Memories of a Farmer’s Daughter
by Jeannie Travis
When Daddy grew cotton he broke up the ground in the Spring..one row at a time. Then he disked it, harrowed it, and planted it one row at a time. He probably ‘busted the middles’ out one time to keep down the grass, then scraped each side of the rows so we didn’t have so much hoeing to do. We came along and hoed out weeds, grass, wild potato vines, and extra plants. This was pulled out in the middle to wilt in the hot sun and later Dad would come back and till it in, one row at a time. This had to be repeated more than once per field. I figured out how many miles Daddy had to walk each time he worked that cotton out and it was mind boggling. Mama said they raised cotton when they first got married and by the time she got it hoed it would be time to start over again, picking cotton was the same. By the time she got through picking it the cotton bolls on the other side had opened up. Can you imagine ?
She would have drawed up a bucket or two of water, brought in stove wood if she’d forgot the night before, and build a fire in the range.. Had to have biscuits every morning, and whatever bacon or sausage they had on hand. Eggs were gathered in the hen house the night before. After she cooked breakfast and cleaned up the kitchen, moved the beans in the old iron kittle on the back of the stove, and maybe milked a cow and slopped a hog, fed chickens, etc. she’d head for the field EVERY DAY. On towards noon she would head wearily home to make the corn bread and finish up the dinner, saving enough beans and cornbread for supper so she could stay in the field longer. They worked from “can’t see to can’t see” and that’s just raising cotton. They also raised corn, a big truck garden for canning hundreds of quarts of food on an old wood stove in a kitchen with no fan or air conditioner other than an open window and a screen door. Maybe a peanut patch and some watermelons. You’d never believe all the steps it took them to raise sweet potatoes!
Oh yes, those were the good old days.- Unheated bedrooms, bathing in a pan of water, going to church on Sunday and visiting more than we do today, even if we had to go in a wagon. God was still worshipped by all (Or kept it quiet so folks wouldn’t shun them), teachers were VERY highly respected and elders were important because they had knowledge gained not in regular schools but in the school of hard knocks…….Jeannie T