These are snapshots from the antique shop in Detroit Lakes Minnesota.
These gals are picking potatoes. They carry empty sacks on their backs. There will be one or two bushels per sack. You can see the sacks in the distance. ( They look like bushel sacks.)
These men are most likely headed into the field to pick up full sacks.
My uncles picked potatoes in the 1940’s. They were paid 25 cents a bushel. In Minnesota the potato harvest will start right after Labor Day.
Thanks for stopping by. Do come again:)
Interesting photos. Sure looks like back breaking work. I remember daddy talked about picking cotton as a boy and just received a few coins but was happy to get paid.
ReplyDeleteHow are they getting the potatoes out without shovels? Wow I wouldn't have lasted two hours bent over like that! Love the little guy following his mama!
ReplyDeleteWhat a visual reminder of the hard work that goes into getting food delivered to our tables. Even though things are more mechanized now, farming has been--and likely will always be--hard work.
ReplyDeleteMy mom would take me and my brother out to glean the potato fields with the bounty going to our kitchen and that of the local church.
ReplyDeleteThe Bennie and I are glad we can remmenber how hard farm work was for our family.We came up half in the old world of our grandparents and the last half now in a very comfortable one.
ReplyDeleteSometimes when I think I long for the good old days, I remember labor like this. Yes, it is still hard work.
ReplyDeleteThe children appear to be having fun.
ReplyDeleteIn the early-1950s my little brother was about the same age/size as the little boy with the cap -- and he then had what appears to be an identical cap. My brother's cap was navy blue with grey fur in front.
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