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Yesterday Is Not Today

Where are we headed? Down the road to mediocrity!

What has happened to doing a good job, no matter what it is?
A while back I saw an ad on TV showing a young girl standing in a field of cotton and saying, "I have to pick one hundred pounds of this cotton." Whoop-de-do!

My yesterdays were during the depression and my entire family worked in the fields. Everyone in the neighborhood, the area, did. We were darn happy to even have the opportunity. Even my father worked and he was a disabled WW l veteran. Pension? Not at that time! That was something he had to fight tooth and nail for and when he did get it ,it amounted to maybe $30, $40 a month. Loss of a leg, steel plate in the head gassed, trauma and that is all the government thought it was worth!

So everybody worked the fields. Whether it was beans, at a to cent a pound, or berries, tomatoes, cherries, grapes, currants, whatever, we were all there, day after day. Minimum wage? Don't make me laugh. Most likely, no wage, if the farmer didn't pay.

The money earned helped put food on the table, not to mention our stomachs while we were picking. Our greatest concern was that the crop might be so skimpy, we couldn't pick even 100 pounds.

Payday did not necessarily mean money and you didn't get paid weekly. You were paid after the crop was picked or at the end of the season, with whatever monies were left. More than likely there wasn't any, since it was the practice to take it in trade, eggs, chickens, produce, whatever, so we could eat every day.

Parents took all the children with them in the summer and during school break. With the kids there, the hope was that they could pick enough to help that pay packet. Children weren't beaten, they weren't forced to go, to pick, but knowing what the situation was at home, they buckled down and did their share. Moreover we all looked forward to it, it was an experience. The pay may not have been great, but the sun gave us a tan, we didn't go the beach or the tanning salon. The fresh air made our cheeks glow and the exercise built up our bodies. We didn't need a spa or an aerobics class. Being with our parents kept us off the street, this was togetherness at its best. When we got home in the evening we were too tired to get into any mischief.

It's beyond me why today's children aren't allowed the benefit of a similar experience. This was not child labor, it was survival. If the kids today did similar work, they would learn the value of a buck, they would learn

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