Originally Posted by Sheila Elaine

When I was a small child, my Dad & Uncle grew cotton crops on their parents land in Randolph Co, AL, on the border with GA. This was in the late 40s, early 50s. My dad had to take a Government job 50 miles away in order to feed three children & his wife, & we moved 50 miles away; however, my uncle (his brother) stayed on the farm & continued to grow cotton, but about 1954, the Government took over & started paying farmers not to grow cotton. My Mother's parents & siblings also moved close to us 50 miles away & my Grandfather worked for the Government also. The migration of farmers had already started to the Northern Car Mfg States, so I remember thinking what is going on. After the Government quit paying farmers to grow cotton, my Uncle went to work in a factory in GA, at a factory where they produce copper tubing & wiring. Back then, folks worked at whatever jobs they could get. Government workers had Health Insurance, Blue/Cross/Blue Shield of Alabama, so that's the first time our family had it.

Here we are 56 years later, but many have lost jobs, health insurance, and other benefits they had at their jobs. I have only seen two or three cotton crops in the field in the last 15 years & that was in North AL. I'm sure there are many who would go to farming if the Government would start programs to help them obtain loans to buy farming tractors & equipment to get started again. We are several generations away from the 50s, but there are some older folks still around who could instruct the younger workers how to grow cotton, corn, gardens and other crops. Times change but I am curious if this could happen and bring back our equipment from overseas to reopen our garment factories that were taken away here in NE Ala where I live now. My DIL low her job in a sports clothing mfg shop and many in & around Ft. Payne, AL lost jobs at Sock Mills. Ft. Payne was the Worlds leading sock producer for years until they bought up all the machines & sent the all overseas. Now you have a lot of folks around that area still unemployed.

My feeling is America needs to supply to America before they supply the rest of the world. Where is there a politician that can appoint folks to get out & travel & see what needs to happen to get America running again. We always need military facilities to train our soldiers, plus factories to make supplies for the military. There has been cuts of military bases and I for one feel that is not right. If we have to destroy America to build up other countries, who is on the front line taking note of this.

I'll do without factory produced fabric until folks get their heads out of the sand & push for our jobs to come back to our shores. I'll use what fabric I have & what I can obtain from thrift stores & the like, or placed the have fabric outlets. I watch the fashion runway shows & shows that sell high priced clothes, but we can get by with what we have now until the prices can come down at sales. Folks could make their own clothes like they once did if we had fabric we could afford and classes to teach the ones who don't know how to sew. Our society has become so fashion & idol conscious it makes me sick.