I Hated Picking Peaches

Canada Free Press ^ | 04/24/17 | Dr. Gifford Jones

[Sean_Anthony]

We all live in an increasingly toxic world

Do you remember the line in the musical “Showboat”, the one that says, “It’s summertime and the living is easy”? Maybe it is for some people. But the worst summer I ever endured was during World War II. We all had to contribute to the war effort and my job was to pick peaches on a farm. But for years I had suffered from Hay Fever! Peaches and their fuzz were a Perfect Storm! Could I have avoided this allergy today?

It’s estimated that 40 million North Americans now suffer from mild to severe allergies. Worse still, for some people, the allergy season never ends. And although there are several factors that trigger these allergic reactions, the main cause is pollen.

[miss marmelstein]

No, I don’t remember that. Especially since that song is from “Porgy & Bess,” not “Showboat.”

[Red Badger]

I have allergy.
Oak tree pollen.
I don’t hate acorns...................

[Hot Tabasco]

I picked cherries and got about $.60 per lug.....If you were fast and good, you could get maybe 8 lugs a day. This was back around 1963 or 64 when I was just 13.....

[Red Badger]

LOL!...................

[a fool in paradise]

Beat me to it.

[Red Badger]

I picked cucumbers one summer for 0.75 a bushel.
They wanted the tiny gherkins, not the table and salad sizes....................

[miss marmelstein]

Hard to take seriously when a big mistake is in the first paragraph!

[RegulatorCountry]

If you think pollen is toxic you’re going to have a very miserable life outside a sterile laboratory. The skyrocketing rate of allergic reactions to me seems to trace back to the advent of widespread air conditioning and keeping windows closed. It’s a sign of an immature immune system that was never exposed to very common, natural, organic components of a normal environment.

[Opinionated Blowhard]

Maybe he should have gone with:

Here we all work on de Mississippi
Here we all work while de white folks play,
Loadin’ up boots wid de bales of cotton,
Gettin’ no rest till de Judgement Day.

But then again, even de white folks playin would have allergies . . . . . .

[miss marmelstein]

That’s hilarious.

[Hot Tabasco]

It was probably worse for you temperature wise, since you're from Texas aren't you.

Anyway, I was in northern Michigan and lived about a mile outside of town on the lake. The orchard would send a truck into town to pick up the kids who wanted to pick cherries then pass by my house where I would be standing on the side of the road with my bag lunch at about 6:30 in the morning and I would hop into the back with the other kids and off to the orchard we would go.........

It wasn't a permanent job since the truck would pick up anyone on the route and the orchard would give us vouchers for each lug picked and we would cash them in at the end of the day. I think part of the day was spent throwing cherries at each other until we got caught and scolded......LOL!

[Kipp]

I picked cherries and got about $.60 per lug.....If you were fast and good, you could get maybe 8 lugs a day. This was back around 1963 or 64 when I was just 13.....

I had a similar experience picking prunes during those same years. The men would knock the prunes to the ground with wooden sticks (in later years, there was an attachment to a tractor that would shake the trunk of the tree). The prunes would fall to the ground. We'd kneel on the dirt clods and would get 45-50 cents a grape box (about 24 x 17 x 6 inches). You'd put your initials on the box with chalk to get credit for it. I picked prunes alongside Mexicans - mostly families - the parents and kids would all pick together. At the end of the day, my back would be killing me. I'd ride my bike home, get a bite to eat, soak in a hot tub, and go straight to bed.

[Red Badger]

It was in Mississippi in 1967-68, nut the temps and humidity is the same..................

[Stentor]

Hand loaded trucks in summer 1964 in a packing house for $1 an hour, 12 hours a day, 6 days a week. My mother’s idea.

[sphinx]

I picked peaches as a late summer job when I was a kid. As simple labor goes, it was pretty nice. We were expected to refresh ourselves as necessary, and you can’t get any fresher peaches than when you’re up in a tree picking ‘em.

[Liberty Valance]

Peach Pickin' Time in Georgia

[Delta 21]

Get around bees. Get stung 4 or 5 times a year, at least. You wont have allergies.

[Arthur McGowan]

Where’d you get the P.C. lyrics?

It’s “Darkies all work...”

[dainbramaged]

My brother and I picked strawberries back in the mid 60's here in the Puget Sound area, mostly the Green River Valley. The growers were Japanese Americans with some of the most beautiful fields I've ever seen with Mt. Rainier in the background. We were paid 50 cents per flat which is 12 pints plus they had to be stemmed for freezing and jams.
The farmers had their own buses, which ranged far and wide to bring pickers to the crops - we had to walk a mile just to catch the bus at 6 AM, then another 10 mile ride to the strawberries. Bring your own lunch and water.
Not a Mexican to be seen in those days, either. Some poor white families were there but it was mostly kids. Later on, I discovered washing cars and mowing lawns paid better.