Tuesday 17 October 2006

Memories of Picking Potatoes.

            

Good Afternoon, been very remiss lately but have been having great problems trying to fit up our new DVD recorder but I think we are just about there now. Stuart seems to have spent the last few days lying on the floor behind the telly in amongst all the wires and scart leads etc I think its about time the manufacturers sorted things out to make it easier for us all of us ordinary mortals.

                         


Yesterday we took our usual run to St Andrews and very busy it was too there were student from the uni all over the place there seemed to be thousands of them and lots of tourists too. On our way there I noticed that all the potato crop has been gathered in. Stuart and I started to chat about the days long gone when we all got off school for three weeks to go and pick the potatoes by hand. Stuart went three times me I only went the one year that was enough for me. It was so hard, the bus picked us up at the school at 7am and took us out to the farm of the day. It was still dark when we arrived and made our way out of the bus and up to the fields. The picture I have chosen to illustrate this entry was just the way it was. It was very cold some mornings there was frost on the ground but that did not deter the digger. We were taken to a nearby school for our school lunch for an hour and then it was back to it till about 5pm. It was back breaking work and by the end of the day you were exausted cold and wet too somedays. The wages for this task were 11/3d per day that would  be about 57 pence today under a dollar for my friends accross the pond. After my three weeks I had saved enough for a new pair of skating boots and boy was I proud of them. Can you imagine that kind of thing going on today with the school children now, I would now wish that on my worst enemy.
Well I think I have remenisced enough for one day so I will say bye for now. Love

                                   

 

 

       

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


9 comments:

Anonymous said...

tattie howking................good grief they would lock you up today for child abuse ;)

Anonymous said...

Joan can you imagine how the parents would react today if their children were given 3 weeks off school to dig up potatoes ~ lol ~ Loved your memories of those days ~ Ally

Anonymous said...

It would be called child abuse today. But it would do no harm to some of our youngsters to make them do an honest day's work every now and then.
http://journals.aol.co.uk/bobandkate/AnAnalysisofLife/

Anonymous said...

Iremember it well we would end up crawling on our hands and knees ,No wonder my back hurts now ,its remembering those days lol ,.,.,Jan xx

Anonymous said...

are you sure Stuart's fixing the DVD recorder or resting...lol. hope you get it fixed up soon.

Astra!

Anonymous said...

Hubby went spud picking, about 20 years ago, as a favour for a farmer friend who couldn't get the staff! Needless to say, after a week of that, there was no nookey 'ere for a while! Keep laughing my friend.
Love Sylvia xxx

Anonymous said...

We used to go hop picking as kids to the hop farms in Kent. I was too young to pick hops but used to love collecting sheeps' wool off the fences! I hope the DVD recorder is set up now and Stuart is able to get up from the floor! Jeannette xx  

Anonymous said...

It's a shame they don't make kids of today do that kind of thing - might teach 'em a thing or two huh??  I bet you were really proud of those skates and quite right too

Jen xx

Anonymous said...

Yes, and not only was the money poor, if  it was raining the weather made the work that much harder.

By for now,

John.