My mother had 9 brothers and 3 sisters. She was the 6th child born and the 2nd girl. Her sister, Clarise, was born earlier but died as a baby. All the children had jobs including my mother when she was old enough. She was helping clean, cook, make beds, and even working in the fields at a very early age. The older boys were told which field they were to work by my grand daddy each morning. By the time my mother was 11-12 yrs old, she was also helping in the fields. My grand daddy had 8 pairs of mules and 2 pairs of steers that they plowed with. My mother ran a harrow and even sometimes plowed with the steers. She said the only trouble she had was that, if the steers got thirsty, they might run into a ditch to get water and she would have to get one of her brothers to help get them out and back to work. She remembers that one of the years, they produced 45 bales of cotton. They also grew corn, had hay fields, a nice herd of cows, and, of course, had several head of hogs for meat. She remembers them killing 9 head in one day and neighbors coming to help. Her mother washed fertilizer sacks and would put meat in the sacks for the neighbors to take home for their families. The parts of the hog that could be cured were put in the smoke house. The back bone meat and ribs were canned by my grandmother in half gallon jars. Some of the fresh meat was iced down in an old Coca-Cola cooler to be eaten right away. They had no electricity and no refrigeration. Grand daddy had to go buy ice. Everything that the family needed to eat was produced on the farm. Once a year, Grand daddy would load all of them on a flat bed truck that he owned and they would go to town to buy winter coats and shoes. These had to last all winter and the shoes all year. Peddlers came by every once in a while and they would buy material for dresses and products that they couldn’t grow, like coffee. Mother’s family was better off than most of the families around their area. Families and friends helped each other. There was no Social Security for old people back then. My Grand daddy let some old couples live with them during cotton picking and paid them to pick cotton. There was no other way for them to make money. Now the poorest people in the USA are richer than 80% of everyone else in the world and we whine. We are becoming a society that expects government help instead of helping each other. We are coveting our neighbors stuff instead of working to get our own stuff by working hard. Instead of being patient and working toward goals, we want it all now. We have got to learn that nothing is free. Someone will pay. God help my grand children.
Posted on: Sun, 08 Sep 2013 19:07:35 +0000
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