Strong Wind Versus Weak Tree – Iron Game History – November, 2007

I was born on a rented share-cropping cotton farm 221/2 years ago outside Swainsboro, Georgia, being one of ten children my mother and father had. While living on this farm I kept physically fit because there was an exceptional amount of hard work that was compulsory for us to do. Being in debt and staying in debt, we had to work or we didn’t eat. When I was eight years of age I could pick, sometimes, as much as 160 pounds of cotton in nine hours—in a day’s work. By the time I was nine I could plow good. Doing this hard work didn’t give us huge, bulky, strong, weight-lifting muscles but it did give us a lot of endurance and stamina and also a little strength.