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PRINTWhat’s a Halleck?
As an almanac editor and Philom., from time to time I get asked a question that I can’t answer. Here is one from B.D. located in Oregon. Apparently, several people, in her office were looking for the meaning of a word. Read below.
Back in the 40′s, 50′s, and 60′s we pick strawberries and put them in hallecks but cannot find that word in a dictionary or even a close definition. It was the word of the day at work and most staff haven’t a clue. Can you help? I may have the spelling wrong, but have tried haleck, halleck, hellack hellack, etc.
I thought this would be a slam-dunk by asking my 85-year-old mother. She worked on the almanac for 40 years and was around in the decades in question. She didn’t know and asked her 90+-year-old group.
Our best guess is that it may be a regional term maybe something from the West Coast. Does anyone have an answer to the meaning of the word hallecks?? If so, pass it along.
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4 comments
I picked strawberries in Oregon in the 60′s, too. I found this site as I was looking for the proper spelling for the word, and I’m guessing it’s “halleck.” Anyway, they are/were made of very thin, square planks of wood, and held together with a square metal wire around the top and perhaps the bottom. They were replaced with the green plastic containers now used with strawberries. I was paid 5 cents a halleck. Carriers were made of regular wood and carried six hallecks. The wood at each end of the halleck continues up and is connected to one wooden rod that makes it handy for carrying in one hand. A flat or crate was comprised of 12 hallecks but didn’t have any handle, so both hands had to be used to carry it.
I must have picked at the wrong field. I think I was paid 5 cents of a Halleck and it took 12 to make a carrier and 24 for a flat…Have I lost it. Monmouth,Indepence Oregon. Central class of 1959!!!
One other detail, as I remember, there were nine hallecks to a “flat”. A “flat” was a wooden low-edged box with a single wooden bar handle. It took a little kid quite a lot of work in the hot sun to fill a flat!
I came across your inquiry by accident trying to look up the correct spelling for the little square-topped open basket that we called a “halleck” (pronounced like a man’s name, “Hal,” plus, “eck”). In attempting to look up the word, I tried different spellings just as B.D. did, and came up with nothing. I was a little shocked to know I am old enough to see the total extinction of a word–not just extinction but obliteration. Here’s the deal, I am from Oregon also, and as a kid in the 50′s, used to pick strawberries for summer money. I remember being paid $0.20-$0.25 per halleck (but I may have that wrong). Hallecks are still used occasionally but they were a standard at the time. I am glad I came across your inquiry because I started thinking I made up the term! Any strawberry farmer in Oregon should know the answer to your question, but I am willing to guess the correct spelling is/was, “halleck.”