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"Big Papa's Croakersacks"
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"Big Papa's Croakersacks"
A Croakersack Story
By
Alvin Hebert
Croakersack is an almost forgotten word for a burlap bag.
Croakersacks were widely used at one time to package goods
like flour, pecans, peanuts and potatoes for transportation to
market. Their sizes varied but generally they were about three
or four feet tall and had an opening of about two and one half
feet in diameter.
Years ago, people found practical uses for croakersacks once
they had been emptied of their original contents. They carried
or stored all sorts of things in them. Sometimes, they stuffed
them with moss and used them for bedding.
If it could fit inside a croakersack, sooner or later, it ended up in
a croakersack.
Those things included things that croaked, like frogs and
croaker fish. That's where the word Croakersack came from,
animals that croaked or made a rough vibrating sound.
Dictionaries have a hard time dealing with the word,
“croakersack”. Some do not list the word because they don’t
know it. They never heard it used in their circles of life. They
define the word “croaker” and the word “sack”, separately, and
refuse to recognize the fact that the two words can be joined
together.
Some do join the two words together and call it a misspelling
and or a mispronunciation. One goes so far as to call the word
“croakersack”, "a problem with linguistics”.
If you research the word “croakersack” on your own, you find
sufficient evidence of its usage. The great writer Henry Dumas
wrote about croakersacks in his book, Six Days You Shall
Labor. People like the great musician Count Basie talked about
croakersacks in printed accounts. The author Connie Mae
Fowler wrote about croakersacks in her book, When Katie
Wakes: A Memoir. You will find other examples of its usage, if
you do your own research.
It is true that croakersack is a mostly southern word, as far as
usage goes. It also is true that the word croakersack, more
than likely, originated among southern black people. It caught
on, and became widespread, at least in the South. I heard
white people use that word, too, when I was a boy spending
time on my grandfather’s farm in Dayton, Texas.
The fact is croakersack has been a part of the English
language for a long, long time. Longer than any of the "word
cops" have been around to brag about. The fact is, if not for
the eminent demise of the burlap bag, the word croakersack
would be like the word “ain’t”. You would have to shove it down
some folks' throats for three or four hundred years before they
would even admit to its existence.
That only would happen when their children and grandchildren
start using such a word.
When croakersacks were common practicalities, young boys
and men who hunted frogs needed something to put them in
once they caught them. You just could not put a bull frog in
your pocket. Not if you wanted to avoid a sticky, wet feeling
running down your legs.
Besides, a bull frog jumping around in your pocket might have
given some people the wrong impression of you.
You needed something to put fish in, too. You needed some
way to carry them. Fish are slippery and slimy. It is easier to
put a fish in a croakersack than it is to put a fish in your
pocket.
When I was a young boy, I got a lot of “hands on” experience
with croakersacks. The odds were that the croakersacks did
not have holes and my pants pockets did. I hid some of my
boyhood treasures in croakersacks. Croakersacks, burlap
bags, are tough stuff.
Croakersacks were cheap, inexpensive containers, considering
you did not have to buy them just to hunt frogs and catch fish,
or for whatever purposes people eventually used them. They
were a bonus left over from another purchase.
When croakersacks began piling up around the house and the
barn, you put them to good use. That’s good old human
practicality in its finest and most basic form.
Big Papa’s Farm
I am a city guy. I remember spending my summers, as a boy,
on Big Papa Hebert's farm in Dayton, Texas. Weekends on the
farm were the time to drive into town and shop. Shopping in
those days was a lot different than shopping is today.
In those days, no one went shopping just to get a candy bar, or
a newspaper, or, to find a deal at the flea market. You did not
go shopping just to hang out or just because you were bored.
In those days you went into town to shop for the basic
necessities of life on the farm.
Food supplies were first on the list. You shopped for flour and
you baked your own bread. If you purchased beans, it was
because beans were among the things you could not grow on
the farm because you did not have the room. And you
purchased those beans as raw beans. Where did raw beans
come from in those days?
You guessed it, usually they usually came from a croakersack
sitting on a floor in a country store.
Some stores today still sell some beans out in the open in
boxes that way, in addition to selling canned beans from
shelves.
Milk came from the cow. It did not come from Mrs. Borden’s
cow. It came from your cow. If you did not have a cow, you
probably did not have children or grand children. You did not
borrow milk from your neighbor, either.
