Hey Water Boy, Over Here!

In 1949 I was 6 years old and one of my earliest jobs ever bestowed on me was to be the water boy during harvest time – especially in the cotton fields.

My dad had two patches of cotton, one about 35 acres and one about 45 acres. Whenever he hired cotton pickers from across Munke Road, just east of our farm, to pick the long rows of cotton, they would get very thirsty. There were as many as fifteen to twenty of them scattered along the field and it was my job to deliver water to them about every hour or so. I remember the first method I used was to carry a wooden bucket full of water along with a dipper. As I stopped alongside each picker, they would take the dipper, dip it into the pail and take a long drink. I never could figure out why each person drinking from this dipper would drink until one swallow or two was left and then they would toss the remainder of water aside!

My dad finally explained to me that it was a habit they acquired from early on. Most of these homes had dug wells for their source of drinking water. Most of these wells had no cover on them and naturally a lot of foreign material fell into this water source. As a bucket of water was drawn from this well, it would be set at a table or counter and the contents settled down to the bottom of the bucket. Naturally as the water was dipped out for a drink the last swallow would be spit out and the remaining swallows or two left in the dipper also would be thrown out.

Also in the process of me walking through the tall cotton with an uncovered bucket of water I guess I brushed against the plants and ended up contaminating the water somewhat. Maybe even a boll weevil or two ended up in there! Later on probably because of the complaints of these pickers dad acquired some one gallon glass jugs from the RC-NEHI Bottling Company in La Grange. These jugs contained the syrup for the soda being bottled and the empties were readily available. They had a small neck and a handy eye handle and made a great source of water container for me to carry. That eliminated the dipper and all each drinker did was to raise the jug to his or her lips and drink away. Talk about spreading germs. But maybe germs weren’t invented yet, and everyone got along just fine!