We are probably about the same age, my family moved to Newberry, FL just west of Gainesville when I was 10, grew up there working on the farms of my friends, picking watermelons, cropping tobacco, and bailing hay.
Close enough in age, for sure. My family is pretty blue collar. There was a time when my dad worked 4 jobs just to keep food on the table for a family of 8. Part of that was raising green peppers to sell at farmers markets sometimes. All of us kids had to work doing that as he was trying to get a family business off the ground. We made our way out of the hard times after several years. It wasn’t fun, but those were good life lessons. My kids don’t understand why I have a well stocked pantry (and then some).