I thought we had a big house.  But when we went there in 1949, it was not big at all.  This shows how things shrink when you get older.  AS I remember, the lane was long and lined with very tall trees.  The   north-south road was also lined by very tall trees.  I think the house was three rooms.  There was a place up stairs which could be used for sleeping.  Down stairs I can remember that there was a bed room, living room and kitchen.  It must have been in the bedroom which was on the south west corner of the house, there was a big wood-burning heating stove in the north east corner of the room.    

 

The farm had some pasture land.  The principal crop was cotton and we raised some corn.  We had 3 horses, some cattle, pigs and chickens.

 

Papa was sometimes gone late at night or overnight when he would haul a bale of cotton to Mulhall.   One night when Papa was gone, Mama and I were sitting around the heating stove,  we heard some noise in the wall.  In was kind of a grinding or crackling sound.  I believe there was a crack in the wall which had been papered over in the corner of the room where the stove was.  I guess the heat from the stove attracted this thing and it was making a noise moving around behind the wall paper.  We poked the wall paper with the stove poker to get to whatever it was.  It turned out to be a big centipede, really a big one, I think about nine inches long.  I guess Mamma killed it.  That was the end of that episode.  But it was quite an episode as far as I was concerned.  Another night while Papa was away, the cows got into the corn patch.  That time, Ruth had been born and so Mamma left us with me holding Ruth on my lap, while she went out and got the cows back in the pasture.   

 

The cotton seed was planted in a continuous row by a planter.  when the plants emerged, they had to be thinned.  This was done by "cotton chopping".  The hand tool used was a "cotton-chopping" hoe, a wide hoe, perhaps 10 inches wide, leaving that space between plants.  

    

One thing that is quite clear in my mind is the cotton picking season.  We hired two black men and a teenager to pick cotton.  They lived in a shed on our place.  They would come in and eat at our table, following our meal.  I remember they had these big long bags.  They must have been 6 feet long.  They would drag the bags behind them to put cotton in.  One black man would pick  200 Lbs. of cotton in a day.  And the teenager wood brag about picking his 100 Lbs.  I had a little bag and would pick some cotton.  When they picked a wagon load of cotton, Papa would haul it to Mulhall to get it ginned.  He would bring the bale home and wait until the price was right before he would sell it.  Then he would haul it back to town to sell it.  I am not sure if he sold it at Guthrie or at Mulhall.  When he made that trip, he would be late at night getting home.  

 

I believe that is all I can remember about the cotton raising business.  However I do remember the whole family going to Mulhall with Papa one time.  We drove along the road and could see a town way off in the distance.  Papa said "That is Fairview over there."  Mama said "It is pretty nice isn't it".  (She hadn't seen the town).

 

Another time I can remember Papa taking the gun and resting it on the wagon and shooting at a dog or coyote.  I think he ran the varmint off rather than hitting it.