mac davis wrote:

On Sun, 02 Dec 2007 12:02:53 -0700, Mark & Juanita
wrote:

Even back in the 40's when my mother was home on the farm, the whole
family worked, but my granddad did hire migrant workers at the peaks of
the
season (chopping cotton and picking cotton). There were people who
followed the harvest or other crop seasons from Texas on north throughout
the year. From what I understand however, they were all American citizens
or here legally.
I recently read a book, ( "A Painted House" by John Grisham),about cotton
growers in Arkansas during the 50's and the family did most of the farming
but needed Lots of help picking...
A lot of the book revolves around conflicts between the 2 sources of hired
seasonal pickers.. "hill people" that came down once a year in large
family groups and "Mexicans" that were trucked in from Mexico..

Some things never change?

Mom's family was in North Texas. From what she has said, there were two
distinct groups, the migrant Mexican workers and blacks. I don't recall
her mentioning any conflicts regarding that. The migrants pretty much
moved themselves from job to job (they weren't "trucked" in). Mom's family
worked alongside the hired people, the whole idea was to get things done
quickly.


--
If you're going to be dumb, you better be tough