Have you ever picked cotton?
By granbuddy
@granbuddy (89)
United States
October 15, 2006 9:08pm CST
Growing up in the south on a farm we picked cotton by hand. Probably a lot of people today don't even know what that is. What about other countries? Is cotton grown in your country?
6 responses
@maya_n_bennett (4687)
• United States
16 Oct 06
I live in south georgia right now. I grew up in Japan and never seem a cotton field until 2002. Well, I got so excited so my husband told me that he will take me to coton field at his uncle's place when we can get to his house.
@granbuddy (89)
• United States
16 Oct 06
Hi Maya, nice to meet you. Are you talking about south Georgia, USA or the country Georgia? If it is the US, welcome! I hope you get to go see the cotton up close!
@granbuddy (89)
• United States
4 Nov 06
thanks for the comment. Well, when you are very young it probably was fun, but the older I got the less fun it was. ha
@rosebug23 (1906)
• Australia
3 Nov 06
Yes i have ,when i was about 14 my parents spent some time picking all sorts of fruits and veggies on several farms . Several farms grew cotton and had machinery to pick it but one farm was over run with weeds so they couldn't use the machine as it would stain the cotton so my sister and myself helped my parents pick the cotton.It was back breaking work and your hands got cut to pieces.We were paid by weight and i can tell you a bag doesn't weigh much at all we worked for pennies so to say but my parents new we would get more work because of it. I would not recommend it to anyone. I live in Australia and this was back in the early 60's
@granbuddy (89)
• United States
3 Nov 06
Hi rosebug,
Thanks for the reply. Yes, it is very hard work. I grew up in Alabama in the 50's and there were not many machines back then. Now all the cotton is picked by machinery. Only large farmers raise cotton now, most all the small family farms are gone, not enough money to sustain a family. It's nice to hear from someone in Australia. How is your weather there? It is fall here in Tennessee, we have some very cold days, then it will warm up in the 60's and 70's for a few days.
@claudia413 (4280)
• United States
16 Oct 06
I never picked cotton myself, but years ago I saw it growing and just had to go check it out up close. Since my dad thought it was a good idea for us to see what it looked like, he let my sister and I go look.
@indiandevil (2410)
• Canada
16 Oct 06
nope never, but then again I never really lived on a farm of any kind grew up mostly in the city...
but it does sound a little interesting
@granbuddy (89)
• United States
16 Oct 06
Hi, thanks for the reply. It was fun growing up on a farm, lots of hard work, but we had fun also. And our family was close.
@lilyruth (723)
• United States
4 Nov 06
When I was 14 years old I had run away from home and I went to a small town name of georgetown in texas and there I picked cotton with 12ft.burlap sack and I did not last an hour after the sun got real hot I fainted, Ha ha ha, That was the first and last time I picked cotton, worse thing was I did not even have the bag 1/3 full and they pay you by the weight. Say you keep up the good work your discussion is good. Hope you get more responses.. You should read some of mine? I have some pretty good ones myself, I welcome any response you have.
@granbuddy (89)
• United States
4 Nov 06
thanks, lillyruth for the kind words. Hey, I'm sorry you had such a bad experience picking cotton. I know it is hard work but that was the only way my family had to make a living back then. My dad only knew farm work and, unfortunately, we happened to live where cotton was the main crop. But, you know I am glad I had that experience. I think it definately made me want to do something different with my life. My parents struggled to send me to school and I am grateful for that.
By the way, I just sent you an email.
