We had a sponsor from New Jersey whose name was Seabrook. And Seabrook was a big farming company. Mr. Seabrook himself was still alive then and they needed workers. Out of the 10,000, we were maybe like 100, including children and parents. So my mother and father worked in the Seabrook farms. We lived at home because we were little children, yet. But we were paid like 50 cents an hour, I think. Maybe 10 of us in our little group and we had little scales, just like scales that you would imagine, and they would pick their peck, which is like a half a bushel, I think, of beans. They would bring the peck and we would put ‘em on the scale and if they weighted 20 pounds, they get a punch, I had a little punch. The punch equaled for them twenty cents or whatever it was. And so, by the end of the day, a fast picker would have about 100 punches.
Date: September 15, 2017
Location: California, US
Interviewer: Jennifer Cool
Contributed by: Jennifer Cool, Matthew Purifoy