@LnzyHou
Back before almond growers got those machines with blowers, I raked almonds.
I also cut flowers, and you may not know this, but potato harvesters drop a lot of potatoes, and I once walked behind them throwing potatoes over to where they would get picked up on the next pass.
I also worked loading potatoes, carrots and onions onto boxcars and trucks.
I was 16 years old, though.
Why didn’t you stay with it?? BTW, none of what you describe requires bending over crops/picking 8 hrs a day.
@LnzyHou It was summer work when I was a kid.
And if you think there was no bending, you never cut flowers, and 8 hours would have been a short day. Sun up to Sun down in 100+ degree heat with two bathroom/water breaks.
@LnzyHou Also, loading potatoes, for example is how I know that if you stack them right, you can fit 1288 50lb boxes of potatoes in a box car. I did 100 lb sacks too. 5 am to 6pm usually.
And walking behind a potato harvestor for 12 hours... that row it cuts forces you to walk pigeon toed, and you can't even bend your knees at night.
Why didn’t you continue to work fields as an adult? Like migrant workers do.
@LnzyHou Hell, are you crazy? I went to work in the oilfields for $15/hr, but then the price of oil dropped to $30/barrel, contractors went out of business, and wages dropped to $6/hr, so I enrolled in college eventually and pursued one of my passions at the time: computers.
You made my point. No one in their right mind would be a field worker. Those who take those jobs have no choice. They are NOT stealing jobs from white folks. They were desperate to make a living.
@LnzyHou I was usually one of the few white teenagers doing field work during the Summer.
My parents generation did that work as kids and their parents--who came to California during the Dust Bowl--did that work as adults, Californians didn't like them "invading" either, Called them shiftless Southerners.
Whoever does that work gets shit on.