Hardship

Some children in drought-stricken California are forced to bathe only once a week because of the shortage of water there ... see: SF Gate Story. Now I realize that times have changed and we live in a more pristine nation. But when I was a thirteen year old boy, I worked on a Pennsylvania farm for one whole summer ... milking, haying, plowing, mucking the barn, etc. And, like these put-upon California waifs, I too could only take a bath once a week. You really don't know what a bathtub ring is like until you take your only full-body lavation of the week on Saturday night. I'm not sure but I don't think that my plight was then a subject of the national news.

At that time I worked for ten weeks, ten hours a day, six and a half days a week ... all for my room and board and $100. I think that this works out to be about 15 cents an hour cash money. Although I'm sure this was then the equivalent of slave wages, I loved every minute of this experience