A Farm - A good place to learn work ethic!

Digging and picking up potatoes!  

When my cousins, brother, sister and I were small and I believe before we could walk, we dug through the dirt on our hands and knees and picked up potatoes.  We filled old metal baskets with potatoes until it was full. Because we were to young to carry them we would yell and one of our dad's would come and retrieve the basket. They dumped the potatoes on a hay wagon.  The potatoes falling on the wagon would sound like rolling thunder on a summer night.

Jamie, me, Jenny, Jodi, Julie and Jason and Uncle John in his thinner and younger days, same beard though

 I believed at the time this had to fall under some sort of child abuse laws.  If you were lucky enough to put your finger through a rotten one, you threw it at your neighbor and yelled "catch".  Then laughed and waited for your payback.  This scene took place every fall until my grandfather passed away and the tradition stopped.  I suppose you lose a little tradition every time a generation passes on.  Now when I put a bag of potatoes under my cart at Walmart, I smile thinking about all of those Labor Day weekends spent in the potato patch with family.  Our grandpa was a hard worker and we were lucky enough for him to put up with our whining, complaining and shenanigans, in efforts to teach us our first lesson in work ethic.


Thanks for sharing the picture Jamie.