors were not hunters or trappers, but just loafers looking for a way to kill time. Frequently, there would be 7 to 10 men and boys there at any given time. That represented a fairly large percentage of the population of the area. Certainly, the number of visitors at Tood's shack was greater than any other place in Cairo except maybe The Restaurant.
Of course, Tood's other nickname was Skinner.
Dillard Farnsworth
Nicknames often become permanent replacements for given names. In addition, there are people with multiple equally well known nicknames. Tood was one of those people.
To my knowledge, Tood never had a job with an employer where he was paid a salary or an hourly wage. Tood was self-employed and an entrepeneur of sorts.
In the summer, Tood had some type of contract with the owner of the local drive-in movie to keep the grounds clean. Basically, this involved picking up the food wrappers, popcorn boxes, pop cups and other paper trash. Tood tried to hire boys from Cairo to do the actual work of collecting the trash. He paid us the munificent amount of $0.10/hour to stab the trash with a stick with a nail in the end and put it into a cloth bag with a strap that we slung diagonally across our chest and shoulders.
If he found no boys from Cairo to help pick up the trash at the drive-in on a particular day, he would go to the Lima State Hospital for the Criminally Insane which was located next to the drive-in and find some trusty prisoners to help him. I never knew the details, but the trustys were allowed to walk free on the prison grounds and apparently allowed to leave the hospital grounds with Tood. I am certain that the trusty's also got $0.10/hour.
When the bag was full we would empty it into Tood's dark green pick up truck. I believe Tood had dark green pick up trucks from during World War II up until his death in the early 70s.
I don't remember Tood ever actually picking up any trash. My recollection is that he would stay near the truck in the shade, complain about how hot it was, and drink a beer or two while others picked the trash.
But, on to Tood's other nickname and his primary occupation. In the winter, Tood bought wild animals from local hunters and trappers and sold the skins and carcasses. Most of the animals were muskrats and racoons with an occasional mink or weasel.
Tood owned a prime Cairo commercial lot located on the Southwest corner of Routes 30 and 65. The lot was about 150' x 150'.
He had a 15' x 20' rickety, windowless, wood shack which served as his office, skinning area and more importantly a social club for the locals. There was electricity to the shack and a couple of bare light bulbs hanging at the end of cords provided some light for the skinning and socializing activities. Socializing was always just talking, lying mostly, but no card games, beer drinking or other activities.
This was not during the pioneer days of Ohio. The shack was there from as early as I can remember in the 1940s and was there until Tood's death in the 1970s.
In the summer, it was just an empty, ugly orangeish shack. But during trapping season, it was a beehive of winter time social activity in Cairo.
Tood was there every day between Opening and Closing Days of hunting and trapping season buying, skinning, stretching, drying and selling skins. He also sold the animal carcusses for animal and sometimes human food.
The fresh skins were put on stretching and drying boards and hung on the side of the shack to dry. Not that the shack was ugly, but the animal skins and stretchers improved the appearance of the shack.
The shack contained a cast iron wood stove that was used to provide some heat for Tood and the loafers who would come everyday to gossip and lie about what was and wasn't happening in the greater Cairo metropolitan area. As a result of the primary activity going on within the shack, i.e., the skinning of dead, sometimes long dead animals, the shack had a constant oppressive, sickening odor of flesh in various stages of decay along with other less pleasant odors. The animal carcusses were dumped into 55 gallon oil barrels.
Inside the shack, the odor was not helped by the presence of a boiling bucket of water on the stove. The water was used by Tood to wash blood and other animal by-products from his hands.
If I remember correctly, the bucket was not emptied and refilled with clean water during the entire trapping season, mid-November through Mid-March. From time to time, water was added to replace spillage and evaporation, but the bucket was never emptied, washed and filled with clean water. The water in the bucket and the vapor was always, despite the constant boiling, absolutely rank.
Odors didn't matter. Men and boys were constantly coming and going. Trappers with a few or many muskrats and coons would arrive, find out what Tood was paying for skins, either sell promptly to Tood or take off in search of a better price.
The other visitors were non trappers, usually from Cairo or nearby farms and villages. The men, young, old and in between, who would stand and sit for hours talking and laughing about issues both serious and inane. People were constantly coming and going. A lot of them would leave to perform errands or chores and return for more socializing.
Most of the visitors were not hunters or trappers, but just loafers looking for a way to kill time. Frequently, there would be 7 to 10 men and boys there at any given time. That represented a fairly large percentage of the population of the area. Certainly, the number of visitors at Tood's shack was greater than any other place in Cairo except maybe The Restaurant.
Of course, Tood's other nickname was Skinner.
Dillard Farnsworth
posted by Tood at 3:07 PM
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