Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Cotton hoes

An old shed now sitting in the middle of a corn field in the Mississippi Delta contains a row of cotton hoes along one wall. I love this photo for it was totally unexpected and it quickly brought home how life has changed in just a few decades. It is something I will probably not see again in my lifetime. I am glad I captured it.

3 comments:

  1. What wonderful lagniappe, Marty. That picture makes me think of "the land of cotton," where "old times there are not forgotten."

    I'm so glad you explored inside that old shed, and captured forever in your pictures a small part of the history of the Mississippi Delta.

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  2. This composition and subject may well be in your album of "bests." The sepia, the irregular line, the weathered boards---perfection in a glimpse.

    The time IS gone, I think---one of the memories of back there which makes me smile is of one of the first mornings after Chris and I were married. The windows were open, and he hopped up from bed and ran to the door to look out.

    A line of hoe-hands was slowly working along toward our house, and it was just a perfect moment, frozen in a century's time---long-sleeved shirts, big sun hats, the people moving in the rhythm of the work.

    And he marveled, "And they're SINGING!!" It was beyond history, beyond the culture and the customs, beyond expectations---they were singing, "I Just Called to Say I Love You."

    Gone, gone with the wind of change, and a nostalgic thought is allowed, I suppose, but I do not miss those days. I can't imagine that anyone does.

    May I use this today?

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  3. I'm really glad you were there to capture this picture Marty...cotton hoes all in a row...if they could only talk!

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