I am always looking for new resources to share with teachers on my favorite fiber! Years ago, a friend from the Mississippi Delta wrote A Cotton Pickin’ Story for Toddlers. There are also a number of publications available through the National Cotton Council. But I just can get enough of video! And when a friend sent this cotton educational video connected to TED, well, obviously I had to sit down and soak it up!

Cotton fits so many different courses of study, so hearing about history and how cotton offers such strength and flexibility. I love thinking about Incas using cotton as breast plates and other clothing for warriors. It’s why some of the most dangerous jobs still feature cotton so prominently in the uniforms and clothing guidelines.

There is a lot of information built in here including how cotton physiology works with seeds inside the cotton boll producing the fiber. Understanding what a cotton plant looks like and how the fiber inside a young cotton boll pushes to elongate and showing how the cell walls build out. And this is part of the reason Pima cotton and Egyptian cotton is so popular. Some of these pieces of fiber strength & length are tested in HVI labs.

The kinds of uses go through so many products we use. Sure we think about our favorite t-shirts and jeans but how many of us think about the uses like diapers and coffee filters? Students will once they watch this!

A Personal Cotton Aside

From the opening, when they quote none other than BB King about cotton being a “force of nature.” I am in! Close friends and family all know that BB has been a major music influence in my life.

While I was living in the Mississippi Delta for a bit more than a decade, I would regularly see BB play, but I also saw him when I lived in New York and Memphis. But it wasn’t until I lived in Mississippi that I heard him talk about cotton as he broke ground for a museum that would bear his name. That museum is in an old cotton gin! He talked about how the cotton gin was both symbolic and a physical touchstone for him and for so many others in the Delta explaining cotton is a big part of who Southerners are. And he even took time in the dreaded summer heat to ask for the much needed rain understanding farmers needed the break. You can see photos from my run-ins with him over the years on my other site, JPlovesLIFE

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DATELINE: Memphis, Tennessee Airport (644 miles from home), flying to Atlanta, Georgia (327 air miles from Memphis)

Hey Jake,

You know how much I travel for work? Well, I had a great trip recently and got to take Flat Stanley along! It was so much fun traveling with him and I got some special opportunities since he was along for the ride.

First step? Going to the airport and going through security. Since Stanley doesn’t fly as much as I do, I made sure he knew the rules before we went to the airport. Some of the rules are about liquids going through and others are about the screening. Sorry to say, the rules made me put Flat Stanley through a different machine than I went through but he went through it with a smile on his face the whole time. He went with my purse, jacket, etc and kept an eye on things.

People not made out of paper go through other machines called metal detectors & body scanners. That’s where I went through and once the TSAs were sure all was well, I rejoined Stanley and got ready to go to our gate & get on the airplane.

As we were getting on the airplane, I asked if we could say hello to the pilots and they were nice enough to show Stanley some of the controls! They even let us take a picture! And we got great seats in the front of the plane too so we could catch what was going on with other Delta airplanes & the ground crews handling our luggage & directing traffic! (Fun Delta Air Lines blog here I stumbled on.)

When we arrived in Atlanta, we got our luggage and needed to get to the hotel. We decided to catch a cab. There was a really nice lady working there who called cabs for us and she let Flat Stanley help! She seemed to smile as big as Stanley!

Then it was time to get to work!

Because I work with farmers, we were in Atlanta for some really big meetings with farmers from all across the US, We spent time talking to some of the people I work with about cotton farming. One of the people Stanley met was named Keylon Gholston. His job is finding new cotton plants that will do really well on cotton farms across the US. (Deltapine rocks!)

I don’t know if everyone in your class knows about how cotton grows from a seed to a plant to produce the lint that you find on Q-Tips, cotton balls, etc but my favorite use is the jeans and hoodies or t-shirts that I wear! Mr. Gholston even knows farmers in North Carolina who like to plant Deltapine cotton, Dekalb corn or Asgrow soybeans!

