Page 22 - Firehouse Pond
P. 22
CHARLESTON COTTON GIN
MCHS
A SLIVER OF BOLOGNA ON A CRACKER
Being poor and believing that a sliver of bologna on a cracker was a “big”
deal may well be considered unusual by many, but it was real and a fact of
life for my family. It was a good “cotton-picking” day when we could afford
the bologna.
My parents and brother and sister picked cotton by hand. My mother and
father would drag a large sack to hold the cotton as it was picked. The sacks
were enormous, especially for my five-foot two-inch, ninety-pound mother.
My father was a good “cotton-picker’, he could pull that sack and pick with
both hands. I was often riding on the top of my father’s cotton sack.
When full, the bags had to be taken to the trailer for weighing; the “Master of
the Field” paid anywhere from a penny to three cents per pound. The family
would average nearly three hundred pounds a day; $7.50 on a good day of
picking.
