At age 13, my grandfather went to work in the coal mines

[Drahthaardogs]

because his father was paralyzed in a cave-in. He supported her mother, father, and four brothers and sisters. He put them all through high school and some through college. He came out 43 years later. Imagine what he could have accomplished with completely developed lobes....

[catnhatnh]

1. Oh-I'd say the boy had the lobes....

...but it wasn't all that unusual. In the summer of '67 i was shipped as a deckhand (at 14) on one of the families oyster boats. Only for the summer but two years later when I quit school it was full season. It truly is part of the changing world that no kids routinely learn labor any longer. Which is both a good and bad thing...

[oneshooter]

2. In 1920 my grandfather came home from the Army

and began farming as a sharecropper in Mississippi. In 1932 he bought the 30 acres he was sharecropping. As of 2012 my family owned 2500 acres of delta land. Hard work, determination, and the love of a good woman made this possible. Dad was the oldest of 14, and the first to leave. In one month I will fulfill the terms of his and moms will, by signing the papers to sell the properties they owned, and dividing the funds between the three kids. The total will be just short of $500,000.

You work for your kids future.

[Drahthaardogs]

4. But, but, but....your juvenile brain. You could not have possibly understood a job.

14 year olds are just like toddlers. They do not know right from wrong.

[catnhatnh]

5. I may have not known right from wrong...

but by the end of summer I bloody well knew port from starboard...

[Drahthaardogs]

8. Of course you did.

I am poking the silliness of the people here who say a 14-year old who premeditated rape and murder of his teacher is only a "child" who cannot be held accountable for their crimes and should not be tried as an adult.

Just pure bullshit. I grew up on a ranch. I worked like a damned man from the time I was 10 years old. I outworked most men by the time I was 15. I spent a little time at the track too. I could read a racing form like a New York bookie by the time I was in 7th grade. Ever heard a 12 year old talking speed ratios?

[catnhatnh]

15. That's why I always loathed George W and his "youthful indiscretions"

like cocaine use til he was 40....I was the father of three kids at 25 and my brother turned 21 fighting in Vietnam with the 101st Airborne into which he was drafted. I believe he might have better used an air guard slot.

I'm ambivalent on child labor and they worked me as a man but paid me as one also. How much harder must it be today when even if you can find a job it pays the not even half of the equivalent of what I made then...

[treestar]

3. Totally different situation though

Different times. Kids don't have to do things like that. I had a great uncle who had to quit school in the 1910s, and it's a good thing that a kid that age today who lost his father would not have to do that.

And a job like that wouldn't put people through college. In fact this scenario would be more credible if the other children went into the mine when they got old enough, too.

[Drahthaardogs]

9. But they didn't thanks to my grandfather.

Both boys graduated high school. One went to the army and the other went on to become a salesman. The girls were younger. Both finished their high school. One went to nursing school (at a local hospital I think), the other got whatever credential you needed to teach. She only taught for a year or so and then got married.

My grandfather had eight kids of his one and not ONE of them went back into that damned mine.

[Codeine]

6. And my fiancee thinks the 9-year-old is too young to do dishes.

[Brigid]

14. My sister and I were doing dishes when we were nine.

Our brother did chores too. So did a lot of other kids we knew. It was just normal.

[madokie]

7. At the ripe old age of 15

my dad and his 2 years older brother put together a whisky still. Living high on the hog they were until the feds busted them.
My dad was born in 1897.
When my uncle passed away in the late 60s his wife called the sheriff and told him there was something in her basement he might be interested in. Instead of tearing it up as was done to the one all those years ago they dismantled it and took it away. Never did know what happened to that still.
I'm been sober for a while now. Me and one of my older brothers were the only ones of our 13 and counting brothers and sisters who ever drank.

[riderinthestorm]

10. The OP above yours at the moment is that 14 year olds shouldn't receive harsh sentencing

For savaging their teacher.

They aren't mature etc. ...

I wonder what your dad would think of that

[Drahthaardogs]

11. That was my point in writing this.

My grandpa, my dad, my uncles, all of us worked like fucking rented mules when we were young. In addition, so did my grandma, my mom, and my aunts, and my sisters. Kids may not be "mentally" complete at 14, but they sure as hell know raping and killing is not acceptable.

[texanwitch]

12. My father had to helpl support his mother and baby sister at ten years old.

He would shine shoes, wash dishes, anything to make a little money.

This was during the depression in the 1930's.

He had to become the man of the house.

[alarimer]

13. And it was wrong that he had to do that

We are so much better off now that KIDS no longer have to work dangerous jobs.

[Omaha Steve]

16. My dad was an 11 year old scab in 1931 (repost)

My dad too took care of all his younger siblings. Beans and cornbread were a feast when they could eat that good. I was never sent to bed without dinner as a punishment because of that.

This is in response to your article today “Grinding axes over unions”.
I’m witting from Nebraska. We are a right to work state. I’m the son of
a scab. My father was 11 years old in 1931 and quit school to support
his family during the depression. He was one of fourteen children. My
grandfather was in jail for bootlegging. (He was also a bigamist). My
dad crossed the picket line. He was working a quarry in Southern
Indiana. The company used young children to place explosive charges deep
in small holes from a drill. On his way home one night, several out of
work men taught a young boy why he should have stayed in school and
shouldn’t cross the line.

FULL old post here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=367x11906

Omaha Steve