Chopping Cotton

Sitting here in the heat brings back memories of chopping and thinning cotton.  I grew up in the fields of North Alabama.  I've watched my Mama work with  the sun blazing down on her.  We always took a jar of water to the field with us.  By the time I came along they  had refrigerators so she would put ice in it and wrap it in a towel and put it in a paper bag.  We would hoe from one end of the row to the other stop long enough to get a sip of water, then go again.  You didn't dare drink a lot because that jar had to last til lunch.  Most of the time we were close enough to home to go home for what back then was dinner.  We would eat a cold biscuit or sometimes mama would have a pot of beans on and we would eat beans and onions.  When you are chopping or thinning cotton or corn you cut down some so that they grow better.  Daddy said to leave three stalks in a hill.  Boy would we get scolded if we cut down more than what we were told to.  You thought you were gonna fry!! What in the world would kids do if they had to get out and work like that?  Talk about a revolt!! Take away all the gadgets and but them in a field, they would be glad to go to school.  Have them spend a fall picking cotton and pulling corn by hand.  Talk about reform and a new appreciation for what you have.  Humm, why couldn't that be a mandatory class!!!!