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The sternwheeler City St. Joseph on the Mississippi River circa 1910. "Unloading cotton on the levee. Memphis, Tennessee." 8x10 glass negative. View full size.
At the time this photo was taken, my mom was a newborn to a coal miner in Pennsylvania, while in a Conn. copper foundry, my father's dad was toiling in front of a blast furnace 8 to 10 hrs. a day. These were not easy times for most people who had to do the hard labor necessary to support their families. Meanwhile in Memphis, these men were also enduring backbreaking jobs to make a buck. I've heard countless stories of the generations before us who seemed to have performed superhuman feats daily in order to provide for all of us and to build up America. They must be remembered as heroes. We sometimes don't realize the effort involved in turning raw materials into useful products.
Driving around the South in October you can see what, to some, look like giant loaves of bread sitting at the side of the cotton fields. These are called "Cotton Modules" and are compacted cotton picked by machines waiting to be shipped to the cotton gin. Each module holds approximately 14.5 to 15 bales of cotton. A bale of cotton is said to average around 500 pounds.
I assume that's a bail of cotton? Three men pushing each, how much did they weigh? (not the men)
[More like a bale. "Bail" is for jail. - Dave]
Now we know the true meaning of the phrase.
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