Traders Cooperative

[Belgie24]

Joe, these are the types of posts I enjoy the most ... the rest of the story on why you are here and how you got here.

I grew up very poor in terms of money also, but rich in other more important ways, family, faith, love of country. At the age of 15, I was spending summers picking strawberries and green beans (now done by immigrants both legal and illegal). I earned $.85 for filling 12 little boxes full of berries. This I did over and over filling a flat every 45 minutes or so for about 6 weeks. My senior year(1971) in high school, I went a little overboard and continued picking for about 3 hrs each day beyond when the other kids went home. I earned $300 that strawberry season, I'm sure a record for that time. Combined with the 300 pound green bean days, I earned $600 and purchased my first car, a 1961 Volkswagon bug, ancient at that time with an age of 10 yrs.

The lessons learned in those days endure today. My dad would have been 94 today, he taught me everything I know about hard work and family. Still extremely proud to be his son.