I Never Picked Cotton

Until yesterday, when NBT pulled over so I could take some pictures of one of the many cotton fields and see what the stuff felt like.  I suppose it's unsurprising to the rest of  you that it feels exactly like a cotton ball, like what  you buy in packs of 200 in CVS.  Except there are little hard nut-sized seeds in there.  Somehow I didn't expect cotton balls in the field to feel so much like the cotton balls you get in sterile plastic bags in fluorescent-lit drugstores. 

We're driving nearly nonstop, it seems.  Whirlwind visit to the outer banks for about 19 hours, where we ate steamed shrimp and he did a mediation and I visited an English Garden and experimented with my camera.  Today, west to his parents' place (!) and tomorrow to Charlotte for a football game, then back here, for two whole days in a row before we get in the car again and head for the mountains. 

Pictures to follow when I'm back here and can hook up the cables.  I'm no genius with the camera, but I'm starting to learn just how much it can't do.  At the garden yesterday I wanted to take close-ups of a line of ants walking down this huge live oak.  They were four abreast, tiny little black fellas, with the occasional big giant black ant accompanying them, slow and clumsy.  The tiny guys were holding small opalescent white balls in their jaws, while the big guys walked slowly, as if drunk.  The line went on as far up as I could see it and then disappeared down a root and into the leaf debris.  My camera can't get that close to small things, no matter how much I tried.  I also failed to get a picture that could really show you the funky 3-D eye of the tiny gecko I stalked in a garden border, how he could circle the thing around as if it was on a stubby little stalk, and how his tiny ribcage moved in and out with his breath.  I could see all of that, but I can't share it with you, except through words.  Anyway, you'll get what I've got, when I can get it to you. 

Comments

Utterly tasteless headline.

[Kat]

(glad to hear you're in such a positve frame of mind, Anonymous! *mischevious grn*)

[rob]

See if your camera has a "macro" setting. If it does, turn it on, hold the camera close to the subject and shoot. You shouldn't need to touch the zoom, just leave it zoomed out. That being said, I really enjoyed your description (perhaps more than I would have enjoyed the photo!)

[turboglacier]

I have vague memory that you have a sony camera like mine-- if so, macro turn-on is a little button on back with a flower on it...

[Stephanie]

Maybe I'm tasteless too, but I don't understand the first comment.

[Kat]

I have the same problem with my camera...it seems to depend on the quality of light at the time as to how much detail I can capture.

Rob is right though, you're depiction of the gecko was great!

[azade]

Dear Sir/Madam
Im Azade Alizade Gorji, MA student in University of Tehran/Iran in Demography.
Just sending the letter to tell that due to financial problems, despite the acceptance from the Stanford University in USA, I cant go there.
I unfortunately belong to a low income family that cant let me to continue my education.
As you know the scholarship starts from commencing the PhD program and the University doesnt help for relocation costs.
It would be appreciated to me if you let me know you can help me get the primary financial aids just for preparing and going to America.

Im looking forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,
Azade Alizade Gorji
Faculty of Sociology-University of Tehran-
Tehran-Iran
P.O. Box: 14155-6455
Tele Fax: +98 21 66491623

[azade]

Dear Sir/Madam
Im Azade Alizade Gorji, MA student in University of Tehran/Iran in Demography.
Just sending the letter to tell that due to financial problems, despite the acceptance from the Stanford University in USA, I cant go there.
I unfortunately belong to a low income family that cant let me to continue my education.
As you know the scholarship starts from commencing the PhD program and the University doesnt help for relocation costs.
It would be appreciated to me if you let me know you can help me get the primary financial aids just for preparing and going to America.

Im looking forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,
Azade Alizade Gorji
Faculty of Sociology-University of Tehran-
Tehran-Iran
P.O. Box: 14155-6455
Tele Fax: +98 21 66491623

Dear Azade...

Suggest you try Bob Jones University,
Greenville SC for full financial package.

[Tillerman]

Dear Azade, Send me your bank account details and I will arrange for a scholarship for you from a friend of mine in Nigeria.

[PG]

Stephanie,

I expect that the first comment is from the same old anonymous commenter who seems to be convinced that Sherry is a racist but can't resist reading her anyway. He is describing the post title as "tasteless" presumably because white people aren't allowed to talk about whether or not they've picked cotton. (Despite the number of antebellum white slave-owners being less than the number of antebellum white sharecroppers or small farmers who picked their own damn cotton. Why let actual historical facts get in the way when you can make snide remarks?)

Actually, it's not from that earlier commenter de novo. Sometimes Sherry makes an observation which is so startlingly flippant or so surprisingly un-self aware that it demands commentary.

I Never Picked Cotton is the title of a Johnny Cash song. Maybe she is a country music lover.

Calm down, guys. As 7:38 am noted, it is a song. I took it as a reference to the song: lots of the titles come from song lyrics.

Personally, I have picked cotton. And broccoli, and cucumbers (ouch) and citrus -- other stuff. And I'm pretty white. Just happen to be from a rural, agricultural area and grew up double-plus unprivileged. And nobody picks cotton anymore - it is done by machine. Breathe out.