THE SCRATCHERS repost

Scratching out a Living
image courtesy photobucket

Shortly after the great depression I was talking to an old man, and while he was scratching himself he said; “Rich folks don’t want poor folks to scratch.” I was taken back a bit and I asked why not? His answer was, “It does them too much good.”

Another thing I heard farmers say; was they were scratching out a living on their place and that was about all.

Having a home place that you owned was a good feeling. Whether you made a decent crop or not, many times was beyond your control. Weather was a big factor; actually it was the controlling factor.

Poor soil, bad seed, getting crops in and having a frost or being late all affected the harvest. Unless you had a big family everyone had to hire some help at some time during the year, which added to the cost of the crop.

Harvest time was always looked forward to, because then you knew how good you had done this year. It was a time when everything had to be done right now. Along with the maintenance of equipment, feeding stock and shoeing horses were some of the things I learned from my uncle. I pretty much discovered how to run a farm from them and thought I might be a career farmer but events changed.

Harvest time was hot, dirty, and hard work. Different crops were harvested at different times. Gathering corn was important for it was used for feed for most all of the animals including the rats living in the corn crib.

Cotton picking was one of the least favorite things to do. I still remember the first time picking cotton. Before lunch my fingers were bleeding from the sharp thorns on the cotton bolls, and from there on it just got worse.

Today most of all that work is done by machinery and even though farming is long hours and hard work, it is far easier than when you had to follow a mule for most of the work.

A farmer’s day started about four or five AM and stopped late in the evening, and when he had some spare time he had to cut fire wood and do other chores.

The women had it just as hard for they were involved in everything as well as raising the kids. Washing clothes by hand, raising a garden, canning fruits and vegetables, taking care of the chickens, to name a few of her chores.

Most of the hard times people experience today is self imposed save for a few who are truly sickly.

Many in this spoiled, generation of today is a disgrace to humanity, for all many of them know about scratching is buying a lottery ticket you scratch off. Still yet even when some do their best they have downers, and have to depend on the one who is willing to make the storm pass.

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This post can be seen again on Tuesday's Tell me a Story
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