'A Plow Hand in the Field When I was 8 Years Old'

"My daddy, Oscar Bishop, moved back to Haralson County and rented a crop, because the only way to come back to Haralson County was to come and rent a crop, to sharecrop. I remember where we lived, over near the Corinth Church. We made one crop there, then we moved down to the Tallapoosa River and rented another crop, and that was when my older brother Preston got married. We sharecropped for several years.
"All the boys worked in the fields. As long as they lived at home, everybody worked. I was one of the younger ones. In my earlier days, I was a water boy. I had to tote water to them, and a snack between meals. They'd get up early in the morning and plow cotton and corn all day long. About mid-morning I'd carry them a snack to eat and kept them in fresh water. That was my job.
"Nathaniel, my older brother, married when I was eight years old. My Dad had a pair of mules, and these mules had to stay at work, to make the crop. So after this happened, I had to go to school part time, and that's what hindered me at school, that I had to take the place as a plow hand in the field when I was eight years old." --Denver Bishop