The Cotton Picker
As a cotton picker I was a dismal failure! I don't know exactly how much cotton the average picker picked but I did know of quite a few who could pick one or two hundred pounds a day. Really good pickers could pick three or four hundred pounds a day. My top count was maybe 50 pounds. I was glad I didn't have to make money from that to live on!We lived near the edge of town and there were several cotton fields within walking distance from our house. Some times we could walk to the farmer's place and ride a wagon to the fields if they were farther away. I did not pick cotton every day but I did go sometimes just to try to make a little extra spending money(believe me, it was mighty little)!
I would start out picking like a pro and then I would be thirsty and have to go back to the wagon and get a drink. When I returned my friends would be far down the row of cotton from where I left them. Then I would start out again like wild fire to catch up with them. For some reason my bag would just not get filled up! I picked and picked but still my bag was skimpy and light. Cotton is not heavy and it took a lot of it to fill up a bag. You had to push and stuff it down into the bag again and again to get it packed good. When the time came at the end of the day for all of us to go weigh and empty our bags my bag would be the lightest one of the bunch.
I worked my butt off and I could never get more than fifty pounds. We got paid by the pound so my cotton would be worth about half what the other pickers'( even the bad ones) was worth.
At the end of the day,probably about six hours, I would be dragging my bag up to the wagon to get it weighed and get my few cents of money. It was not worth it! But the next time my friends wanted to go pick cotton I was right in there with them. I guess I was optimistic and thought maybe this time would be different--but it never was! As much as I love 100% cotton clothes now I do not have a good memory about cotton from those days.
posted by kyra lafain @ 3/24/2008 11:00:00 PM
1 Comments:
I got tired just reading your post about picking cotton! What a sad story!
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