We also got a chance to visit with some farmers including Bob Walker – he’s a farmer who lives really close to Memphis. And we’re really good friends. In fact, he’s such a good friend that he let Alicia come out and “help” with cotton picking in October. I think you saw photos of that on the internet. We also checked out some things you can buy at the meeting like koozies with a cotton logo on them (but you know I already had some because I sent some to you & your family!)

I was working and in a meeting and my eye started bothering me. I have to tell you I got worried Jake. When I went to the bathroom and looked in the mirror, my eye was really, really red. It didn’t look like it was supposed to at all. And since I was so far from my doctor, I got a little nervous.

So I checked with some of my friends who know Atlanta really well and found a doctor there who could look at my eye and see if it was going to be okay. It kind of made it more fun to have Stanley along cause I had fun taking photos for your letter while I was waiting. One was just in the waiting room and then later I took one in the treatment room…. The doctor ran a lot of tests and told me it was kind of like a bruise and would be fine after a little while.

We had a crazy storm while I was there. And I was a bit worried about having Stanley out in all the freezing rain, snow and craziness. But he enjoyed getting a look at things from my hotel. We were on the 28^th floor so we could see a really long way. Everywhere we looked there was snow & ice! It was really weird to see almost no cars because Atlanta’s famous for traffic.

With the extra time in the hotel, we got to have a nice long lunch. I had soup and a sandwich but Stanley said he’d already eaten. Somehow he was able to make room for dessert though! Cheesecake with some blueberrys to go on top! We were making friends along the way too and enjoyed finding out our waiter was from The Netherlands. He thought it was cool that Nannae goes there for work!

One night that Stanley stayed at the hotel to watch TV and I went out in the bad weather, the bus service was escorted by policemen! Really, our bus had police cars going along with us. I guess Atlanta thinks farmers are really important people! It got to be a long trip though because the bus got stuck on a hill! The ice was too slippery for us to go up the hill!

But the roads DID FINALLY clear up and we were able to get a cab back to the airport. We were really happy to see the sun shining again and be able to head out again!

But first, we would have to do some things at the airport. There were a lot of people who had been wanting to go places so we went there early and patiently stood in line. We had to check our luggage and that line was longer than I’d like to remember but there were nice people there to chat with!

This time since Stanley knew more about what we had to do, I let him help. He even held my driver’s license as we went through the line to talk to the officers. But they don’t like you taking too many pictures so I won’t show those!

With extra time on our hands, we went to get our lunch at the airport but got distracted when we started talking to a guy who’s in the army. He’s stationed in Alaska and was returning to duty after having a break for the holidays. There’s an awful lot of snow in Alaska so we stopped complaining about Atlanta’s weather really quickly! The plane was able to leave and we were sure glad to get to fly out!

[slideshow]

The post Touring Airports & Atlanta with Flat Stanley & Farmers appeared first on Hundred Percent Cotton.

Today’s post is written by Billy Brozovich, a student at the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss). He had a project to write a story for three year olds and he decided to make cotton farming a central part of the story. I have met Billy a few times — usually as he stopped by his dad’s office since his dad was my chiropractor and his parents are really close friends to friends of mine.

Anyway, parental pride and a friend’s knowledge of my routine writing about cotton meant an email got to me! Thanks Billy for letting me share it with some more folks! ! I hope you get an awesome grade on the project!  And I hope we continue to find stories like these, with many in books that we can share with our children (or nieces and nephews ) about farming!

There once was a little boy named Eric who lived in Greenville, Ms.  Eric’s Daddy has lived in the Mississippi Delta all his life where he learned how to farm.

Eric was three years old when his Daddy took him on his first cotton picker ride through the white cotton field.  Eric had a really fun time riding that cotton picker with his Daddy.