Clothing was usually purchased yearly, and, sparingly. You did
not need a closet for your shoes and a closet for your coats
and a closet for your socks. If you had a shortage of clothing,
you purchased needles and thread and cloth material. You
patched the clothing you bought earlier for your yearly
allotment.
Where did you get the stuff to make the patches?
Can you say, “croakersack”?
Well, sometimes, you had some cloth around the house from
last year’s allotment, too.
Going to Town
The grand children would climb into the
back of the truck and go into town along
with Big Mama and Big Papa. Big Mama
and Big Papa were too smart to leave
their grand children unattended at the farm. They wanted to be
able to recognize the place when they returned home. And
they wanted to have something to come home to, as well.
Big Mama and Big Papa would ride up front in the cab of the
truck. Since the cab could not hold all of us, the grand children
rode in the back bed of the truck. Of course, if a grand baby
was too young to ride in the back unattended, he or she rode in
the front of the truck. Only one or two grand babies, at the
most, could fit safely on the seat in the cab between Big Mama
and Big Papa. After that, the rest of us were considered big
kids, at least for the duration of the ride into town and back
home again.
Big Papa and Big Mama preferred to ride in the cab. Big Mama
was not going to sit on the floor board in the back of the truck.
No way. Floor boards were made of wood, then. Wood meant
splinters, not that Big Mama ever complained of splinters. She
just did not ride in the back of a truck, any truck, and Big Mama
did not have to explain why to anyone.
She was always at Big Papa’s side, though. She never walked
behind him, either. She had the shopping list and she never let
him forget it.
Big Mama’s Nerves
Big Papa had to do the driving. He had no choice but to ride up
front. Big Mama could not drive.
Big Mama did not care to drive. The ride into town was her
quality time, her rest time. It put space between her and the
grand childrenl, except the two grand babies riding in the front
cab. Those two put space between Big Papa and Big Mama.
They were still in their cute stages.
(more)
(go to top of page) (Home Page) (Click Here to Continue!)
A Croakersack Story
By
Alvin Hebert
Croakersack is an almost forgotten word for a burlap bag.
Croakersacks were widely used at one time to package goods
like flour, pecans, peanuts and potatoes for transportation to
market. Their sizes varied but generally they were about three
or four feet tall and had an opening of about two and one half
feet in diameter.
Years ago, people found practical uses for croakersacks once
they had been emptied of their original contents. They carried
or stored all sorts of things in them. Sometimes, they stuffed
them with moss and used them for bedding.
If it could fit inside a croakersack, sooner or later, it ended up in
a croakersack.
Those things included things that croaked, like frogs and
croaker fish. That's where the word Croakersack came from,
animals that croaked or made a rough vibrating sound.
Dictionaries have a hard time dealing with the word,
“croakersack”. Some do not list the word because they don’t
know it. They never heard it used in their circles of life. They
define the word “croaker” and the word “sack”, separately, and
refuse to recognize the fact that the two words can be joined
together.
Some do join the two words together and call it a misspelling
and or a mispronunciation. One goes so far as to call the word
“croakersack”, "a problem with linguistics”.
If you research the word “croakersack” on your own, you find
sufficient evidence of its usage. The great writer Henry Dumas
wrote about croakersacks in his book, Six Days You Shall
Labor. People like the great musician Count Basie talked about
croakersacks in printed accounts. The author Connie Mae
Fowler wrote about croakersacks in her book, When Katie
Wakes: A Memoir. You will find other examples of its usage, if
you do your own research.
It is true that croakersack is a mostly southern word, as far as
usage goes. It also is true that the word croakersack, more
than likely, originated among southern black people. It caught
on, and became widespread, at least in the South. I heard
white people use that word, too, when I was a boy spending
time on my grandfather’s farm in Dayton, Texas.
The fact is croakersack has been a part of the English
language for a long, long time. Longer than any of the "word
cops" have been around to brag about. The fact is, if not for
the eminent demise of the burlap bag, the word croakersack
would be like the word “ain’t”. You would have to shove it down
some folks' throats for three or four hundred years before they
would even admit to its existence.
That only would happen when their children and grandchildren
start using such a word.
When croakersacks were common practicalities, young boys
and men who hunted frogs needed something to put them in
once they caught them. You just could not put a bull frog in
your pocket. Not if you wanted to avoid a sticky, wet feeling
running down your legs.
