Aunt Bill Rambles

Law, now that hits fall I can’t help but remember how hard we used to have to work this time of year when I wuz growing up.  We had to pick cotton by hand and by the end of October we tried to have it all gathered.  There wuz always some bolls left on the stalks and the women folks would go in there with pick sacks and pull the bolls.  Some times we sold ’em so we could have a little Christmas money.  We ordered what little Christmas gifts we  had from the Sears and Roebuck catalog.  My sister-in-law used to say she had sumpin goin’ or comin’ one all the time. (from the catalog) Oft times the cotton locks wuz pulled from the bolls — quilters had to use that for filler for their quilts.  First the seed had to be took out’n the locks and this was done while we set around the fire in the fireplace at night.  They’d give the children a tea cup and when they got it full of cotton seed they could quit.  Hit takes lots of cotton seed to fill up a tea cup.

Before now the fodder had been pulled, tied and hauled to the barn loft.  Corn had to pulled — hit was piled in piles and then a crew come along with the two horse wagin, loaded hit and hauled corn to the corn crib.

Many times atter the corn crop had been “laid by” peas wuz planted in the middles and, of course, in the fall the dry peas had to be picked, shelled and saved for winter eatin’.  I remember how we put them shelled peas in the middle of a sack sheet — there had to sumbody holding each corner — and on a windy day we shook that sheet up and down and the wind would blow the chafe away.

People today don’t know nothing about how it was to live in them olden days.  Another chore that had to be done was to cut far wood.  After all, winter time was just around the corner and we had to keep warm.  Hit shore is different nowadays — this business of country living.