Another thing that has been forgotten over time here in the US, the summer break in the school year, now called 'summer vacation'. It was originally so the children would be able to be used as labor on family farms during the peak of growing and harvest season. I grew up in a small rural town in CA in the 1950s. We spent our summers hoeing weeds in tomato farms, picking apricots and peaches, picking tomatoes and almonds. When we were big and strong enough we got to help pick up alfalfa hay bales out of fields and stack them in barns or near feed lots.
I grew up on a farm and didn't get summers at the pool. I rode fence, fed cattle, bushhogged, bailed hay, worked cattle, mowed fence-lines, picked up rocks out of fields and maybe got a Saturday off here and there.
Yes exactly and we still do this in Czech, it's called a "brigada". It was a tradition from Europe that probably made it over to the US with the pilgrims.
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