I got a little taste of corn husking as a kid. Dad had his hobby farm by Shindler but not a lot of land for growing crops. What he did have was lots of connections with farmers who grew corn and would let him go through their fields to glean leftover corn that their pickers didn’t get, and many times he’d bring us kids along. Dad would hitch up his homebuilt corn wagon behind the tractor or behind a team of ponies, and we’d walk alongside through the field picking up anything we could find and pitch it against the bangboard & into the wagon. And Dad would tell us stories about how this was the way that corn was picked back in the day.
In the days before mechanical corn pickers, entire fields were picked by hand, ear by ear. And of course there were some guys that had a real knack for doing it quickly, which developed into competitions where they’d see how much corn each could shuck in a given amount of time. Amazingly these competitions live on today. And dang it anyhow, I missed the 2007 competition which was held in nearby Dell Rapids, SD.
Dell Rapids was also home to the somewhat famous 1938 National Corn Husking Competition, which dwarfed this year’s event. While there were only 12 competitors in 1938, the contest drew over 100,000 spectators. This year there were almost as many competitors as spectators.
I poked around a little on the cornhusking.com site and was amazed at the results turned in by the shuckers this year; first place went to Frank Hennenfent of Illinois who picked a whopping 699 lbs. in the 30 minute Men’s Open competition. But that pales in comparison to his 2004 National win with 896 lbs. picked. The second place finishers were over 100 lbs. short of Frank’s totals. Wow!
I don’t remember if Dad ever used one, but I have seen corn husking hooks and gloves that are used by huskers. Most involved a glove-like thing that placed a hook on the palm of the hand which helped in getting the husk off.
Other contrivances included nail studded leather thumb wraps that did the same thing.
