skit #16: all mesmerized like the devil

So the Arkwright fellers. No no no. Over there past the hills. They have a whole lotta cotton fer pickin. Now they cant a fford one a them cotton engines yet and re still running off a the dexterity of the littluns nimble fingers. You know, puttem to work when they re still ripe on mommas vine.

Then all those bales on top a that hill, they re gonna go over aways to the Millassy factry. Little south of the Arkwrights. They ll get all a that cotton turned in a colors you never dreamed of. All wound and spooled and yellers and pinks. And just yesserday those cottons warnt good fer nothing like a lamb without chops. I magine!

So then all these strings and whathaveyou get put on a big grid and the older wimmin get the looms going and they spin it up and you get yerself a nice rug or a tablecloth or maybe a shirt fer yer misses if shes keepin her end a the social contract. The old ladies dont mind if they re all loomin fer food or fer their family or whatever. Theyd do it in their sleep with no motivation this way or that.

Sometimes when I go round there I get all mesmerized like the devil witch doctor from the Fairbank circus, eyes glazed and seein things maybe we arent meant to see. Or maybe things everyone is meant to see but dont get so many opportunities. But these spools are turnin and the thread is dancin and colorful and the wimmins fingers is threshin fast like cattails in summatime.

And I go watchin these colors dance for hours and sometimes think how I think that could be enough for jussa bout anyone, hankys or no hankys. Just the colors and dancin. And I get to thinkin my hanky, and the sweat its wiped up in these factrys and out on those fields, and the color of my dirty face. And I wonder how a little bitta cotton can get pulled so long and thin for the sake of an amenity.

So the four a us sat there for a long ol time and I just dint see what he was talkin bout. An Gawd bless it if it warnt the hottest day all summer. And I dint dare reach fer my hanky even if I dint see what in the Lords name he was off bout. Jussa buncha string.