An Hour Before Daylight: Memories of a Rural Boyhood

Carter reflects that the children in the family were always aware of economic concerns and the way prices, crops, and other factors were interrelated. The only boy in the family for 13 years, he was proud when Earl discussed farm decisions with him.

He loved to travel from field to field with his father. On one such ride, Earl told him how he got started in business. His friend Edgar Shipp set him up with the store in Plains, but Earl was more interested in farming and especially in buying cheap land in order to sell the timber. In 1928, he became a full-time farmer. He held onto all his land even when prices were low.

Carter’s farm jobs went from hoeing and chopping wood to plowing the home garden to breaking land. Finally, he was entrusted with plowing for crops: Corn, then cotton and peanuts. He loved plowing in his bare feet with the mule Emma, as the plowed land was soft and damp. At the end of the day, his progress was visible. Plowing involved many serious decisions, such as how to preserve moisture in the soil. Earl’s workers were often illiterate and yet made such decisions daily.

Carter also had to learn to care for Earl’s 25 or 30 mules and horses.