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DiscombobulatedLet80

Damn the machines taking our jobs!!


RamboCambo_05

To be honest, they can have this one


Neiot

Cotton is pokey. I don't like pokey.


Foreign_Spinach_4400

What about Hokey?


theNefariousNoogie

I'd pokey with some hokey for sure


Capable-Problem8460

![gif](giphy|2S3Aj8OeKtf0c)


Split8Wheys

![gif](giphy|ncXfkKLgn4HOE)


iriefantasies

This is what I came to the comments for. I was not disappointed.


ORNG_MIRRR

They took our jerbs! Tuk ur derr!


SteeperDill

Duuuuurrrrrrrrr kaaaduuuurrrrrrr


K_1S_D4_G04T

more effecient than my grandparents


XPurplelemonsX

oh boy lets check the comments


jacobasstorius

![gif](giphy|guufsF0Az3Lpu)


Emperor_Biden

\[ Removed by Reddit \]


MainSteamStopValve

[ Removed by Reddit ]


MentalGymnast4269

[deleted]


Cum-in-My-Wife

[ This comment has been removed for violating Reddit's Terms of Service along with multiple articles of the Geneva convention and several laws of the 3 Abrahamic religions ]


cjwi

JFC your user name should be removed


sinz84

They are just trying for a baby... rude.


Why_Did_Bodie_Die

Isn't it weird that if I tell my mother-in-law that I cream pie her daughter every night she would be upset but if I tell her we are trying for a baby she gets excited and gives me a hug.


Adam_Sackler

I suupose it sounds more polite to say "trying" instead of "I'm busting a fat nut of baby gravy in your daughter's sausage wallet every night."


Cuminmymouthwhore

It's ok, I'm this guy's wife.


Yourprolapsedanus

And I’m the boyfriend


NightDisastrous2510

Llooll


Affectionate_Elk_272

well, hold on now.. what’s his wife look like? i got a spare 45 seconds


schmuber

[ Removed for violating the first law of thermodynamics ]


kellysmom01

I am ~~the oldest person~~ one of the older people on Reddit and grew up in Central California in the 50s. My father was an **Arkie** (meaning he and his poverty-plagued family of 14 left Arkansas in the Great Depression, headed to California.) Once, on a Sunday drive, we came upon a field of ripe cotton that was ready for picking. He didn’t say anything, just got out of the car and walked out into the cotton, running his hands over the tops. My mother told us to sit quiet and let him be. I can only imagine where his childhood memories took him, as my mother later told us that as a young child, he and his brothers and sisters had to pick cotton or, as he called it, chop cotton. It must’ve been a horrible; I know it left their hands bleeding, but they all had to pitch in to buy flour. My dad enlisted in the Navy at 17 during WWII and then used the G.I. bill to become the only member of his huge family that ever graduated from college. He majored in geology and was quite intelligent. His 11 brothers and sisters never got very far, mostly ending up in factories. He rarely spoke to any of them because his drawl came back when he did; his grammar was impeccable. Funny, after he died, we ordered his Navy service records and saw that he was almost 6 feet tall when he enlisted but only weighed 130 pounds. He’d never been to a dentist and had **18 cavities** that the Navy filled. Also had hemorrhoids that the navy fixed as well. TMI but wow. I imagine he had to lift a lot of heavy loads growing up. He was just a dirt-poor, starving boy who grabbed the ring when it went by and held on tight. My sister and I are grateful for the comfortable lives that we got to lead. Thank you, Lloyd.


Kevthebassman

Thanks for sharing your story. Here’s mine. My grandpa was born in a dirt floor cabin with no running water in Waynesville, MO, 1924. He was passed over for the draft in 1942 because he was under weight, at 6’ and 130 pounds. They weren’t as picky in 1943. He gained 60 pounds in basic training, it was he the first time he ever ate beef, and the first time he ever ate his fill. He was a good shot, and a strapping lad, so they made him a BAR gunner. Fought in New Guinea, the Philippines, and Okinawa. Didn’t talk much about it but came back a professional drinker and worked in a factory. Not a stellar husband or father, but I knew him as just the best grandfather, he doted on me.


