Those old cotton fields back home

"Picking in high cotton"
My great uncle Jim Helms in Arkansas circa 1930. He is the closest relative for whom I have a picture picking cotton. Although we picked hundreds of bales of cotton we have no images...ordinary life was not a subject to be photographed. We never had a camera not even a Kodak Brownie! It takes 1500 pounds of picked cotton to gin (remove the seeds) out a 500 pound bale of pure cotton. That is alot of cotton locks, five per boll (bur) !
Great Grandfather, Lewis David Henry Simpson and Grandmother (Colon E. LILES) seated with my grandfather Elijah Hampton Simpson, first one on the left followed by: Great Aunt Lillie, Great Uncle Brady, Great Aunt Dora, Great Aunt Fannie, Great Uncle Atlas, and Great Aunt Etta. This picture was taken in the late 1880's. They were all cotton farmers near Watson Primitive Baptist Church and Richardson creek in Union County NC. 
When I was a little bitty baby
My mama would rock me in the cradle
In them old cotton fields back home

It was down in Louisiana
Just about a mile from Texarkana
In them old cotton fields back home

Oh when them cotton bolls get rotten
You can't pick very much cotton
In them old cotton fields back home

It was down in Louisiana
Just about a mile from Texarkana
In them old cotton fields back home

When I was a little bitty baby
My mama would rock me in the cradle
In them old cotton fields back home

It was down in Louisiana
Just about a mile from Texarkana
In them old cotton fields back home

Oh when them cotton bolls get rotten
You can't pick very much cotton
In them old cotton fields back home

It was down in Louisiana
Just about a mile from Texarkana
In them old cotton fields back home
In them old cotton fields back home
Great Granfather & Mother Lewis David Henry Simpson
Grandfather Marcus Mullis and Grandmother Cora

Great Grandfather Sherwood Mullis and one of his many sons.
He was a veteran of the Civil War and attended the reunions until he was 91 years old.