This digital story recording was created in conjunction with the Smithsonian's Museum on Main Street program and its Stories from Main Street student documentary initiative, called "Stories: Yes." The project encourages students and their mentors to research and record stories about small-towns and rural neighborhoods, waterways, personal memories, cultural traditions, work histories, as well as thoughts about American democracy. These documentaries are then shared on Smithsonian websites and social media.
Recorded by Buffalo Island Central High School, EAST Students, in conjunction with the Buffalo Island Museum, Arkansas.
Nan Snider (00:00): I grew up at Macey [Arkansas] and was raised in an 1870 house that's still standing. Eight generations of my family have been here, their family. And so, we farmed on my grandfather's land, and we would go out early in the morning, right after sunrise. And we'd walk to the back of the field and get our sacks nice and wet, so they'd weigh heavy.
Nan Snider (00:23): And they would pick, pick, pick, pick until we got a full sack. The first weighing in the morning was vital because it paid 3 cents a pound to pick cotton. And if you could manage to get 300 pounds of cotton in one day, you could make $9. It doesn't sound like much, but you could buy a blouse, and shoes, and maybe a dress, finger nail polish, and you buy a lot of things for $9.
Nan Snider (00:47): And so, we would pick cotton and we'd empty our sacks several times a day. We'd take our lunch to the field with us and we'd quit at lunch and we'd eat together as a family. We'd take our water to the field with us. We'd eat together. It was a joyous time.
Nan Snider (01:00): I never minded it at all. It was extra money for school supplies and such. But anyway, we were working that cotton season and there were other things that they raised. You could pick pecans, you could pick strawberries. They had a lot of things that you could do for jobs, but cotton was the king and cotton was so important. And just as I was getting to be an adult, the cotton pickers came in, in the sixties. But, I was the cotton picker up until that time.
Asset ID: 2018.20.13