Besides, a bull frog jumping around in your pocket might have
given some people the wrong impression of you.
You needed something to put fish in, too. You needed some
way to carry them. Fish are slippery and slimy. It is easier to
put a fish in a croakersack than it is to put a fish in your
pocket.
When I was a young boy, I got a lot of “hands on” experience
with croakersacks. The odds were that the croakersacks did
not have holes and my pants pockets did. I hid some of my
boyhood treasures in croakersacks. Croakersacks, burlap
bags, are tough stuff.
Croakersacks were cheap, inexpensive containers, considering
you did not have to buy them just to hunt frogs and catch fish,
or for whatever purposes people eventually used them. They
were a bonus left over from another purchase.
When croakersacks began piling up around the house and the
barn, you put them to good use. That’s good old human
practicality in its finest and most basic form.
Big Papa’s Farm
I am a city guy. I remember spending my summers, as a boy,
on Big Papa Hebert's farm in Dayton, Texas. Weekends on the
farm were the time to drive into town and shop. Shopping in
those days was a lot different than shopping is today.
In those days, no one went shopping just to get a candy bar, or
a newspaper, or, to find a deal at the flea market. You did not
go shopping just to hang out or just because you were bored.
In those days you went into town to shop for the basic
necessities of life on the farm.
Food supplies were first on the list. You shopped for flour and
you baked your own bread. If you purchased beans, it was
because beans were among the things you could not grow on
the farm because you did not have the room. And you
purchased those beans as raw beans. Where did raw beans
come from in those days?
You guessed it, usually they usually came from a croakersack
sitting on a floor in a country store.
Some stores today still sell some beans out in the open in
boxes that way, in addition to selling canned beans from
shelves.
Milk came from the cow. It did not come from Mrs. Borden’s
cow. It came from your cow. If you did not have a cow, you
probably did not have children or grand children. You did not
borrow milk from your neighbor, either.
Clothing was usually purchased yearly, and, sparingly. You did
not need a closet for your shoes and a closet for your coats
and a closet for your socks. If you had a shortage of clothing,
you purchased needles and thread and cloth material. You
patched the clothing you bought earlier for your yearly
allotment.
Where did you get the stuff to make the patches?
Can you say, “croakersack”?
Well, sometimes, you had some cloth around the house from
last year’s allotment, too.
Going to Town
The grand children would climb into the
back of the truck and go into town along
with Big Mama and Big Papa. Big Mama
and Big Papa were too smart to leave
their grand children unattended at the farm. They wanted to be
able to recognize the place when they returned home. And
they wanted to have something to come home to, as well.
Big Mama and Big Papa would ride up front in the cab of the
truck. Since the cab could not hold all of us, the grand children
rode in the back bed of the truck. Of course, if a grand baby
was too young to ride in the back unattended, he or she rode in
the front of the truck. Only one or two grand babies, at the
most, could fit safely on the seat in the cab between Big Mama
and Big Papa. After that, the rest of us were considered big
kids, at least for the duration of the ride into town and back
home again.
Big Papa and Big Mama preferred to ride in the cab. Big Mama
was not going to sit on the floor board in the back of the truck.
No way. Floor boards were made of wood, then. Wood meant
splinters, not that Big Mama ever complained of splinters. She
just did not ride in the back of a truck, any truck, and Big Mama
did not have to explain why to anyone.
She was always at Big Papa’s side, though. She never walked
behind him, either. She had the shopping list and she never let
him forget it.
Big Mama’s Nerves
Big Papa had to do the driving. He had no choice but to ride up
front. Big Mama could not drive.
Big Mama did not care to drive. The ride into town was her
quality time, her rest time. It put space between her and the
grand childrenl, except the two grand babies riding in the front
cab. Those two put space between Big Papa and Big Mama.
They were still in their cute stages.
(more)
(go to top of page) (Home Page) (Click Here to Continue!)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.
| Gabe & Lorena Hebert "Big Papa" & "Big Mama" |
...croakersack
is a mostly
southern word...
is a mostly
southern word...
...they usually came
from a croakersack
sitting on a floor in a
country store.
from a croakersack
sitting on a floor in a
country store.
The cab
could not
hold all of
us.
could not
hold all of
us.