one of the hardest jobs there is is picking cotton
As the oldest girl in a family of 13 siblings she not only had to work the fields but care for her brothers and sisters. When both my great grandparents died and the two older brothers sold the farm and stole eveything they could and ran off to California, she was left to raise her siblings with near nothing. By that time she had already married my grandpa and had two of her three children including my mother. Several of the girls married soon after but she put the rest of the kids through school, housed and fed them all. My grandfather was a good enough provider but also felt he deserved to drink as much as he wanted on his days off and never really helped anyway but financially with raising the kids. They were poor but fed and had clean clothes to go to school in and a roof over their heads. When all the kids were in school she got a job at Brown shoe factory and she would eventually sock away enough money to make some investments in land and property that would eventually ease her financial woes. Although she then had all the money she needed she continued to live frugal while investing her money into secure stock and bonds. They don't exist anymore.