Heh.. reminds me of tossing hay-bales on the ranch... :^)
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In HS we went to assist (work means getting paid..HA) bringing in the hay and will never forget us young lads, athletes all, were going to get that final ‘tan’ and stripped to the waist while the Farmer and his hands all wore wool shirts buttoned at the neck and sleeves.
Some of us ‘idiots’ put the shirts back on but I and a couple other REAL DUMBIES went shirtless....laughing at the fools and ‘hot shirts’...
STILL picking hay burrs(?).....some 60 year later...
Finally figured out while laying asphalt that it was actually ‘cooler’ with a skivvy shirt underneath shirt when sweating (bleeding beer <:) profusely from the combination of 250-300 degree asphalt and sun on muggy 90+ days.
When I was a kid, the main hay was peanut hay. Back then they stacked the peanut vines on poles for them to dry. When they were dry the peanut picker would pick most of the peanuts off and the square bale the hay or more accurately the bails were rectangular.
After the peanut picker had left, I would walk over the field and pick up peanuts which had escaped the picker. They had been setting in the sun for several weeks and had a slightly cooked taste. They were actually delicious.
They no longer stack them, just have a machine dig them up and turn them upside down so the peanuts were turned to the sun.
I had a cigar box which for several months was always full of peanuts.
Lol :).. Yeah, I learned REAL quick why the experienced hands were wearing cotton long-sleeve shirts ;^) (I was about 11-12 when I started.. and I WASN’T getting paid for it :p)
Funny you should mention asphalt.. I was 1 of 3 from my high school that were chosen (through application) to work the TDOT (Texas Dept. of Trans.) work program (summer between HS grad and Uni) before University.
My boss happened to be my girlfriend’s father >.< .. I worked REALLLY hard :D
(She cheated on me while I was away :p)
OH.. forgot to mention.. leather gloves were a must tossing the hay .. Actually, I grew to enjoy it.. just looked at it as a workout.