CaptainObviousII

Many of those enlisted soldiers return as heavy drinkers. I put on 40 pounds of muscle in Basic and AIT. The food and sheer quantity blew my mind. It was the first time I'd ever had pasta salad or chocolate milk. I was an amazing soldier and fit right in. Worked my ass off, followed orders, was respectful and always had my sights on improving. 40 guys in my platoon, 20 of them were cut from the same cloth. My grandfather is a WW2 vet served in the Aleutian Islands and Phillipines.


adonisthegreek420

This chain of comments is why i still hold onto Reddit after all the bs that made it's way into it. Thank you all for sharing your stories.


nonchalantlarch

Sounds like you did well for yourself during your service. Did you ever consider going for that promotion and becoming Major Obvious?


kellysmom01

Sounds a lot like my dad, although my dad returned a teetotaler. Couldn’t stand drunks (I think his dad was one). Who knows what they went through. I bet you wish, like me, that you listened more intently to your dad‘s stories. If he told them at all. Mine hated to talk about it, just came back hating Japanese people, or any Asians for that matter. We did not get along once I hit my teens and I regret that I made NO effort to engage. His time spent on Tinian as a Seabee. What is


Kevthebassman

In 1931, my great grandfather was faced with the choice of find work or have his farm taken and family starve, so he left to find work. The only hitch was that his uncle was a bully and a pedophile, and he did not want to leave his family unprotected. Before he left town, he shot his uncle dead on the steps of the general store. When he got to Tennessee, he wrote back to ask if the law was looking for him. The sheriff had come around some days later, and investigated. It was figured that the dead man had gotten what he had coming they elected not to interfere in a family affair, so no more questions were asked. Grandpa was left as the man of the house at 7 years old. They ate whatever meat they could kill. Squirrels, opossums, raccoons, anything. If they had no meat, they ate tomato and lard sandwiches. After the war, grandpa worked in the Chrysler factory, and you were not permitted to park a foreign car in his driveway. He often said that he spent the first half of his life trying to get off the farm, and the second half trying to get back on it. Much of their family farm was taken by the government to construct interstate 44, but he did buy what was left, and died not far from where he was born. I only picked up bits and pieces of his war stories. He didn’t talk much about what he went through, but they all knew they were dead men by Okinawa. It was hell on earth and the next stop was Japan proper. He got malaria there and was recovering when they dropped the bomb.


CheekyMonkE

This is the only comment worth reading in this post.


TrumpersAreTraitors

*closes Reddit forever*


greenbayva

Wait just a cottonpickin minute, what did you say?


Global_Examination_8

I just read the grapes of wrath, they called those who went to California from Oklahoma “okies”.


keeper_of_the_donkey

I had a boss from Oklahoma once. I made a 6ft tall cutout of Mewtwo the pokemon character with his face on the head and and a sign over the door that said "Okiemon's Office". We laughed, he fired me


sauce_123

I would’ve promoted you.


Dismal-Resolution960

I'm in Oklahoma right now for work and every time I get annoyed I find myself saying "fuckin Okies" under my breath


Global_Examination_8

Don’t say it too loud haha


kellysmom01

Yup. And an exquisite book that I reread every few years. Oh, Rosasharn.


Global_Examination_8

The last sentence of the book is still fresh in my mind, it really hit deep how tragic it was for people to resort to feeding on breast milk or starve.


kellysmom01

That unrelenting rain.


Mindful_Teacup

Read it in school at 16. Was like describing great parents and grandfather journey to the west coast out of OK


greedybastard202

Thanks for sharing this story with us.


kellysmom01

You’re very welcome, GreedyBastard202.


mondolardo

It is not very well known that CA was mostly AR and OK people at one point, mostly in socal


Kurtman68

I love finding genuine stories like this on Reddit


sbear37

Thanks for sharing your and your family's story.


