Counting on Children

I know this chapter may be a shock to some teens in this era, but for my parents and myself it was the norm. My mother tell stories of how she and her bothers and sisters would have to sneak away from the plantation in order to go to school. As she put "at the first sign of rain we would high tell it to the school bus ." If it rained they could not pick cotton. Hine reports "Although the upper classes were prolonging the immaturity of their offspring by sending them to school, most young people were seeing their childhoods shorten" (120).
Children assisting their family with the household income was, in most cases, necessary for survival. Fathers did not make enough to support the family and in many instances employers were more inclined to hire a whole family, suggests Hines (121).
I remember working at the restaurant on the corner of our street, after school, in order buy clothe for school and other items girls desired. We were of the working middle class, but it was very difficult to make ends meet with eleven mouths to feed. This chapter really hit home for me.
Brenda