Going to the Cotton Gin

When the cotton had opened up pretty well, school would let out for a few weeks for us to pick it. Back then, school was out twice a year - once to hoe cotton, and again to pick it. I think that it took about 1200 pounds on the wagon to make a 500 lb bale of ginned cotton with, because there was a lot of seed in the boll. My brother said that we would get $25.00 for the average bale of cotton. The evening before we were going to the Gin, we would pull that wagon into a pool of water so that the wagon wheels would swell. It was an iron-tired wagon, and this helped keep the iron tires from coming off while going down the road with all that cotton. If that had happened, it would have been alot of trouble. We would keep an eye on the wheels, and if a tire even got over to one side a little - we had a hammer that we would knock it back on with.

Finallly, we reached Leighton (where the gin was), and my daddy gave me and my sister Doris a nickel each. So, we went downtown while he waited in line to get the cotton ginned, and me and her went to this store ran by two people who were deaf and mute. They sold candy and cigarettes, and I don't know what else. Anyway, we bought 5 cigarettes that were a penny each, because they had packs that were opened and would sell you one or ever how many you wanted. So, we took our 5 cigarettes and would walk up and down the sidewalk smoking like we were really something. But, we knew not to let my daddy know that we had bought cigarettes. Finally, we got our cotton ginned and made it back home.