Cotton.
I don’t suppose too many people have a little bundle of cotton in their collection of family heirlooms, do they? I do. My grandfather was a cotton classer from the 1920’s through the 1940’s. He started out in Texas, and his company sent him to work in Brazil in the 1930’s.
This paper-wrapped bundle is what he brought home as a souvenir. It was a favorite item for Show and Tell for all of us kids, and somehow it has remained intact. I think my grandfather must have been good at classing cotton; he was meticulous and focused. I don’t have any idea what grade this bit would be, though.
This is my father at about age ten, with my grandparents, on the ship to Brazil. What adventures were they imagining? I know that they loved living there, in Recife and Sao Paulo, and that they made many life-long friends and good memories. [Wow, I look a lot like my grandmother!]
My sister has much of the correspondence that went back and forth between them and their families, there are boxes of documents to sort through, and I have the one photo album from their time there. Shouldn’t we put them all together one of these days? I’d love to know the whole story!
C could also be for Miss Nosy-Cat.
Not Plain Jane 