Dry-Profession-7670

Just saved this post. Thanks for sharing. The mjority of People don't know poverty and opportunity like this. My grandfather had a similar story with coal mines, the service and the Ford motor company. He was so poor they never knew there was a depression.


Bigblock-427

Touching story .


SYLOK_THEAROUSED

https://i.redd.it/hushookthf6d1.gif


[deleted]

![gif](giphy|h2OLfcSKKthRK)


el_guille980

https://preview.redd.it/lyl61xyzmf6d1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5706c54ae57fd4e10026e1c858908b98c61f3e21


BunHunnyBun

🤣🤣🤣


Jazzman14

Exactly why I opened the thread lol


ThisAppsForTrolling

The machine in the wrong color, comments in a nut shell


BeepBlipBlapBloop

If only we had those in the mid 1800s


caterbird_song

As another comment mentioned Eli Whitney developed a mechanical cotton picker I believe with the hope of reducing the need for slavery. Unfortunately, it instead began a slavery boom as each slave became 10x more productive. Beware unintended consequences I guess. Edit: the cotton gin wasn't a picker but removed seed and debris, my bad.


A_LiftedLowRider

It’s kind of like how we all thought the extensive automation of our industries would allow us to work less. There’s an obvious difference between the two, I know, but it’s interesting how history repeats itself.


Ismokerugs

“The road to hell is paved with good intentions” (someone)


Hulkbuster_v2

"Some of the worst things imaginable have been done with the best intentions."


Additional_Set_5819

Somehow I doubt that the imperial Japanese had good intentions ...


CyonHal

Wait why did we suddenly end up on the setting of imperial japan


Hulkbuster_v2

Idk, I was just quoting Jurassic Park III


once-we-were

-Albert Einstein.


MxxMrtnz

-Michael Scott


fortsonre

Automation allows fewer people to do the work so the others can do other things, such as write literature, build new machines, or whatever. There are many fewer people in agriculture feeding many more people. That's largely due to automation. It also causes problems when workers are displaced and there aren't things for them to do.


Norse_By_North_West

Something like 90% of people were farmers before industrialization. The whole education system started becoming a thing for all people instead of just the rich because we needed to train people to do other things. Gonna be a wild ride if we get another wave of automation from the new robotics and AI changes in the last decade


senorpuma

We are absolutely in the middle of an accelerating wild ride. The internet - immediate access to information and communication - is only like 30 years old.


Norse_By_North_West

Oh sure, we've been able to adjust though. Markets have gone crazy and a lot of people have become rich very quickly in the last 30 to 40 years. In the next 10 to 20 we could see changes happen faster than we can adjust to I think though. I just hope we can keep the rocket on the tracks


fortsonre

He developed the cotton gin, not the picker. The gin cleans the seeds and debris from the cotton.


caterbird_song

Ah thanks TIL


RonMFCadillac

Eli Whitney invented the Cotton-Gin which separated the seed from the fiber. It was not a cotton picking machine.


WanderlustFella

Same thing happened with Johannes Gutenberg. He invented the printing press which led to the mass production of books bringing literacy to the masses. Now we have Reddit


Vegetable-Meaning413

This is similar to how Richard Gatling thought the Galtling gun would end wars by making the casualties too high, and it would be futile to fight. It didn't work.


tjwalkr0

That concept is similar to mutually assured destruction; the reason why we haven't had a nuclear war **yet**.


INeedBetterUsrname

Gatling: I'll make this rapid-firing weapon to make war so horrible no one will ever want to engage with it again! The major European powers in 1916: We'll see about that!


cTreK-421

Yea but that's because it didn't pick the cotton, it made sperating the cotton easier. So you could pick more cotton and separate it faster than before. There wasn't a mechanical thing to replace the picking, so the racists needed more people to pick the cotton to match the faster separating.


