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re: Anyone else’s great great grandparents pick cotton?
Posted on 6/6/22 at 8:05 am to WhuckFistle
Posted on 6/6/22 at 8:05 am to WhuckFistle
At some point during WW2, my dad (who would have been between 10 and 13 at the time) and all of his male classmates were taken out of school, put on a school bus, and driven out to a cotton farm and made to pick the cotton.
0
Posted on 6/6/22 at 8:09 am to td01241
quote:
Sorry I’m white
Hate to break this to you, but if your great grandparents grew up in the south, there’s a very high likelihood they did in fact pick cotton at some point in their life. I’m as lily white as they come and I’m proud to say my grandparents picked cotton.
Posted on 6/6/22 at 8:49 am to Darth_Vader
People were hand picking cotton into 70s. There was mechanical equipment available by the 50s, but it was into the 70s before it became widespread everywhere, especially on small plots/farms.
And yes, all of family who was born in the 50s (and before) picked cotton at some point.
And yes, all of family who was born in the 50s (and before) picked cotton at some point.
Posted on 6/6/22 at 8:57 am to WhuckFistle
Oh boy..........
Posted on 6/6/22 at 9:03 am to WhuckFistle
My grandparents both did when they were younger.
I guess not actually pick it but they used tractors and farmed their land
I guess not actually pick it but they used tractors and farmed their land
Posted on 6/6/22 at 9:07 am to WhuckFistle
Mawmaw always told us she picked cotton as a kid, pawpaw wasn't a big talker, but I'm sure there was some other hard as work being done.
Posted on 6/6/22 at 9:13 am to WhuckFistle
My dad and all his brothers would pick/hoe/chop cotton before and after school growing up in the 50's & 60's. Not paid to do so, was made to by my grandfather to help with their family farm. It ain't slavery, but you had to earn your keep. This new generation is soft, wouldn't know what to do if they had to work a few hours before and after school in the fields. Pick a row, and start on one end, get finished with that row and either pick another one or got to school.
This post was edited on 6/6/22 at 9:15 am
Posted on 6/6/22 at 9:15 am to WhuckFistle
5 bans.... 
Posted on 6/6/22 at 9:18 am to WhuckFistle
My Dad picked cotton as a kid. (Didn't matter the color of your skin) Schools got out for harvest season. You don't have to go back that far to find cotton pickers. Him and his friends would walk down to the store on payday and get a coca cola and a moonpie.
Posted on 6/6/22 at 9:31 am to WhuckFistle
my father picked cotton as a young teenager in the 40s
Posted on 6/6/22 at 9:35 am to CSATiger
My mom. Her dad died when she was 11. She had to go to school, was captain of the basketball team, straight A student but had to also raise her younger siblings and run the farm, my grandma worked two jobs to cover bills.
Young folks have it so easy today.
Young folks have it so easy today.
Posted on 6/6/22 at 9:36 am to WhuckFistle
My grandmother's family all picked cotton as kids, probably as young as 5.
Posted on 6/6/22 at 9:37 am to WhuckFistle
My dad (81 hrs old) picked more cotton than a slave.
Posted on 6/6/22 at 9:38 am to Darth_Vader
quote:
Hate to break this to you, but if your great grandparents grew up in the south, there’s a very high likelihood they did in fact pick cotton at some point in their life
Yep, most Southerners aren't more than two generations removed from poverty. Pretty amazing how far its come.
Posted on 6/6/22 at 9:46 am to WhuckFistle
quote:
Anyone else’s great great grandparents pick cotton?
Why did you pick that generation? How many generations removed from near poverty do you think most OT'ers are?
I'm 60, my folks both picked cotton in the 40's when they were kids. My mother told me it enabled her to buy better clothes than the ones her mother made for her (my grandmother on her side worked in a textile mill in south Alabama).
My father's family was a little more well-off as my grandfather worked in the oil fields. But they grew cotton on their farm as a cash crop and everybody helped out during harvest.
If you read posts here much, "OT Ballers" is how we see ourselves. But we're really all just poor Southern mongrels.
Posted on 6/6/22 at 9:55 am to Shwapp
The metropolis of Plauchevile... Bet we are related.. 
Posted on 6/6/22 at 10:28 am to WhuckFistle
Granddad, born 1901, was a sharecropper and picked cotton around Arnaudville, LA. My dad, born 1936, picked cotton as a kid then joined the Army at 18.
td01241 - both white
td01241 - both white
Posted on 6/6/22 at 10:28 am to RogerTheShrubber
quote:
Yep, most Southerners aren't more than two generations removed from poverty. Pretty amazing how far its come.
I would go as far as saying if your descendants grew up in the South in the 20th century and lived anywhere but in the City (really only a few places count), and they didn't have to help pick cotton (or maybe sugar cane) at harvest time, your family/descendants were in the top 5% of elite/wealth in the South. Probably the top 1%.
Posted on 6/6/22 at 10:42 am to WhuckFistle
my grandfather grew up a sharecropper in morganza before ww2. I have a photo of him with a mule team in a field in 1940. my white priviledge is overwhelming sometimes.
Posted on 6/6/22 at 10:48 am to NOLALGD
quote:
I would go as far as saying if your descendants grew up in the South in the 20th century and lived anywhere but in the City (really only a few places count), and they didn't have to help pick cotton (or maybe sugar cane) at harvest time, your family/descendants were in the top 5% of elite/wealth in the South. Probably the top 1%.
BINGO
And more people would come to the country from the "city" to pick cotton and make extra money than you think.
One thing my Pops would often talk of from his time growing up was that just about everyone was poor. Now, there were varying degrees of poor, but almost everyone he knew was poor. That's simply because there was very little money in the South back in those days. People had enough to get by, but that's about it. Pops would tell you that he wasn't better than anyone, and he didn't have the time to hate anyone or mistreat folks. They were all in the same boat trying to do the same thing. My grandmother didn't have much, but she had more than some. When she had extra food, she'd find someone who needed it. Folks, in their area at least, looked out for each other then because really......the community was all most of them had. I'm proud to say that Pops kept that attitude/outlook his entire life. He taught us to respect folks and help those you can because it is the right thing to do.
This post was edited on 6/6/22 at 10:50 am
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