re: Anyone else’s great great grandparents pick cotton?

Really wasn’t that long ago. My dad picked cotton as a kid.

shite man, my grandmother and her brothers and sisters all picked cotton on their farm in East Texas in the 30s

My grandparents did in the 30’s and 40’s. Would be safe to assume my great grandparents did as well, especially considering my grandpa still lives on said farm he was raised on and picked cotton, amongst many other crops.

That old atlas mason jar may be worth a bit of money…it doesn’t have a blue tint to the glass, does it?

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My dad is 66 and he picked cotton. Yes, he's white.

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My dad did too. White and 74.

That along with anything else they could do to make a living back then.

Mine grew cotton. And yes they had cheap labor

I assume you mean picked by hand. I packed cotton as a kid. My grandparents’ generation was the last to pick it by hand. My grandparents met as migrant farm workers picking cotton up in Arkansas. Imagine falling in love in 100 degree heat pulling a 40 pound cotton sack behind you. I guess young love can get through anything.

Until they died, my grandmother and her sister used to accuse each other of throwing rocks in their sacks to make them weigh more when they were put on the scales. They also accused each other of stealing watermelons. Lots of shenanigans going on back then, I think.

ETA - I’m white. Lots of poor while folks used to do that work.

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Whites were picking cotton long before the Great depression!

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And long after it, too. My parents were born into the 1950s. Both picked cotton. My Pops picked a whole lot more than my Mom because she hated it and would do anything she could to keep from doing it. She would eventually get on my grandmother's nerves and she'd send her back home or up the row to bother the folks at the water cooler. They were sharecroppers and lived on the farm.