A friend, Helen, came by to visit me & bring me wonderful gifts, comfort food for my family, Dahlias from her yard & cotton from Brewton, Alabama. Brewton is very far South of Birmingham. Helen’s grandmother’s house is rented to a farmer who grows cotton on the land. The house is located in an isolated place with no grocery stores or schools. It is called Baggett’s Chapel community, they do have a Methodist church & lots of farm land.
Picked cotton is a wondrous thing to see, it looks like both popcorn & feels like cotton balls from the drug store. The edges of what holds it are sharp & unforgiving. The cotton is soft as it looks. I’ve lived here more then half my life & while the Vermont green mountains still pull at my heart & call me home, I still find new things to discover about my adopted state. Helen gave me enough that I want to send home to Diana, Launie & Sarah some deep South Alabama cotton. The piece I am keeping for myself
has already been placed in my China Cabinet, where wondrous things come into my life & stay a while.
