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Don McDouall was evacuated from London during World War II when he was five years old. He was sent to the small country village of East Hanney to live with Grans and Grampy at a house called Tamarisk. He now lives in Australia.
A ritual use to take place every year just before Christmas while the war was still going on. This was the 'pig saga'. Every year, for as long as I could remember, around about March time Grampy would buy a small pig.
This pig was kept in a sty made from bales of straw. The sty was built every year on the farm where Grampy worked. Grampy, Roy and I would feed the pig twice every day with food scraps from the house, barely and veggies from the garden. I very often fed myself from these scraps.
By Christmas time the pig would be big and fat. Franky Herman was the local licenced pig killer in East Hanney. He and Gramps would first catch the pig, which in turn would start squealing its head off. This made me get very excited especially when I was very little.
The pig would get dragged out of the sty and the two men would hold it down then tie its legs together. Then Gramps would hold it on the ground while Franky Herman would stab it in the neck with a sharp knife. Blood would spurt everywhere and it would take the pig a long time to die!
I use to cry watching all of this. Mr Herman would say 'Well don't look boy'. When the pig was finally dead it would be placed on a heap of straw, which was then set on fire. This was to burn off all the hair.
When one side was burnt the pig got turned over and the burning was repeated. Then the pig got scraped all over by the two men, using knives and hot water. The burnt looking pig was then hung up in a barn where Mr Herman would then disembowel the pig.
All of its guts and entrails were placed in a large bucket. This bloody gore was trundled away in the handcart and taken home. The pig was left hanging in the barn over night for the meat to set.
Back at home the next day Roy and I would then have to pull all the very cold intestines free of the binding fat. Gramps would cut the guts into equal lengths and we would have to squeeze all the excreta out of each length by pulling the greasy gut through a clenched hand.
When this was finished the gut was washed in salty water. Three segments of the washed intestines would get plaited together and these plaits were held together with bits of string and called 'Chitlings'.
None of the pig got wasted at all. Even the head and feet were eaten. The Chitlings were boiled up in salty water in the copper. When cold they were eaten with mustard. All the fat was rendered down, becoming lard when cold. This lard was eaten on bread with salt added and sometimes sugar!
The day after the pig was slaughtered we would take it home on the big handcart and Franky Herman would come the next day and cut the pig up. There would be sides of bacon and hams plus all the rest of it. All the meat was then placed upon a large wooden trough that had been tarred inside, where it was covered over with large quantities of salt and salt petre (Sodium Nitrate) to preserve it.
We were usually given the bladder. This made a rather smelly football!
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