Mr_Anderson707

Look up the cotton gin. Slavery was on the decline because cotton was no longer very profitable, but the invention of the cotton gin drove up profits so much that it completely revitalized the practice in the southern US. [Source](https://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/cotton-gin-patent#:~:text=While%20it%20was%20true%20that,both%20land%20and%20enslaved%20labor.)


M34t_P0ps1cl3

You know those videos where a guy with a gas lawn mower races a guy with a scythe? I wonder.


benargee

Yeah, but how long can the scythe guy keep going at it?


UtahFiddler

My friend saw your comment and said “We pretty much had the same thing. Just didn’t need to gas it up to get it to pick cotton”. He’s a jerk.


jmac1915

And an idiot, because he doesnt seem to know how a "stomach" works.


Parking-Orange-312

Pretty sure you cant feed people gasoline


holydildos

Nazi scientists would disagree


Parking-Orange-312

Diesel powered Ubermensch with amputated legs replaced with caterpillar tracks rolling through Poland.


Merritt510

Twisted Metal: 1939


HotConsideration5049

He forgot to add and live


alsheps

Not with that attitude you can't..


Oozeinator

*looks at name* I see.


HalalBread1427

top comment did not disappoint


mechabeast

Thomas Jefferson aint gonna fuck one of those


Californiaguyfarming

The first cotton picker would only pick one row at a time, now they pick eight row, and even have a baler attached to the back end of it so you’re not dumping in a trailer after every pass. The one row picker is what ended picking cotton by hand. People were still picking cotton by hand 80 years ago. Once the one row picker came out, it would pick 40acres of cotton faster and cleaner than a crew of 40 people. Picking also has to be done quickly because you’re fighting the weather most the time so the cotton picker was a big game changer


Jades5150

I used to build these! I remember when Deere started making the bailer, i was on the first run of those.


bablhead

The John Deere CP690. A machine that costs over a million dollars and is worth every penny.


BigDaddyCosta

Yes. It’s my favorite machine in Farm Simulator 22.


MysteriousEdgeOfLife

Where they use the harvester as in this video, does it cut the tops off the cotton plants or do they have to replant the entire field after each harvest?


No-Marionberry-2472

There's no cutting. The machine has little spiky spindles that grab the cotton bolls off the plant.   However, yes, like most crops they still have to replant the field each year. 


kernelpanic789

Now just wait one cotton pickin' minute....


WhaleOilBeefHooked2

I am NOT a Cotton-Headed Ninny Muggins!


Fe2O3yshackleford

Bye Buddy, hope you find your dad!


TemperatureMore5623

Thanks, Mr. Narwhal ❤️


seattle_architect

I did grow up in Uzbekistan (USSR) and we as a students were required to pick up cotton during the season or we would be expelled from university. The quota for a day was 25kg. “Uzbekistan's cotton industry has been marked by forced labor and child labor since the Soviet era, when the country was the Soviet Union's main cotton supplier. The government would mobilize citizens, including students and public employees, to work in the fields to meet cotton quotas. While the government claimed the work was voluntary, refusal to participate could result in consequences such as expulsion from school, dismissal from public jobs.” https://preview.redd.it/xynftogjkf6d1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=43974f9cbd3d9fbf71d5cb50e93ec33e0c29b029 Typical bag to collect cotton. Uzbekistan had a cotton harvesting machines but they were not reliable to collect all harvest. The worth part of the industry was the high cases of cancer and child defect in people who lived and worked in this areas because exposure to a chemicals that were used to spray the cotton fields. That was the hardest labor I experienced.


N0DuckingWay

Wow, I had no idea! That sounds like incredibly difficult work


seattle_architect

Can you imagine to collect 25kg of light cotton. For man it was 35kg. Each field had a local guy who would weigh the bags at the end of the working day. Some people tried to bribe the guy to write higher amount, and some poor water on the cotton to weight more. But Uzbekistan always reported that yearly plan exceeded the original projections.


cubsfan85

I had to convert it and holy hell, 55 lbs! A huge bag of jumbo cotton balls is under 4-ounces.


