Cotton Share Croppers
@Angelwhispers (8978)
United States
March 7, 2007 10:36am CST
In a field of over growth, in a small forgotton town called Tomato Arkansaw, stands a one room school house that my mother attended untill she finished the 7th grade, her only formal education untill she was in her mid thirties. If you were walking the trails in this field you would come to a clearing that in the spring would be a wash of yellow and white buttercups and daffodils, planted long ago by the owner of a trading post that once marked that spot. Further along, across the stream fed from a shoot off the Mississippi, is a two bedroom house that stands on 10 foot stilts, to keep the river's flood water at bay.
It's the memories of this abandond house, and my time spent there as a very young child that I remember learning the most of my families history. My family were cotton share croppers, who endured the depression from the back breaking work of the cotton fields and the sweat off thier brows. My mother told me stories of when she was a young girl, how she would pick cotton untill little fingers bled and pull sacks behind her larger than she was. Her only reprieve was that old school house and her poor loving parents.
It was to this fasinating old house on stilts that my mother took us to on vacation and she called home. My Aunt Netter and Uncle Raymond lived there when I was a child. Even sitting here and writing this I can still smell that hard packed earth under the house that was mingled with the smell of chicken feces. I loved chasing the chickens and wild cats and kittens my Aunt kept and fed well, to keep rodents out of the smoke house and barn. I can still feel the spray of water from the river when my Uncle would treat us to a motor boat ride. Out in the barn was an old Dr.Pepper bottle dispenser that housed not only Dr Pepper but bottled Budwiezer. To this day Dr Pepper is my soda of choice.
What memories of childhood and family can you still feel so vividly that you smell, taste and hear them. Share your stories with me.
5 people like this
4 responses
@Willowlady (10657)
• United States
7 Mar 07
Thank you for some information of who you are.
My memory is from my grandparents in southern Ohio. He was a coal miner. I remember that small house and front porch swing where we drank YooHoo a chocolate drink. That was the only time I had it while visiting them in the summer. Down the road was the orchard and we could get bushels of fruit. I remember the peaches. As kids do we played and slid down the front on cardboard. We got so scratched up from the briars. What a fun time to be had.
I share a love of Dr. Pepper. I sure do miss those machines. Built in bottle opener!!!
5 people like this
@Angelwhispers (8978)
• United States
7 Mar 07
You know when I read the words you wrote "built in bottle opener" I actually started crying, made me feel nostalgic and I had to get up for awhile and tend to some house work before I could post a reply to you. Do you feel that when we were children like that, that we just thought life was so simple and good, carefree, easy to just be children and have fun? I guess I miss that this afternoon. Above all I hope that at some point in the future of my Sons adult lives they experience a sense of homesickness. Thank you for sharing this with me today.
4 people like this
@66jerseygirl (3877)
• United States
7 Mar 07
thanks you for allowing us a glimpse into your childhood. Those family memories are so wonderful but they can make you ache so much can't they . I know all about the cotton picking. My dad went cotton picking when he was stationed in oklahoma and he said you should have seen his fingers when he was done. He had some cotton in a plastic bag he had saved-it was abouit 40 something years old but it got lost when we moved down here.
My favorite childhood memories was about Christmas time. We grew up with fresh Christmas trees.You don't even dare even mention bringing an artificial tree in our house,lol.You were taking your life into your hands then! We used to go to a tree farm.My brother and I used to get so excited,practically pushing our parents out the door. My dad would keep hollering at us to sit down or he was turning the car around(I wonder how many kids have heard that one lol)!It was like we entered heaven when we would reach the farm!That cold,crisp late fall air,the smell of the leaves on the ground. My brother and I wuld run from tree to tree and argue something fierce over what tree was the best.My dad would get his trusty saw out ,cut it down and oh what joy. WE would take it home set itup and that night we would play christmas carols and drink hot chocolate while decorating the tree. WE would shut the lights off when done and turn the christmas lights on and wow! We also had this funny thing we did .WE would copy the way Charlie Brown sang the christmas carols at the end of the Charlie brown christmas,their mouths a perfectly shaped "O"!
3 people like this
@AmbiePam (120547)
• United States
19 Mar 07
My eyes were tearing up while reading story! It reminds me of my dad. When he was a kid he had to pick cotton here in Oklahoma, and in the summers his dad would take the oldest kids in the house and they would pick potatoes in California. At the end of the day his dad would give him a Pepsi and a Snicker bar. And sweet soul that he is, he was happy to do it because he was making money for his family, and what better reward than a Pepsi and Snicker?
2 people like this
@Angelwhispers (8978)
• United States
19 Mar 07
I am so glad it touched you. I thought about it all day the day I posted it. Thanks for sharing your story with me. By the way the only thing better than a Pepsi and a Snickers bar at the end of a hard rough day would be a Dr.Pepper and a Snickers bar! :))
1 person likes this
@laltu86 (1249)
• India
7 May 07
There was once this guy who is very much in love with his girl. This romantic guy folded 1,000 pieces of paper cranes as a gift to his girl.
Although, at that time he was just a small fry in his company, his future didn't seem too bright, they were very happy together. Until one day, his girl told him she was going to Paris and will never come back. She also told him that she cannot visualize any future for the both of them, so they went their own ways there and then...
Heartbroken, the guy agreed. But when he regained his confidence, he worked hard day and night, slogging his body and mind just to make something out of himself.
Finally with all the hard work and the help of friends, this guy had set up his own company .
You never fail until you stop trying. One rainy day, while this guy was driving, he saw an elderly couple sharing an umbrella in the rain walking to some destination. Even with the umbrella, they were still drenched. It didn't take him long to realize they were his girl's parents.
With a heart in getting back at them, he drove slowly beside the couple, wanting them to spot him in his luxury sedan. He wanted them to know that he wasn't the same any more; he had his own company, car,condo, etc. He made it! What he saw next confused him, the couple was walking towards a cemetery, and so he got out of his car and followed...and he saw his girl, a photograph of her smiling sweetly as ever at him from her tombstone and he saw his paper cranes right beside her...
Her parents saw him. He asked them why this had happened. They
explained, she did not leave for France at all. She was ill with cancer. She had believed that he will make it someday, but she did not want to be his obstacle... therefore she had chosen to leave him.
Just because someone doesn't love you the way you want them to,doesn't mean they don't love you with all they have. She had wanted her parents to put his paper cranes beside her, because, if the day comes when fate brings him to her again...he can take some of those back with him...
Once you have loved, you will always love. For what's in your mind may escape but what's in your heart will remain forever.
The guy just wept...The worst way to miss someone is to be sitting right beside her knowing you can't have her, see her or be with her ever again.........hope you understand.
Find time to realize that there is one person who means so much to you, for you might wake up one morning losing that person who you thought meant nothing to you.
1 person likes this
@Angelwhispers (8978)
• United States
14 May 07
Laltu that is a wonderful story thank you so much for sharing :))
