I picked vegetables as a kid with my family and as a young teen along with babysitting to earn extra money. My youngest brother was just telling me how he worked for local farmers for $1/hr. picking vegetables and watermelons. He said the corn was the worst. He did all this when he was in high school during the summers and on weekends to earn money.

Families would be out doing stoop work (as my mom called it) all the time. The pay wasn't great, but with whole families doing it at the same time was better.

We grew up poor but were not above doing grunt work. My mom cleaned houses to supplement the income. We weren't the only ones either.

Dad was a carpenter and would do other things when work was slow. He even sold Christmas trees in a lot at one time so his kids could have gifts under our tree.

Life is different today. We now have Welfare.