Originally Posted by TanyaL

Such an old expression! From the time when cotton was picked totally by hand, a crop that grew tall also grew thick and produced a bountiful crop so you could reasonable expect to make a lot of money. To "Be in tall cotton" meant to be expecting great things in your future, or to be deliciously happy at the present time because of what you expected to happen in the future, as in "Ah'm in tall cotton, for suh, he said he wanted the first dance at the cotillion!" A southern expression since cotton is a southern crop. Like most southern expressions it has died out now. A pity.