I Worked as many here on family farms without cash pay so we'd all survive.
When I was in 7th grade, 1962, I got a job washing dishes in a Chinese restaurant, with 2 of my best friends. We took turns working school nights and usually were done before midnight. Weekends we'd work until 3am, after the bars had closed and the late crowd came in. We got paid $.60 an hour. I thought it was the perfect wage because from the dishwashing machine I could see a big clock and as the second hand rushed around the clock I knew I was making a penny a second! Made time fly and thought I was getting rich!
While they cut us no slack, they also fed us like we were their own kids, with Chinese fare I've never tasted since... delicious! I remember a sweet and sour pork that wasn't battered, just thoroughly cooked meat and bones in a sauce dripping with flavor. Yum!
I worked in the hay fields every Summer growing up. The lucky years I worked for Grandpa... he payed me! He told me that if I'd work like a man he'd pay me like a man, so I tried to outwork any 2 men he'd ever hired! summer before my Senior year of high school he paid me $1.30 an hour, which was a nickel more than either of the adult men who helped him. But I earned it!
Had a lot of jobs after that, including a Zoo Keeper at the Kansas City Zoo. Did stone masonry for years.
Finally found my calling as an Auctioneer, have averaged over 80 Auctions per year since 1994. Now, I'm the Auctioneer for an Amish Produce Auction in Tennessee, sold $1.2 million in produce this year. I work April thru October there, then the rest of the year I work however needed (not auctioning) at The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee. Great job and place to work!
http://www.elephants.com