[CowboyIndian]

  It's a glamorous business, they transform French plums into prunes....

Well, I have another view, having driven a prune shaker for 50 straight 12-hour, 100-degree days back in the early 70s north of Yuba City....following in the footsteps of Juan Corona: http://crime.about.com/od/serial/p/corona.htm.

And that wasn't the low end of the totem pole, either. That would be the Mexican women and kids who picked our drops from the ground and deposited them in BIG boxes (about 4-foot cubes as I recall). At that time, they received $25 per box. My worldview was literally shaken. I would go home and sit still with a beer and watch the world vibrate. And then, come fall, there was the Jack Christiansen era.....

For an unsentimental look at tree-fruit-picking (and club boxing) in the Valley before machines took over, take a look at "Fat City"....the book and movie:

[CowboyIndian]

  It's a glamorous business, they transform French plums into prunes....

Well, I have another view, having driven a prune shaker for 50 straight 12-hour, 100-degree days back in the early 70s north of Yuba City....following in the footsteps of Juan Corona: http://crime.about.com/od/serial/p/corona.htm.

And that wasn't the low end of the totem pole, either. That would be the Mexican women and kids who picked our drops from the ground and deposited them in BIG boxes (about 4-foot cubes as I recall). At that time, they received $25 per box. My worldview was literally shaken. I would go home and sit still with a beer and watch the world vibrate. And then, come fall, there was the Jack Christiansen era.....

For an unsentimental look at tree-fruit-picking (and club boxing) in the Valley before machines took over, take a look at "Fat City"....the book and movie: