rb in a reply in Andy Griffith made me think of this. The summer before my Junior year, I worked for my HS OL coach. He played for the Jets when they won the SB. He was building a house and hired me and another to work for him. Coach Mac paid us $50 a week and we had a "all we could eat" charge account at a little Country Store up the road which was part of our "pay package". After the first week, he tried to pay us $75 a week and we pay for what we ate. His wife, Bless her Heart, would not let him do this because "He" knew when he asked us, just how much we would eat. We would go to the store and get slab bologna, about 1/2" thick, 1/4" sliced cheese sandwich. A half gallon of ice cream, chocolate syrup, nuts, several cold drinks, every day. That was my best summer job. The summer of 1973.
Worked on a neighbor's tobacco farm and helped haul hay. Hard sometimes, but no one cared if we cussed or chewed tobacco, and we always had lunch made for us by one of the women in the neighborhood. Fond memories, decent pay, and you actually felt accomplished at the end of the day.
One summer I was the sportswriter for the Humboldt, TN newspaper. Covered high school baseball and little league. Also would go out in the morning to my granddad's strawberry patch and pick a couple of crates and sell them to the local fruit stand.
Summers after sophomore, junior, and senior years I worked 7-3:30 in a factory M-F. Started at $8, then $9, and finally $10. Wasn't bad money for a HS kid. Football practice at 6 and ran around lots of nights. I couldn't do it now.
Started mowing lawns as a freshman and eventually that led to the business I have today. clearing at least $400 a week as a high school kid was living high on the hog.
Granny used to take me and my cousins out in the summer when we were 8 or so, we'd pick as many blackberries as we could find and sell em by the quart. That was my first payin gig.
Gosh, i might be among the last tennesseans that hung tobacco growing up. I dont know anyone with significant tobacco these days.
And that universal redneck necklace which was a mixture of straw, dirt and sweat. You couldn't pressure wash that shit off.
When the price per pound hasn't really changed in 15 years there isn't much reason to get or stay in the game. My family stopped shortly after 95 or 96.
I don't know of a more sensitive cash crop to the elements -- too much rain, too little rain, too many bugs, weather too hot, weather too cold... the list goes on. And you get to the end and if it isn't in case you can ruin a whole crop.
Worked in a factory replacing ceiling tiles one summer until the great GM strike caused me to be laid-off. 5-3:30 every day. Purely and totally miserable.
Ranching and building fences in CO one summer. Some of the hardest work I've ever done, but loved the group I worked with and the appreciation it gave me for busting my ass for a dollar.
My job with Coach Mac also included hoeing tobacco and picking up hay. The tobacco part was when he was ticked off at me. Only had to do that about 3 times. Funniest thing that ever happened was when we were putting shingles on the roof. I was on the roof and he had built some scaffles about 4' off the ground, made of 2 X 12's, Coach weighed about 280. He was handing me bundles of shingles as he moved down the 2 X 12. I had just grabbed a bundle when I heard a loud crack, both ends of the 2 X 12's hit on both sides of his head as he fell to the ground. I almost fell off the roof laughing at him. And as only Coach Mac could say in his slow draw, "I could be down here dieing and all you do is laugh!"
Framing houses. I started at 15 as a lumber toter and ended up laying out walls and setting ridges by 18. Once football practice went from 5 to 3, I would work in tobacco and hay every year. I was too tired to be a bad kid. Women loved the tan.
