2010 - Children found working in Worcestershire field. Picking spring onions. Police called. Children taken into police protection.
1970 - Children found working in County Antrim field. Picking spuds. Nobody cares. Uncle Kevin totally gets away with it.
9 comments:
I bet you got no pocket money either!
It was criminal the way Uncle Kevin kept us waiting for our wages as well.
You got paid???????
Not me. I had an aversion to work of any kind.
Spuds were nothing to going to the turf mountain.
In the 50's and 60's, well before your time, we used to get Potato Gathering holidays in November. No holidays = no kids in school as with Xmas in offing this was harvest for us as well.
Bloody cold work with frost on the ground, you counted your fingers several times during day.
Not before my time at all Kaido. I do remember those holidays. We called them Hallow'een holidays and they lasted two weeks. Lots of people went potato gathering but not me. I didn't gather spuds until I was an adult but my younger brothers and sisters went gathering for Uncle Kevin. The other farmers around might have paid more but family is family. There to be exploited!
I managed to avoid the turf gathering until adulthood as well. Thank you husband for introducing me to these pleasures.
Hey, same thing here in the good ol' USA - only we picked strawberries in the hot sun for 5cents a pound. A dollar or two a day were great wages. Now, the berries can rot before they will let kids pick them. Actually we wanted to pick them. Where else could a kid too young to babysit make a little money? Also, it was fun to flirt with boys and throw strawberries at each other.
Your uncle Kevin does sound a bit harsh though, taking advantage of young relatives. He needed a good arse-kicking!
You're right about the flirting - that was one of the reasons my younger siblings went potato-gathering.
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