Ahh, the old pea picking. Went as a young as 10 year old. Met outside Dalton Progressive club on Sunday mornings approx 6am and the farmer from Sprotborough, use to pick and choose who he wanted to take. When he came to me, my Mum said my little hands worked like bees wings so I managed to get on the back of the lorry, about 25 of us being bumped, thrown up and down all the way there, bet it looked a right sight with our washing baskets and buckets to collect the peas in flying all over the place. Paid 50p a sack if I remember correctly.
Potato picking - During the Miners strike, my mate found us a job on his Sister's farm out at Micklebring. Tight git of a farmer only paid us £1 an hour! The longest we worked one day was 15 hours with only one 30 minute break for lunch. When it got dark he would string up a car lamp over head on the back of the trailer and couple it up to the tractor battery. It would swing about like a scene from Callan.
We tried to nick a carrier bag of spuds and put them under the hedge hoping to get them later when we'd packed in but he found them. No one would own up who'd nicked em so he docked us all a £1. Suffice to say I packed it in as I ended up with tenosynovitis. Took weeks to heal and vowed never to do it again. When I look back and realise how much slave labour that was it makes me wonder why I ever let someone take advantage of my predicament but, you'd do just about anything back then just to survive the day.


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