Potato Bugs
When we were kids, we were often sent to the field to pick potato bugs. There was no DDT to spray the potatoes with in those days, and there were always extra kids to send out for a chore like this. So we spent the day in the potato patch with our baking-powder cans. What a backbreaking job to go up and down the rows collecting potato bugs! When we complained about our backs hurting, we were told that we were too young to even have a back!
We had been promised some money to do this,- 1 penny for 100 bugs. So when we got home, and Mother wanted to pour boiling water over the bugs to kill them, we insisted that we count them first. So we found a big flat rock, and to keep them from running away, we smashed them one by one with another rock, and counted as we went along. What a mess this was! We never did get the pennies we had earned, but the potatoes surely were much healthier!