In the summer when I was 12, 13 and 14, 1955-1957, I picked strawberries, at Klickers, for about four weeks each summer, with no days off. We worked from 6 AM until about 2 PM every day, unless it rained. We received 50 Cents per flat. My best was 36 flats-$18,00. This $18.00 seemed like a lot of money in those days.
When I was 13 and 14 I got to work another 4 or 5 hours extra, after picking, in the Canning process, as what they called a Sugar Boy. I received $1.00 per hour.
My job was to keep cutting opening 50 Pound sacks of sugar and pouring then into this big funnel, which had a lever at the bottom. When a big can of strawberries came down the conveyor belt, someone would release sugar into each can.
One of my big joys at the end of the Summer was to use money that I saved to buy new school clothes.
