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Picking Cotton in Monrovia, Alabama

Cowan, Tennessee

Story Narrative:

Talk about a memory you have of living in a small town.

"I was born in 1940 at Redstone Arsenal. When I got to six years old, we lived at Monrovia 40, 60. Landlord got 60 dollars. You got 40. We didn't have no shoes to wear. Mama had ... In all she had ten kids but lost some. We had jobs pick cotton. Daddy put me on a cotton hole when I was six years old with sister training. It didn't take you long to learn how. You couldn't go at the house. Before dinner, about ten o'clock, you be starving half way to death. Daddy ... Mama have taters and cornbread for dinner and we go to eat. You didn't push it back, you eat it. It's always talk about we did it for years.

We finally went on my own in 1954 had our own tractors and stuff and make pretty good. When Eisenhower come in that's when everything looked up good for us. When I was six, seven, eight years old we had ... You had to pick a cotton wagon. We'd have a sheath of what would be frost on the ground. Wait til the frost melt off the day would start in the field to pick cotton. Salt briar would get between your toes and hurt . . ."

 

Asset ID: 7409
Tags: #Farming #Agriculture #Cotton #Memories

Museum on Main Street storytelling platforms provide an opportunity for small and rural communities and their residents to share their thoughts, opinions, and anecdotes. However, the opinions and ideas expressed by individual storytellers’ may not necessarily be those maintained by the Smithsonian. Individual storytellers’ and their collaborators are solely responsible for the content of their narratives and stories. 

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