Agricultural Field Work

[Greg in LA]

This is a pretty interesting want Ad.
I am 45 years old and grew up in Des Moines, Iowa. In High school and even my freshmen year in college we always had summer jobs detaseling corn. It payed minimum wage, and lots of kids did it.
No illegals were ever envolved at that time, just American kids.

My Aunt who lives in a rural part of England picked fruit in a nearby orchard. From what I heard it was just young woman and house wives doing the fruit picking.

A lot of American kids and adults would do the agricultural work, they were just driven out.
I guess the corporate owned farms don't have any kids to do the work.

[Greg in LA]

I should also mention that the transportation system to get the kids to the farms was quite well organized. The kids would meet at the school parking lot and the bus would leave at 5 am sharp. They would drive the bus load of sleeply kids at least 1 hour to the customers farm and by 2:30 pm. The bus load of American teenagers would have the entire field completely detasseled.

I also recall that in collage the more adventuresome students would drive from the MidWest all the way to Alaska to work on fishing boats and farms, because they could make "big money" for the summer.

I never made it to Alaska, but it sounded pretty cool.

[Ayatollahgondola]

Originally Posted by Greg in LA

I should also mention that the transportation system to get the kids to the farms was quite well organized. The kids would meet at the school parking lot and the bus would leave at 5 am sharp. They would drive the bus load of sleeply kids at least 1 hour to the customers farm and by 2:30 pm. The bus load of American teenagers would have the entire field completely detasseled.

I also recall that in collage the more adventuresome students would drive from the MidWest all the way to Alaska to work on fishing boats and farms, because they could make "big money" for the summer.

I never made it to Alaska, but it sounded pretty cool.

Alaska...very good in the summer; which is very short:

http://saveourstate.info/showthread.php?t=1908

Wages were higher, but cost of living is also. Lotta stuff costs bundles. Milk, lettuce, corn etc.
You can make a good amount of dough working in AK, but the fishing fleet is not for the faint of heart. The work is very hard, very risky, and there are many unscrupulous boat owners who always seem to "owe" their help. Illegals have worked their way up there too

[Greg in LA]

Yeh, the friends that went to Alaska all came back and said it wasn't as great a money making trip as they thought, They made good money on the ships, but spent most of it in the ports.

I didn't go and work on a fishing boat because I was too short and skinny

Plus the fact that there is no way my car would make it to Alaska!


Gosh, can't imagine driving to Alaska now with $4.00 - $5.00 gas. but people did it back in the 80's and 90's. gas was $1.10 -$1.80.