[Souled_Out]

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"Detassling"

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Corn has to be detassled so it doesn't pollinate itself. If it does, you get weaker corn that isn't so sweet. The detassling itself consists of walking up and down rows of corn for eight hours a day, doing nothing but popping the tassels out of the corn and dropping them on the ground. If you've ever seen a row of corn, you'll find some of them are half a mile long and five to eight feet tall. Imagine eight hours a day, pop, pop, pop, in the heat and humidity of a Midwestern summer, sweating and sneezing and twitching and getting "corn rash" from brushing against the leaves.

OK, you win. :~)

That job makes picking figs look good.

[samcgwire]

LOL

Them were the days!

[mobyss]

I detasseled for five years in Michigan, for Pioneer seed corp. Started the summer when I was 13 for $3.35 per hour, and the last season I was 17, a supervisor, making $9.50 per hour. I'm white, American, US-born, etc - you know "too lazy to do the hard work that Mexicans do". Instilled a work ethic that is with me to this day - and now I'm 33 and making six-figures a year.

Today's American teenagers will never learn that lesson, because "Juan" is out there doing the job - for $3.35 probably.