Old cottonfields

[phideaux]

Got up at 6 and, the dog said get up. So I did , took him out.
While sitting there watching him , my mind wandered back, way back to when I was a kid.
The older I get the more my mind wanders.

Today I went back to the early , mid 50s. My grampa , my Gramma, my mo , my sister , me, and sometimes neighbors, a couple up the road would gather , right at the crack of dawn , at the house and talk a minute and then head out to the cotton field.
Being as this was spring time and early summer , the dew was heavy on the cotton .
It has a special , distinct smell in the early morning. If you ever been in a cotton field early morning you know what I mean.

Dad was usually off taking care of livestock and other chores. So grampa gave everybody their hoe, cause everybody had the one they liked.
He'd already got them razor sharp , before we got up.

We would start at the end of the rows, I'm guessing the rows were 1/8 mile long.
I take one row ,sis take one row, everybody else take about 4 rows and we chopped weeds to the far end. Then turn and com back .ALL DAY.
Hard work for a kid.

We took lunch break , sandwich, Moon pie, ice water from the big canister on the tailgate of the truck.

We quit at sundown and Gramma cooked a big meal for everybody. We set on front porch for a bit then went to bed.

Do the same thing next morning.

Didn't like it back then , but it sure is a good memory.

Them old cotton fields.

Ain't even got to the part , in the fall of the year.....picking that same cotton .

Early morning , chilly, heavy dew. Wandering mind.

Jim

Anybody here that can relate?

 

[Pearl]

A few of the older people I clean for have told me many interesting cotton picking stories!! One lady in particular (she's 96) said she, her sister and mom would bring lunch out to her dad and the boys in a wagon pulled by goats. She and her sister would harness the goats and hook up the cart! They rode in the cart until they got up near 10-12 years old and mom said they were to big and had to walk!

 

[Bacpacker]

Never work cotton or baccer. But I did similar work in rows of corn. But workin hay was always my favorite thing to do.
Anything pertaining to farming always is a good memory

 

[phideaux]

Sitting under shade trees at lunch time for lunch .
Looked forward to that break.

Usually blony or spam sammich. Always a moon pie.

Seems I remember @Peanut , was Cotton on PS. Hmmm wonder why.

Jim

 

[Magus]

This whole area where I live was a cotton patch.
I have a similar memory of the garden. Up at dawn, breakfast and a bit of bugs bunny, slop hogs, feed chickens, feed the dogs, ducks and turkeys.
by 8:00 we were in the garden, it wasn't too big, only an acre. Dad left at 9:00 to open the garage, Mom left around 10:00, I stayed until around noon,
then I made lunch and goofed off until 5:00, then we all stayed until dark. good times.

 

[Caribou]

For me it was commercial fishing. A couple months before the season we'd start on the boat and gear. Always patch the net and sometimes hang a new net. On opening day we'd be out on the grounds waiting for the clock. The seasons were 5 days long. When the clock hit time the net hit the water and we would fish 20 hours a day. Half an hour to an hour before the season closed we'd have the net aboard. You didn't want to get caught with your net in the water after the season closed.

We'd run the boat to town, get food, fuel, patch the net (1/2 mile long), make any repairs to the boat, and then party. We'd be back out on the fishing grounds for the next week working 20 hours a day and resting up for the weekend.

 

[Peanut]

True story… One morning in early fall my family was picking cotton. My mother was scapping at the wagon. When sacks of cotton were dumped in the wagon sometimes a little handfuls might fall out on the ground. If a person were injured or limited physically they got scrap duty at the wagon. Scrap duty was picking up those little handfuls of spilled cotton, helping others dump their sacks of cotton in the wagon.

That particular day, I was born at 1pm. My mom was working in a cotton field the same day I was born. Mom and dad barely made to the tiny hospital in town… straight from the field. 15yrs earlier and there’d have been no doctor. I’d be born in the field. So yes, cotton and I go way back. Relatives used to tease my mom of trying to get out of work that day... slacker, trying to get out of picking cotton.

My earliest memory is in a cotton field, literally. I got lost and was scared. I wasn't really lost... the cotton was taller than me and I couldn't see anyone else. I was maybe 4.

