Friday, September 30, 2011

Cotton Picking Time

When I was a little girl in Alabama I had my own cotton picking sack. I must have been five years old and my aunt made me a sack that hung by a strap over my shoulder and dragged behind me on the ground. I'd pick a boll here and there and pop it down into the sack and hurry on trying to keep up with the other pickers. I don't know what happened to my sack but I'd give nearly anything to have it today.

a picture from flicker.com showing the cotton picking sacks.


I can still recall that woody smell of a pile of cotton being prepared for a trip to the mill. My grandfather got sick and no longer grew cotton and I got grown and moved away. Machinery took place of human labor. Although it is much more efficient I still think every child should have an opportunity to pick cotton just once in their life.
picture made by daughter Shirley


In Virginia the fields are getting ready for harvest. We have cotton, corn and peanuts here.

What do you have growing in your neck of the woods? 

picture taken by daughter Marie

All this talk of cotton reminded of an old song about cotton fields. Here is part of it.


                                                    
                                                    When I was a little baby,
                                             My mother rocked me in the cradle,
                                            In them old, cotton fields back home.


                                                                Chorus:
                                           Oh when them cotton balls got rotten,
                                             You couldn't pick very much cotton,
                                            In them old, cotton fields back home.

12 comments:

  1. I can Still feel my fingers...Ouch!Hahaaa
    LOVE the photos!
    hughugs

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  2. A memory I have is the same on my grandfathers farm.

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  3. I love your memories and pictures......I'd almost forgotten the song.

    I've never picked cotton, but I sure heard a lot of stories about picking cotton from my mother and aunt.

    Hope your weekend is a good one!
    Love

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  4. I'm old enough, and country enough, to remember this for sure. Daddy didn't use machinery to pick cotton until his three girls grew up and left home! It was hard work, but there were also life lessons learned and happy memories made there.

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  5. We have trees growing around us!
    http://mymuskoka.blogspot.com/2011/09/trees-our-four-sisters.html
    How beautiful your memories.

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  6. Hi Latane...I love that song! Another interesting post by you, Latane. I love the pic showing the cotton bags.

    I am a farmer's daughter of the town we live in. Here, in western NY, we grow wheat, corn, oats, beans and right now our back field is sprouting hay seed for next year. In a few towns over, they are now picking fields of cauliflower and cabbage.

    Loved the cotton picture, too.

    Susannah

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  7. PS- I forgot about the potato farmers near here and in the Finger Lakes they are picking all of the grapes for our wonderful Finger Lakes wines.

    Just thought I should add these.
    Thanks

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  8. Hi Latane, lovely post as usual.We don't grow cotton over here and ihave always been fascinated by it, is the last photo cotton actually growing on the bush?
    I live on the outskirts of the cityhere and there is farming land all around, now they are harvesting wheat and barley and there are fields of straw bales waiting to be brought into the barns for the winter.

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  9. I never picked cotton, but I would pick blue berries every summer. Just being in the patch with the sun on my back I'm sure is a similar memory.

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  10. Oh, we used to sing that song in the day ...

    My husband actually picked cotton in the summers they visited their kin in OK. Oh, how they disliked that job ...

    Love the memories of yore ...
    Have a beautiful week.
    TTFN ~
    Hugs,
    Marydon

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  11. We pass cotton fields on our trips into town. I've heard a lot of stories about picking cotton from my parents. They actually took me once when I was a little girl. I had my own cotton sack ~ a clothespin bag. Thanks for the memories today!

    Sherry @ A Happy Valentine

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  12. How my heart swelled to see the cotton still growing in the fields when I was back to Virginia a couple of weeks ago. It is such a special plant to me. I love to see it before it has been defoliated, and I am hoping to try my hand at growing a bush or two here in AZ! Wish me luck! :-)

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