As late summer days approached, the smell of ripe tomatoes in our garden permeated the air. The older ladies of the neighborhood would often stop and discuss the opening of the tomato factory. “When would it open?”, “What was the crop looking like?”,” Are you working at the tomato factory this year?’ were the questions most often posed to each other.
One could hear the rustle of stiff rubber aprons hitting against the black rubber boots as the ladies passed on the alley behind our house. The long awaited day had arrived. The tomato factory had opened. It really was not a factory but what we would now call a processing plant. In the little town of Pandora, Ohio the opening of the tomato factory was anticipated as it would provide income for some senior citizens at the factory and immigrant or seasonal laborers picking tomatos. It was short term work of only a few weeks.
When I was a child I witnessed my older sister and my mother as well as some neighborhood widows take this as part time employment. Because I was home alone and some times sought my mothers permission to play with friends or go swimming with another family, I would stop in at the tomato factory.
It always smelled of over ripe tomatos, close to rotting, and tomatoes cooking in the hot water gave the aroma I well remember. The sounds of cans clanging overhead as they traveled from outside the building to the end of the peeling line are vivid memories. There wasn’t much chatter among the ladies who stood along a conveyer belt concentrating on their task of peeling tomatoes. They had to make their money in just a few short weeks, so each hour of concentrated work was precious. After all they were getting a dollar for each galvanized bucket they filled. A card pinned to their back was to be punched by the ‘runner’ for each bucket filled.
The process was simple, men outside the building dumped hamsters of tomatoes into tubs of hot water. A conveyor belt pulled the tomatoes into the building where the ladies stood on the peeling line. The first ladies took the biggest tomatoes, gave a slight squeeze to remove the skin and quickly removed the core with their special tomato knife. As the tomatoes progressed down the line the less desirable tomatoes took a little more work to remove the skins and possibly cut some of the hard parts around the core. By the end of the line, the poorest tomatoes were available, and fewer tomatoes were processed. Each hour the ladies shifted positions so that all had equal opportunity to the best tomatoes. The canning of the tomatoes was the last part of the process.
I never got to work in the the tomato factory, wearing the stiff rubber aprons and stiff black rubber boots and coming home with withered skin on the hands. The factory was closed and moved to modern facilities where people wore sanitary suits, masks and processed tomatoes in sanitized well controlled environments. Now the tomatoes are picked by giant machines which make one trip through the fields to tear up the plants at the height of ripening period. The little town of Pandora, Ohio no longer provides this seasonal work for Seniors seeking part time work.
This story reminds us that opportunities for Seniors to work on line processing seasonal foods has disappeared. Many jobs have moved overseas where labor costs are less. As retirees we look for opportunities to find part-time or short term work to supplement our income. The internet provides us such opportunity. Even if we are physically challenged using our computer to generate income is a viable way to have some short term or seasonal work.
I am thankful I don’t have to rise early and go to work in a damp wet place like a tomato factory but rather work on line in the comfort of my home, choose my own hours, choose the type of work I wish to pursue. I have mentors and friends not from a neighborhood but from the entire world of internet users. It can be seasonal or short-term or even at my age I can make it a career. Here’s to on line work for Seniors.
Panda Picked this story to remind us that as times change, we Seniors can adapt to new ways of making money. We can use the computer to find us work, applying on line for local jobs, create our own on line business, or train ourselves for services to provide on line. The possibilities are endless!
What is your online venture using the internet and all its possibilites?
panda picks
Diane