I was 12 or 13 the last time we grew a cotton crop here on our farm. Meanwhile my grandfather was farming 400acres by that time. He ran equipment 24hrs a day during planting, plowing and picking. I can't count the days in spring when I went to school. Afterwards my grandma picked me up from the bus. She had food prepared that I ate on the way to the field. I'd then run a tractor until about 11pm when an uncle would relieve me for the midnight shift. Next day, rinse and repeat. I have spent months of my life in cotton fields.

My night job in high school was... at a cotton gin of course.

I vividly remember seeing my first cotton picker. I thought they were manna from heaven, no more bent over at the waist dragging a cotton sack through a endless field.

 

[Weedygarden]

I just read about cotton fields and the boll weevil. The decimation of the cotton fields pushed southern farmers to growing peanuts. Being from the north, I have no idea what strategy helped with the damage done by the boll weevil.

I do know a man who is from the South, maybe Alabama or Mississippi. His family raises peanuts. He told me something like only people who have been raising peanuts in some states are allowed to grow them commercially. Is this true?

 

[Weedygarden]

@Peanut . I've always heard that picking cotton was grueling work. No one has probably ever said, "I'd love to go spend my summer picking cotton."

 

[Peanut]

Mechanized farming has it's own set of grunt jobs... Anyone else here have a masters degree in "Packing Cotton"?

I hated packing cotton. In those days the cotton picker would pick until it's basket was full. Then it'd be dumped in a wagon.

Once in the wagon the cotton had to be packed by walking over it. Back and forth for hours at a time. It was like walking in mud over your knees. Pull out my leg then take another step... then another.

The guy in the right back corner is packing cotton... he's wearing the standard uniform, no shirt or shoes, usually shorts.

Guys are packing cotton here using a homemade hydraulic packing device mounted to a tractor. This looks like the 1980's judging by the equipment. This is a 30ft wagon, packed correctly you could get 8000lbs of raw cotton in a wagon.

 

[Tirediron]

Interesting, how we look back to memories of things we didn't really like with fondness,
Making hay is my memory, we worked tough hilly country. one hill so steep that my oldest brother had to steer the John deere R with the wheel brakes going up, R s are well balanced tractors and don't pull the front end easy, I bet that field is pasture these days.

 

[Peanut]

How do you get 8000lbs of cotton out of a wagon? With a big vacuum cleaner of course... A gin is incredibly noisy, 1000's of lbs of cotton is moved by airflow, the fans to run a gin are huge, and very loud. A conversation consisted of screaming in someone's ear as loud as you could yell. Then you might or might not understand what someone said.

One night we were ginning cotton, about midnight. Last wagon under the suction pipe. The guy who ran suction suddenly ran into the gin. He began an animated conversation with the gin master. I could see him but not hear. The gin master hit the emergency kill switch that shut down the whole gin.

Frank, the suction pipe guy, wasn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer. I heard he wasn’t very bright before being shot in the head with buckshot while escaping an Alabama pea farm (prison gang). Afterwards… Frank was very slow.

Anyway, that night Frank was running the suction when he realized he’d lost his glass eye. (he lost an eye during the shotgun incident) So, the entire gin crew (5) went through 8000lbs of cotton, one handful at a time looking for Frank's glass eye. It was cold, below freezing... everyone just wanted to finish and go home.

After about a 1/2hr Frank began shouting “I found it! I found it!” "I found my eye!". He held it up proudly!

The boss asked “Where was it at?” Frank says “In my pocket”! I have never in my life heard a man fired so many times in 10min…

I was angry that night but looking back it was funny!!!! (of course he wasn't really fired. He was the bosses grt uncle and had no other job prospects or family")

Suction pipe in a 30ft wagon. I don't remember exactly but I think the suction pipe was 28 or 30 inches in diameter.

 

[Peanut]

My favorite cotton field pic... it's blooming. The blooms are almost identical to okra, it's cousin. The blooms are white or red.

 

[Peanut]

This is my grandpa, his cotton fields and picker, sometime in the late 80's I think. This is a two row picker. In hill country were I live 1 or 2 row pickers were normal.

 

[Peanut]

In flat land pickers capable of picking 4/8/12 even 16 rows at a time are used...

They don't use wagons anymore either. Pickers spit out rolls similar to big rolls of hay.

Stock photo...

 

[Peanut]

Yes, there is a cotton field in the middle of my home town. It makes directions simple. If someone wants to get to the highschool for instance... "Go 2 blocks past the cotton field and turn right"! "Can't miss it!"

