FOLKLIFE OF WIREGRASS GEORGIA: OF FARMS AND FARMING

"Years later I had the chance to work beside the best picker in the field. My 'opponent' was taking two rows at a time and I was steadily losing ground. The day ended, and I weighed in at one hundred and twenty-five pounds while she had over four hundred. That was the last time I seriously tried to pick cotton." Milton N. Hopkins Jr., In One Place, The Natural History of a Georgia Farmer, 2001.

Sign painter Curtis Everett of Donalsonville depicts an earlier era when cotton was Wiregrass Georgia's sole cash crop.

Photo by Laurie Kay Sommers, 1998. West Jakin Convenience Mart, 1999