slave labour..!

Posted last night about farmers fields i went on to dream about potato picking .
reminded me,
a gang of us girl friends age 13 trooped across the hard as rock frost laden fields in October to the nearby farm hoping to be picked out of the crowd as a worker.

There must have been about 50 kids from far n near, I stood on tiptoes as you had to be 15, it worked and it nearly killed me.
Ive never known such hard slog, the boys moved our stake which made our plot bigger,
theirs smaller.
At the end of the week i could,nt stand up, in bed at 6pm every night.

Pay day? £3.50p, which went a long way, we bought fireworks at Humbles the local shop, wailing banshee,s, golden fountains and rockets, matchmaker chocolates. orange and mint.
went mad.

on weekends we went "mooching", raiding other kids bonfires and running away with all their best bits, wood, old chairs, ect,.

met my first boyfriend potato picking a policemans son.., older than me,
it was one of them, all of us at the pictures swimming baths on a sunday type of friendship,
only went to baths for the hot oxtail soup out of the vendor, which was fab,
i never swam cos im afraid of deep water, nearly drowned,.

remember crackling rosie was top of charts, walked to typing school every tues listening to small blue radio, transistors they were called..
thought i,d die if he left me, he did, (for someone older, more experienced he explained), it would,nt have took much.. and i didnt, but it hurt. "i,ll come back" he said.. i wouldnt have wanted him..

boys were ruthless, girls were in love with the idea of being in love,.
boys? too in love with themselves to love anyone else, but you live and learn, eventually.

best part about potato picking, , a ride home at dinner time n home time in the back of the tractors trailer.


I loved xmas best of all, sledging, making slides as slippery as glass,
we went carol singing knocking on doors, don,t know how i dared,
but everyone did it i wasn,t gonna be left out, you could make a small fortune.... ! tax free.