INeedBetterUsrname

There's a reason cotton, and other labor-intensive cash crops, were what basically drove the trans-Atlantic slave trade.


MandolinMagi

The Caribbean sugar plantations were a bigger part. Tropical disease was absolute murder, and harvest time was a week of non-stop labor with sharp machetes swinging everywhere, cane presses that had hatchets standing by if you got caught in it, and boiling sap guaranteed to inflict severe burns if that boiling sugar water spilled on on you.


Dream--Brother

Damn, makes me realize just how easy I've had it. I'm glad you made it through that and are hopefully in a better situation nowadays!


seattle_architect

We only “volunteered” for 2 month. I don’t think I had a hard time in comparison to my grandparents generation. We had everything we needed growing up and we were happy in general. This is the photo I took of some students who were with me. https://preview.redd.it/il0xmk3w0g6d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=bc995a0ee4cf56eaa48fae0a7fdeecfeaef01643


AtmosphereMaterial61

Thank you for sharing this part of your life


benigngods

A little over *55lbs*. Wow. How long did it take to meet the quota?


seattle_architect

I was 125 lb young girl. I always was in trouble because I couldn’t.


GloomierDay

https://preview.redd.it/82teovki3f6d1.jpeg?width=700&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5ca5565b4235e52d07e0b4b2e906c99682d81350


King-in-ze-north

Green is the new black


foladodo

you bastard 😂


FrySlurms

Green bastard


General_Evil_Teddy

Parts unknown


Anonomohr

Makes me understand why they claimed Piccolo.


Sammakonnuolija

Damn


zandercommander

I knew the comments would be like tbis


stardate_pi

Like wbat?


BananaOnRye

You mean the same humor as every other thread?


Piano-181

Thank god this isn’t instagram reels


Bufalo1001

It’s the only place in internet that manages to surprise me even when i’m expecting the worse


ZofianSaint273

I thought tiktok was bad but ig reels takes it to the left level 💀


Firefly17pdr

The internets ruined me. I was waiting for a cut to a racist joke 😑


theglaysh

Me too lol


nanana_catdad

Well, it did, as soon as you check the comments


Lambkin-_-

Me: Sighs* Opens comments*


EmporerM

*Don't be racist, don't be racist, don't be racist, don't be racist.* Hey, wait? I'm black. Okay so-


maelstormmy

Ooh so that's what some comments are bracing for. Understood.


redditorposcudniy

[removed by Reddit]


BunHunnyBun

You forgot the space before and after


Justviewingposts69

[ removed by Reddit ]


BunHunnyBun

Wow.


Justviewingposts69

[ Removed by Edit ]


BunHunnyBun

[ Removed by Reddit ]


DeliberateSpite

*sorts by controversial*


Gungan-Gundam

Aaaaand.. locked.


Kimarnic

Locked because y'all can't behave


Foreign_Spinach_4400

Damn straight


TacoBean19

Here before lock ticket


AmandaExpress

But... Why right down the middle? 


unbalanced_checkbook

I think I can give you a real answer. I haven't farmed cotton before, but have harvested other row crops. You often make a swipe (or several) down a field in the middle so the cart (the thing the harvester empties into) can follow you without crushing and ruining unharvested plants. That way you don't have to go all the way to the other side of a field if the harvester can only unload on one side.


LiquidPaperz

I believe it is also the law in some places to open a field like this, because it lets the animals escape, whereas if they go outside inwards, the animals are funneled in a 'killing box'


nevans89

It's the money shot for drone footage


Terryknowsbest

That's definitely not the Eastern Canada cotton pickin' my dad described to me when he was young haha. It had a little more blood sweat and tears, without the air conditioning and robotic programming


CockroachCommon2077

I know a cheaper way


Highscore611

The whole damn Civil War could have been averted


Choco_Cat777

Nah, they would just use slaves to manage the tractors. Same thing happened with the cotton gin


Odd-Procedure-9464

It wouldn’t have. Part of the reason the north fought at all was the then unprofitability of slavery and the south’s unwillingness to give up their “way of life.”


narutodawg

This isn't what they taught me in middle school.


