I was raised in a farming community in SE Texas in that same period and I can tell you that there was only one dipper in the water bucket at the end of the row out here. If we wanted to see any of that racist BS we had to go to town to do so.
Yes, it was much the same where I grew up, in Southern Maryland, out in the country. Whether baling hay, picking tomatoes, or working tobacco, thirst knows no boundaries, nor does hunger. "Company rules" were much the same, and "Respect your elders" was an inviolate rule, regardless of who they were. Kids played together, worked together, eventually went to school together (6th grade in the public schools) over the objections of some parents--black
and white.
I still remember an elder gentleman talking to my mother saying they'd had to 'send some boys who'd come down to visit back up to D.C. cause they were down here trying to make trouble with our white folks. We ain't never had no trouble with our white folks!" That last said proudly. But eventually, with the marvels of television, the troubles in any urban enclave can be imported into the most remote living room in the country and made yours.
