Wednesday, April 21, 1965

Wednesday April 21

$39.00 E. Lake. Put out 4 Lake T. Finally had some rain, cloudy all aft. Finally started raining tonite, good steady rain. Ray went in afternoon, got the truck. $112.94, paid for it. Racked 4 lines, washed, baked cupcakes, brownies. Mr. G. paid for the 2 hides $13.00 Ray’s part.

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Hides

The alligator belly was the part that had value. Peggy recalls Ray returning home from hunting, unrolling the hides, rubbing salt on them and then rolling them back up. “We knew that hunting alligators was illegal and we knew not to talk about it with anyone outside the family.”

This website illustrates how alligator hides should be handled. Towards the end of the article, there’s a section on curing, which describes what Ray was doing with the salt.