Cotton

As a child of the suburbs, I grew up completely ignorant of crops and fields and crop rotations and farming machinery. I'm still mostly unschooled, but at least I can now recognize some plants, even before they bloom.

Cotton grows in two fields below the mountain, alternating with corn in off-years. In the late fall, the cotton opens out, like slow-popping corn. Just in the last week, the cotton has whitened and fattened.Once cotton meant misery for those forced to pull the bolls loose, and it meant disease for those working in gins who breathed cotton-dust and lint-filled air.

Now, for me, it means an especially beautiful reminder of the family whose name I bear: Munger. (My step-great-grandfather, Robert Sylvester Munger, invented revolutionary ginning equipment, second only to Eli Whitney's original gin.)