When Cotton Was King

                About fifty years ago, almost every farmer in the Big Bend grew cotton.  At that time, most of the work was done by hand from hoeing the weeds that sprang up among  the young plants and  "blocking"(thinning) the young plants to increase productivity to pulling the heavy, canvas sacks to collect the mature cotton that was “picked” in the late fall.

                Edmund Gates, Jr., my father, raised a few acres when I was a child. Always a practical man, Dad used the new Dodge Ram car to pull a trailer loaded with harvested cotton out of the field! My mother voiced opposition to its use  - unsuccessfully.

                Once the cotton was harvested, it was taken to Ralston to the cotton gin owned and operated by Gilbert Morris aka Junior. He began its operation when he moved his family from the Big Bend into Ralston in 1957. Farmers hauled in cotton from miles around to the gin in Ralston.

My father, Edmund Gates, Jr., posing in front of cotton bales. The photograph was
taken in 1963 by a couple from Colorado who were traveling through Oklahoma.

Gilbert "Junior" Morris with his trademark smile.
(Junior's younger daughter, Pam, was in Mrs.
Akers' 3rd grade group when I was in 2nd.)

The Morris family had lived on the place now owned by my mother, Bernyce Smith Gates. The Morris family lived in a four-room house that is now a storage building on Mother's farm. My parents purchased the farm from Gilbert “Gib” Morris, Junior’s father in 1959.

My father and LaRene Bernet Akers at my parents'
               60th wedding anniversary celebration in March of
               2008. Photograph by Catherine Marie Gates Leforce.

LaRene Bernet Akers taught a combined classroom of second and third graders.  A combined classroom was one financial strategy used by rural schools to stretch the educational dollar. Much to my delight, I studied in her classroom for both second and third grades. She began each morning with singing and musical movement activities. Those few minutes of music set a positive tone that carried me, as a little music lover, through the rest of the day.

Mrs. Akers planned a field trip to the cotton gin owned by Junior Morris. What a fun, educational opportunity she created for us! Junior Morris seemed pleased to answer patiently our questions. He had a genuine interest that we learn as much about cotton and the gin as our little minds could comprehend. He had known most of our parents longer than we had! The welfare of each child in the community mattered to him.

                In small communities, the residents realized their interdependence on one another. When a siren sounded, the town’s citizens began asking, “Who? Where? and Why?” At some time, each resident relied on someone else in the area for one reason or another.

                A few years after Dad sold his cotton to Junior at the cotton gin, the two of them began “pounding nails” together. For many years they combined their creative talents to custom-build homes.

Junior Morris and my father preparing to deliver
Christmas baskets in 1992.

                John Donne wrote in the early 1600s, “No man is an island.” A small community understood this philosophy. If a person harmed his neighbor, he harmed himself. When someone helped another resident, she built up the entire town. A strong community almost innately recognized a lifestyle of caring and giving benefited the whole population. Although many years have passed since cotton was king in this part of Oklahoma, people living today who retain and follow a similar attitude of Junior Morris, LaRene Akers, and my father will experience a satisfaction and peace with neighbors and friends and more importantly, an inner satisfaction and peace within themselves.