Growing up cotton was king, at least in Shelby, Mississippi. It was everywhere, and come fall you could smell the gins running. It was the best smell! My sisters and I have the fondest memories of jumping in the cotton trailers full of cotton. We would each take a corner of the trailer and make houses. Some days, when Daddy was bringing in a trailer from the field to the gin, he would stop by our house to pick us up. We would ride in the cotton trailer, with Momma following close behind. We loved going to the gin and watching them suck up the cotton. We even got a chance to suck up cotton from the small "sucker-upper" inside the gin.
Through the years, things changed. Cotton trailers are a thing of the past. Now they have module makers and trucks come to pick up the modules from the fields. Then the modules ride on a conveyor belt into the gin. The wonderful smell of the gin is gone too; it was not environmentally friendly to burn the gin waste. And soon, it seems, that the Denton Gin will be gone. (Mom told us that when she moved to Shelby in the early 70's there were 5 working gins within a mile radius.) Now with the lower cost of cotton, and the rise of ethanol (corn), the Denton Gin is the only gin left in Shelby. Only a few farmers continue to grow cotton. Back in the day, the gin would run 24/7 for months. This year, it ran a couple of days.
My dad decided that this year would be his last as a farmer, and so we took Rebecca to see the farm and the gin for the last time. We have a wonderful time on the farm. Rebecca loved running around and getting dirty. She was not bothered at all from the loud sound of the gin. It is sad to think that she will not remember this trip. But we took a lot of pictures and videos to show her one day.
Maybe in years to come, cotton will be king again.
Denton Manufacturing Company
Rebecca and Pop Pop
The last cotton crop
cotton picker
module maker in the field
modules waiting to be picked up and brought to the gin
Driving the Module Mover with Nannie
Denton Gin
Rebecca and the module waiting for the gin to start running
the module heading into the gin
the cotton running through the gin
out comes a clean, soft bale of cotton
bales of cotton packaged and ready for pick up
the old "sucker-uppers"
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