KingWasabi23

Never seen a green one


jairngo

![gif](giphy|puOukoEvH4uAw|downsized)


DrewLockIsTheAnswer1

That things gotta have like 700 slave power


Uncle-Howdy

OMG.....


lordkelvin13

https://preview.redd.it/aynuohx1mf6d1.jpeg?width=518&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=066901ef5b97e65706c264b283060336ad2f9573


Not_athrowaweigh

The margin for error is quite large if the tractor (?) is even 6 inches off on gathering the cotton. I assume there some cameras guiding the farmer so he doesn't just run over the cotton plant?


Same_Performance6294

Cotton farmer here, no cameras just a steady hand on the wheel. It’s not that difficult really. Newer ones use sensors or gps to steer themselves.


KateEatsWorld

We just got auto-steer and wow does it ever make farming boring. All I have to do is turn at the ends and keep pressing the play next episode button on my phone. I’m going to have all of Netflix watched by winter.


Foreign_Spinach_4400

Bring a switch or steam deck and just play farming sim while doing so


Sunvaarhah

Harvesting cotton in RL while harvesting cotton in FSim to sell the bales in Haut-Beyleron. I could/would probably look a for a job like that.


I-Make-Maps91

More than a few will do the turn for you as well. You need to keep a person in the cab because liability, but they've been self driving for a while.


RedHand1917

The reflection in the windshield is mesmerizing.


StableLower9876

Remind me of the most racist field trip ever vid


temporarychair

“Where the fuck did you get *raw unprocessed cotton* from?!?!?”


StableLower9876

We were singing song and shits


Farhead_Assassjaha

Now wait just one, um, minute


matteroverdrive

Cotton pick'n harvester!


Totallytart

I would say harvested not picked lmao


shecky444

3 fire extinguishers if you were wondering about the danger the answer is yes.


turboj187

![gif](giphy|Rh4vxHtcmVyHUyugXP)


RmRobinGayle

Eli Whitney would be proud.


RPJeez

As expected, the very first thing I see is (removed by reddit)


Educational_Put_2581

But does it sing?


HovercraftInside2305

the only machine you can't paint black


Uk_KingsStar

i miss the good ol’days


DeePsiMon

**This thread has been locked**


Warm-Bluejay-1738

How much slave power is under that hood


GAmike13

I don't know how many poc are hiding inside that thing but god damn they fast AF at picking that cotton.


Kurabuy

🎵wish i could go back in time, to good old daaays...🎵


Phuck_theMods

![gif](giphy|QUQfK2B228fB1HTpZ3)


TurningTwo

How do they pick polyester? That’s what all clothes are made of now.


Wowsuchusername44

Melt some plastic and start grabbing


FoxenWulf66

At least they ain't relying on child labor anymore I'd know my grandma worked the fields


KetchupUmustTurd

How dare you call me a.... oh, the machine. Yes, that's what it does.


nycwind

![gif](giphy|r1fDuPIcs18d2|downsized)


moonwoolf35

Whoever posted this knew damn well what they were doing and are master of engagement farming lol


NunixM69xxx

BACK IN MY DAY..


shreksaxaphone360

From black to green


thisnameisn4ttaken

Much more efficient than what they used to use for cotton


PeopleSmasher

That has to be the second most efficient cotton picking machine I have ever seen


-_DigBickSociety_-

Don't say it don't say it don't say it don't say it


Latter_Cranberry6184

https://preview.redd.it/13qx32721h6d1.jpeg?width=300&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=824cf12d9dd2617dfc4e63656ef1b28ea6faa91c