Eric watched his Daddy drive the cotton picker during the harvest seasons every year.  Eric could not wait to be able to drive the cotton picker by himself.  Eric asked, “Daddy, when do I get to drive the cotton picker?”  His Daddy answered, “Son, if you watch me closely and learn how I drive it then you I will let you drive it one day.”

Two years passed and Eric turned five years old.  Eric still loved going to work with his Daddy and playing in the cotton field.  His Daddy had gotten him a toy cotton picker to practice with.  Eric asked, “Daddy, if I practice on this toy cotton picker can I drive the big cotton picker?”

Daddy answered, “I will let you be my co-pilot and sit in my lap and help me steer the big cotton picker next year if you practice hard.”  Eric practiced every day and could not wait for that next year to help his Daddy pick that cotton.

The next year came and Eric could not sleep.  He was so excited about helping his Daddy pick cotton for the first time ever.  After five years of watching his Daddy and learning exactly how to steer Eric was ready!!!

Eric loved the farm, cotton was his favorite crop.  Five years passed so he now is 11 years old.  His Daddy asked, “Eric what do you want to do when you get older?”  Eric responded happily, “Dad, my dream is to be just like you and to be a farmer.”

A few harvest seasons past and the big season came soon.  “Daddy, can I drive my own cotton picker yet?” asked Eric.  His Daddy responded, “Actually Eric, since you are 15 years old and you have watched and learned from me and have done all the things I have asked you to do, today I will let you start driving your own cotton picker!!”  He cranked that cotton picker up and started picking cotton all by himself.

One day Eric’s Daddy told him they will own the farm together.  Eric was so excited and asked, “When?”  His Daddy told him he could own half after he graduated from high school and college.

So, of course, Eric studied extremely hard in school so he could own that farm one day with his Daddy.  He made very good grades.  Eric graduated college and got half of the farm.  Eric is now 23 years old, driving his own cotton picker and picking his own cotton.

Eric owns half of the farm with the person he loves the most, his Daddy.  Eric says, “Daddy, I love you so much and I learned everything from you and guess what Daddy, my dream came true, I’m just like YOU!!!”

The post A Cotton Pickin’ Story for Toddlers appeared first on Hundred Percent Cotton.

Nothing like getting out in the field with a kid — whether they are from the city or farm.  You suddenly realize how cool it is to know even the slightest things about farming.  And luckily my nieces & nephews have always been up for a stop along the road and some ag education.

Last fall, as I drove my niece to a friend’s for a Halloween hayride, I spotted the first cotton field ready for harvest.  By the time I pointed and said look, my 7 year old niece screamed with delight “it’s cotton!”  She proceeded to point from one side of the highway to the other doing shout outs — cotton, soybeans, corn. Not bad for a couple of city girls! With that sort of enthusiasm I HAD to ask if she wanted to stop.  (I asked because she was “starving to death” and dinner awaited us when we arrived at our friend’s house.) 

She greeted the question with gusto and as we pulled onto the turnrow, I asked why don’t we get out for a couple of minutes?  We had to!  I said we could pick a few bolls, and my niece reminded me I had taught her a little about ag cause she asked me if I knew the farmer, saying she didn’t want to get in trouble.  Love that she understands and I assured her I know a lot of the farmers in that town and thought all of them would be okay with us taking a few minutes to learn more about agriculture and cotton.  I caught part of what happened on video and while I was far too caught up in her enthusiasm, I want to share it with you.

And yes, we may just have to get back out soon to watch as friends being planting the food, feed & fiber that sustains us.  I can just see her now asking questions about how far apart the seeds go, how deep, when we’ll see the plants and so much more!!!

If you want to know more about farming, you may find the Facebook group called Farm2U helpful.  They are also on Twitter with the @Farm2U ID.  Its by a group of farmers who want to talk to consumers.

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYTgmFBA4SM&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x234900&color2=0x4e9e00]

By the way, she had a great time on the hayride too!  AND she got a whole big thing filled with candy.  WHAT A DAY!

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