Redbow
Senior Member
Now I know quite a few of the old timers here besides me have probably done this many times in their younger days. I used to even hate the thought of getting out there in the bakker patch for that reason. The day seemed to never end, the rows were long and the hot Sun broiled you relentlessly unless it was a cloudy day. Also we were expected to inspect each stalk of bakker for horn worms or bakker worms we called them. Pick them off and stomp them with your foot smash them make sure they were dead. My Grandpa hated nothing worse in this world than bakker worms..
Every two hours or so we got cool well water brought to us by one or two of the women from the house there was no ice water we didn't have ice at the house back then no refrigerator...Finally after what seemed like half of eternity had passed by someone would walk about half way to the bakker patch and shout, dinners ready y'all come on and get it.. Oh yes about an hour of heavenly relief with a good meal more cool water to wash it down with and a bit of rest under the big ole red oak trees in the shade before heading out to the bakker patch again..
Finally the steady topping and suckering of bakker was done, the fields were clean of tops and suckers and actually looked better with the flowering tops gone, and a few bakker worms to boot. A hard two days work on the farm carrying two rows at a time and hating ever minute of it, for me that is.. Anyway farm life back in those days was never meant to be a very pleasant or pleasing job, just something many of us back then had to do to scratch out a very poor living but we survived... There are many other reasons that I never intended to be a farmer.
Every two hours or so we got cool well water brought to us by one or two of the women from the house there was no ice water we didn't have ice at the house back then no refrigerator...Finally after what seemed like half of eternity had passed by someone would walk about half way to the bakker patch and shout, dinners ready y'all come on and get it.. Oh yes about an hour of heavenly relief with a good meal more cool water to wash it down with and a bit of rest under the big ole red oak trees in the shade before heading out to the bakker patch again..
Finally the steady topping and suckering of bakker was done, the fields were clean of tops and suckers and actually looked better with the flowering tops gone, and a few bakker worms to boot. A hard two days work on the farm carrying two rows at a time and hating ever minute of it, for me that is.. Anyway farm life back in those days was never meant to be a very pleasant or pleasing job, just something many of us back then had to do to scratch out a very poor living but we survived... There are many other reasons that I never intended to be a farmer.
