|
home |
|
The word 'Linthead'
creates an erroneous image in the minds of people who are unfamiliar
with the history of the once-vast textile industry, known in the
seventeenth century as cotton mill factories.
Cotton fiber was taken
from the field, baled and hauled to the mills. Here, machines tore
the fibers apart and sent it on its way to becoming a finished
product. People who worked in these cotton mills came to be known as
'Lintheads' because the flying fine fiber known as 'lint' was light
and filled the air. At the end of the workday, despite all efforts
to rid the hair of the pesky lint, the hair appeared to be white and
the workers were dubbed 'Lintheads'.
Many of the proud people
and families who earn their living working in these factories today
resent being called 'Lintheads'. To me, it is an honor that was
bestowed upon us in the early days of the textile industry. There is
nothing derogatory in being called a 'Linthead'.
It may be interesting to
know there are several hundred professions in our workforce that
have, down through the years, been given an image by a descriptive
word: Police are called 'Fuzz', 'Cop', 'Pig', 'Flat Feet', and more.
Doctors are called 'Pillpushers', Lawyers are 'mouthpieces', Firemen
are 'Smoke Eaters', Farmers are 'Hayseeds' and 'Sodbusters', Nurses
are 'Nightingales', Preachers are 'Sky Pilots News Reporters are
'Scribe Cubs' and School Teachers are 'School Marms,' to name a few. |
|
In research and
interviews with present day members of Milstead pioneer families, I
found they trace their genealogy back to the farms, sawmills, and
woodcutters. Most eked a meager support for their families as
sharecroppers and woodsmen prior to seeking a better life for them
by finding work in the cotton mills.
They braved dangers
untold, endured hardship, suffered privations without end, lived
under most primitive conditions and made a way where there was no
way. They learned by the hard way the great lessons in life of hard
work, thrift, frugality, self-reliance, resourcefulness,
independence and faith in God.
Among their graces were
hospitality, kindness, patience, and neighborliness. Most of them
were poor and measured by present-day ideas they were crude and
illiterate. But they knew more about the essentials of life than
this generation will ever learn. They were plain in speech and dress
and had no use for 'dudes'. Do we blame them for wanting to claim
kin to the pioneers of the past?
~ copied with
permission from 'Just Thinking: A Special Kind of People' by
Frank Smith, page 8 |