Modern round bales and the city library...

 

[DrPrepper]

Thank you all for sharing these wonderful stories. I grew up on Long Island in New York, and nobody in my family farmed (unless you count my great grandpa's tomato garden!) The closest I ever came to a farm was when my aunt moved out on Long Island and her house backed up to a potato farm. The owner would let us kids go out and dig a few potatoes. I was fascinated to be able to eat something that I pulled out of the ground myself. I always feel like I missed something growing up by not experiencing some of the things I read about here, but then I realize how very lucky I was that I didn't have to work the fields, and instead spent my time at the library or out riding my bike. My dad was a carpenter when I was young, and he would sometimes take us out to the construction site to watch houses being built, but still, we weren't really working, just picking up nails and stuff like that.

 

[Peanut]

In case anyone wants to know how a modern cotton picker actually picks cotton... spindles are the key. Pointed steel spikes about 4" long spin at a high rate of speed to pull cotton from the stalks. In the picker "head" the cotton is removed from the spindles in reverse.

Bottom, I saw my grandpa with a spindle run through is hand once. He actually stopped and went to the doctor to get it removed. The only time I remember him going to a doctor. I know it hurt!

 

[phideaux]

I hated picking cotton worse than chopping .
We never had a cotton picker . My grampa hired a bunch of black folks to come pick, along with us .
Yep packed a lotta cotton in my day. I had rather be picking than packing.

Dragging them sacks was brutal , I think I was 10 or 12 when I graduated from a kids sack to adult sack. Best I remember an adult sack would hold 100lbs.
I think a big man could pick 300 lbs a day , they got paid by the pound , Wich was weighted on a balance scale hanging at the wagon.

Now another story was pulling cotton. Easier and faster than picking , but didn't pay as much.
Picking was when you finished the day with bloody fingers .

i can tell ya , after 12 hrs in the field , you had a whopping appetite for beans and taters and cornbread ...maybe fried spam.

we were poor . But we didn't know it. We had all the necessities.

Jim

 

[Peanut]

I hated picking cotton worse than chopping .
We never had a cotton picker . My grampa hired a bunch of black folks to come pick, along with us .
Yep packed a lotta cotton in my day. I had rather be picking than packing.

Dragging them sacks was brutal , I think I was 10 or 12 when I graduated from a kids sack to adult sack. Best I remember an adult sack would hold 100lbs.

I think a big man could pick 300 lbs a day , they got paid by the pound , Wich was weighted on a balance scale hanging at the wagon.

Now another story was pulling cotton. Easier and faster than picking , but didn't pay as much.
Picking was when you finished the day with bloody fingers .

i can tell ya , after 12 hrs in the field , you had a whopping appetite for beans and taters and cornbread ...maybe fried spam.

we were poor . But we didn't know it. We had all the necessities.

Jim

Cotton wasn't fully mechanized until I was about 12. Before that I dreaded August, when picking by hand started. August in alabama is no fun sitting in the shade... but dragging a sack of cotton all day in the sun, brutal.

All these people are close relatives, same age as me... I was right beside them in the same fields. I can remember picking with a kid's sack before the 1st grade so I had to have been about 5yrs old. Every kid in the family worked, age didn't matter.

Also, this is why picking cotton would turn your hands into a bloody mess. Cotton bowls (the hull) have pointed spikes that are hard and sharp as nails... imagine picking everyday for a month. It'll rip your hands to pieces.

I remember in school the kids who picked cotton got a pass on writing lessons through September. Teachers didn't want kids bleeding all over their assignments.

 

[Weedygarden]

https://www.cotton.org/edu/faq/#:~:text=Cotton is grown in 17,, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia.

