A Pounding

(Ooops! I forgot to get a picture of the house from the outside. Check back later.)

Last Lord's Day (March 9th), we received a "pounding" from our friends. Now this may not seem like something desirable so I will explain.

As I understand it, several generations ago, when a teacher, preacher, or new family came to a community the neighboring people would throw a "pounding" for the new person/family. Typically, some random day when the family was fairly recently settled in their home, guests would begin to arrive. Lots of them. All at the same time. This would happen near dinner time.

You may be able to imagine the overwhelming anxiety that the lady/cook could be feeling at this point in wondering how she is going to feed so many guests. Given that she was new to the area, it is also likely that her pantry was filled enough for her family, but certainly not enough to sustain many guests (keep in mind that the food for the family was cut down to the necessities during the move, and there was no Walmart to be able to quickly restock the pantry, the restocking would be done over several seasons).

Joyfully, as the guests arrive, each had a large pot or basket of food; so to the lady's delight there is no lack of food during the dinner party. After the meal and social activities were over, the guests would leave. After the guests were gone, there would be several bags, pots, jars, and other containers left behind. Each would be filled with something like flower, cornmeal, yeast, nuts, berries, dried fruit, etc. (this is of course my guess of what the contents were, but there might have been other useful items such as nails, screws, staples,...!). The contents of each container would weight about one pound.
(Now you know.)

In our particular "pound party", guests came dressed in some western attire and they also brought some much needed rain! (We have not had rain since early November.) Since our house was recently constructed the nearest 20+ feet around our house was dirt, and the guests came just as the rain began. Everyone was very muddy upon entering the house, but they shucked their muddy boots at the entry (I sure am glad that we did not put carpet there!) and seemed to have a great time.

Well that was our "pounding".
Enjoy!
Taylor