High Cotton

I've had this photo on my desk for so long I've forgotten why, but it fits in with last Sunday's post on the sustainability of men's suits.

Look at the gent above on the left. I'd wear that suit today. I'll most likely wear its modern twin this afternoon. The photo, property of the Georgia Historical Society, shows Georgia's first cotton bale of 1927. Presumably the first at that gin.

An incredible story most likely lies in this photo. The Civil War Vet with pride of place, front and center was likely the planter, in his new, summer, go to church, hat all dolled up for pay day. The white suits, mostly money men, sharecroppers on the sides. A dozen years later came the mechanical cotton picker, forever changing life in the South. Try Nicholas Lemann's book "The Promised Land" or "The warmth of other suns" by Isabel Wilkerson for a great insight into the largest, peacetime, human migration in history.

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