Who grows the most cotton? Who makes those "Fabric of Our Lives" commercials? Can I get a link from this site? Answers about the cotton industry and the Council can be found here.
(updated October 2013)
Cotton is a fiber, feed and food crop.
The fiber of a thousand faces and almost as many uses, cotton is noted for its versatility, its appearance, its performance and–above all–its natural comfort. From all types of apparel...to sheets and towels...tarpaulins and tents...cotton in today's fast-moving world is still nature's wonder fiber, providing thousands of useful products and supporting millions of jobs as it moves year after year from field to fabric.
U.S. textile mills have spun almost 3.6 million bales of cotton on average for the past 3 years (2010-2012). That's enough cotton to make over 750 million pairs of jeans.
About two thirds of the harvested crop is composed of the seed, which is crushed to separate its three products–oil, meal and hulls. Cottonseed oil is a common component of many food items, used primarily as a cooking oil, shortening and salad dressing. The oil is used extensively in the preparation of such snack foods as crackers, cookies and chips. The meal and hulls are used as livestock, poultry and fish feed and as fertilizer.
The following are some of the frequently asked questions about cotton:
Which state grows the most cotton?
Texas, whose 3-year average production was almost 5.5 million bales of cotton for the years 2010 through 2012, is the leading cotton-producing state.
Which country grows the most cotton?
Historically, China is the largest grower. China's 3-year average production for the years 2010 through 2012 was approximately 33 million bales of cotton. India is second, with 26.8 million bales of production for the same time period. The U.S. is third, with average production of 17.0 million bales of cotton for the years 2010 through 2012.

My question: does anyone hand pick cotton any more?

 

[Peanut]

By the 80's my grandpa was one of the biggest cotton producers in the county... It was a big deal to produce the first bale each season. The "winner" got their picture in the newspaper.

This is my grandpa and grandma, center and right. In high school I worked for the man on the left, Johnny, at this very gin. Directly behind the bale of cotton is the "press". That was my job, I ran the press. After cotton was processed through dozens of machines, seed and trash removed and the cotton dried... it was pressed into a bale. Bales weighed 450lbs to 800lbs.

My job was press the cotton into a bale, add bagging and steel bands. Then I carried the bale out on a hand dolly and loaded it onto a big truck, 40ft trailer. I had to do all that before the next bale was ready to be pressed.

 

[Peanut]

In that photo the scale (round analog) for weighing a bale is just above the bale and chains. The chains had big steel hooks on the end to lift the bale. I also had to attach a tag to each bale that included the owners name and weight of the bale.

This was the scale I first used... An old fashioned, 1000lb beam scale. This very scale now hangs in a restaurant that I eat at regularly, memories.

 

[Peanut]

@phideaux hope you don't mind all the pics. I've been putting together a long post on this very subject, cotton. It was mostly written, photos selected, been working on it for a few months. Hadn't decided how the info would best be presented yet. These posts were it.

Here is the scale you probably remember hanging on the wagon for weighing sacks of cotton.

Cotton Scale

 

[phideaux]

@phideaux hope you don't mind all the pics. I've been putting together a long post on this very subject, cotton. It was mostly written, photos selected, been working on it for a few months. Hadn't decided how the info would best be presented yet. These posts were it.

Here is the scale you probably remember hanging on the wagon for weighing sacks of cotton.

Cotton Scale

Exactly the scales.

You know I don't mind the photos.

All the posts are good, and takes me back to my youth

Jim

 

[Wingnut]

Peanut, the photos are awesome! Would I lie to ya?

 

[phideaux]

I remember in Tennessee , during cotton picking time, schools closed for cotton picking, for 3 weeks I think.
Kids worked the fields back then.
I also remember the cotton seed mounds , out behind the gin. That's where the biggest fishing worms I've ever seen were dug up under the seeds.
Some were scary big.

I wish I could go to the cotton Gin again with my grampa. We always got a 5cent Double Cola and a Baby Ruth .

He was my lifetime Hero.
Hardest working man I've ever known.

Jim

 

[Peanut]

I just found the newspaper clipping of my grandparents last week. I was in the navy in the 80's, so I have no idea how it ended up with me.

But same here, my other grandpa had a bad stroke when I was little. He couldn't walk so he made a little 2-wheeled cart so he could pull himself along and pick cotton with the only arm he could use. My job... he tied a short rope to the cart so I could walk ahead and pull, help him move the cart.

Work wasn't a "ethic" when I was a kid. It was what we did everyday to eat. When I hear young folks complain about their jobs today I'm speechless. They have no clue what real work is.

 

[LadyLocust]

For you cotton pickers

This was the "b" side to a 45. My brother and I loved this song - probably because the words were easy.

 

[LadyLocust]

I've never picked cotton, but we hayed and gathered cattle. I liked haying. I'm a morning person so it works out well - work the hay while the dew is on. Moving/gathering cattle was usually long days in the saddle, but enjoyable.