On Mon, 03 Dec 2007 08:07:57 -0700, Just Wondering wrote:

Child slave labor! In the case of strawberries, my mother sent myself
and two brothers and two sisters off very early each morning during the
season to pick berries. The berry growers had their own old school
buses that made a regular route through the neighborhoods to gather up
all their little and big workers - there were many adults who also
worked the fields. As I recall, we were paid 25 cents/flat. The
laundry costs may have been more than we made, but mom was probably very
happy to have all five of gone from dawn to dusk. And yes, it was back
breaking work for a ten year old, but that and mowing lawns (push reel
mower) was my summer income. I suspect that most folks over 50 had some
similar summer jobs as kids.


That's not slave labor, it's parents realizing and taking advantage of a great
opportunity to instill a work ethic in their children. Something we could use a
little more of nowadays.

I don't think that they pay slaves, though...
My guess is that those quarters added up to a pretty good amount for a kid at
that time..


mac

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