And the answer is…

I had no good idea what that thing was I posted on Tuesday

Ron, Roland and Mark got it right.  Ron sent me the video link. It makes sense. My maternal Grandfather, John Sutton, was a farmer in Delaware during the last part of the 19th century and the first part of the 1900’s. He never had a tractor, just a horse.

Here he was in 1930. He was 69 years old.

No, It’s not a sail glove, a forehead knocker or what Spiderman uses to climb walls. Here’s Roland’s description:

It’s a corn picking/husking palm. A practiced corn picker (even into the 1930s) walked along a row, next to a wagon with the far side much higher than the near side. This was called the “bang board.” The wagon was often pulled by mules, which were also controlled by the picker.

In one motion, the picker grabbed the cob and husk, shucked the cob out and tossed it into the wagon. The cob would hit the bang board and drop into the wagon. My dad said a speedy picker could pick a couple wagon loads a day.