Chapter 4

In the 1940s, country schools in the South were allocated teachers based on number of students. If a school had more than 50 students, it was entitled to two teachers. Otherwise, grades one through eight were taught in a single room, by a single teacher.

Another factor was the need for the children to assist in harvesting the cotton crop, the lifeblood of the community. Accordingly, the school year began six weeks earlier than it would have ordinarily begun. Air conditioning was unheard of at the time. Temperatures in the classroom hovered near 100 degrees, kept from rising higher by the humidity, which also hovered near 100%. It was hard for JC and his classmates to concentrate.

After beginning the school year in mid-July, classes were suspended for six weeks at the beginning of September so JC and his fellow students could work in the cotton fields. The entire family was needed to harvest the cotton. First graders could pick nearly a hundred pounds in a day and teenagers might pick two hundred or more.

In northern Alabama, the fields were planted wherever the land was flat enough to be plowed with a mule, which sometimes resulted in very uneven geography. Fertilizer was usually provided by the cows and mules. Organic fertilizer was rare and expensive. These factors combined to create a crop that had plant sizes ranging from a few inches to bushes higher than the heads of the children and the number of bolls on each plant was highly variable. The result was that the act of picking required almost constant stooping, climbing, crawling or duckwalking to get from plant to plant.

When the cotton bolls popped open, the sharp tips of the exploded coverings became very hard as they dried, creating a painful trap for unwary fingers. Hands that did not quickly become calloused from the torture remained a continuous source of pain.

In north Alabama, in 1942, cotton pickers were paid three cents per pound. JC’s family, which consisted of himself, his little sister and his parents, might take in $15 a day.

JC’s father learned that the cotton farmers of Arkansas were paying seven cents per pound, so they loaded into the A-Model and header for Tyronza. Gasoline was 12 cents per gallon, so the cost of the trip could be made up in one day, based on the higher prices for picking. They were invited to visit by relatives of their church community to stay with them.

In Tyronza, the fields were flat, the cotton was a uniform height, which allowed pickers to remain on their knees all day and the crop was so prolific that the fields appeared to be covered in snow, as opposed to the brown plants with occasional blobs of white, back home.

Because of the much easier conditions, JC’s family was able to more than $50 per day for several weeks, which was enough to give them a comfortable nest egg for the coming year.

After returning home, classes were restarted in mid-October. JC’s mother had taught him to read before he started school and he had been a voracious reader whenever the weather was too bad to work or play outdoors. Reading allowed him to explore worlds far beyond the hills of northern Alabama and to imagine all sorts of adventures. His mother was a great fan of Reader’s Digest. JC read all the articles, but especially loved the jokes.

An unintended side effect of having eight grades in one room was that each student was exposed to all subjects covered by each grade. By the time JC got to the 8th grade, he had heard everything he would be expected to learn, many, many times.

Each of the lower classes sat at low tables. When they gathered to begin the second start of the school year, the teacher took JC aside. “JC, you already know all this second grade stuff. Why don’t you go sit with the third grade?”

So, he did, which resulted several years later in his becoming a rocket scientist at the age of 20, by allowing him to skip a year.

Although it is not widely acknowledged, Alabama has more tornadoes than any other state. The country folks (“folk” is used by others. Country people are “folks”) had their own methods of dealing with severe weather. Most had a storm cellar of some kind. These were generally outdoor structures because most people did not have a cellar of any kindm since it is much easier to build on pillars than to incorporate a cellar, with the attendant architectural requirements. Although tornadoes were common, JC was unaware of any deaths being caused by them, no matter how many trailer parks they demolished.

The storm cellar was built by digging into a hillside (hopefully), and using the excavated dirt as a cover. The resulting structure provided shelter from storms as well as a cooler place for storing perishables if there was no spring or creek handy. Drinking buttermilk from a Mason jar that has been left in the spring to cool is one of life’s forgotten pleasures.

One of JC’s fourth grade schoolmates gathered up his books and headed for the door.

“Where are you going, Russell?”, asked the teacher.

“My momma tole me to come home if a cloud come up. That there is a cloud. I’m goin’ home.” He pointed out the window to a black, threatening, rain cloud.

The teacher was a product of the same culture and understood completely. She allowed him to leave, as well as a few others who made the same assessment that Russell had made.

JC’s daddy, Jim, remarked to his wife, at supper. “That old man Geraldson, down the road is the laziest sucker I ever saw.”

“Why do you say that, Hon?”, she asked.

“I told him he was so dam’ lazy he ought to git married and have a bunch of kids to do his work. You know whut he sed?”

“Naw?”

“He ast me if I knowed any pregnant widders. Now is that lazy er whut?”

JC told his school friends about the old man and one of them told about his grandpaw. “Grandpaw was layin’ out on a hammock on the front porch one time and a great big brass band from the circus come marchin’ down the road in front of the house, with lions and tigers and elephants and monkeys. It wuz the most amazin’ thang we ever saw. Later on, he tole us he shore wuz sorry he missed it. I ast him how come he missed it, since he wuz out on the front porch and he sed it wuz cause he wuz facin’ the wrong way.”