The first year we had the store, I had a bit of time on my hands and decided to do a little bit of farming. I planted several rows of cotton. It did very well and made a bumper crop. Wished I had planted 100 acres of it, but only had 3 rows.
When it was fully developed, I invited the students from the old Octavia school to come out for a field trip to “look and see”. None of them had ever seen cotton growing before. The teachers had them all lined up, and had threatened them with their lives is they touched. I explained a little bit of the way cotton grows, how the bowl weevils get into the boles and eat the blooms.
I told how they used to pick the cotton, and I even had an old cotton sack to show them. I explained how they took it to the cotton gin and ginned it. THEN, I told them to jump in and pick them a couple or three boles. They were like flies swarming into those three rows. The teachers went bananas.
Then, after all had calmed down, I started asking them questions about what cotton was used for. One little girl said her momma used the balls to take off her makeup. One little girl said they had the little sticks with cotton on ‘em to pick their nose with. (Q-tips)
Then I asked if there was anyone else who knew what cotton was for. They all just kinda looked at each other, and at the teachers for an answer. I then reached down and pinched a little girl’s shirt, and asked her if she knew that her shirt was made from cotton. She said, “Uh uh , my mother bought this at Wal-Marts.”
Anyway, all went well, and I think the kids all will remember it forever, how cotton grows, and what it is used for.
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