Labor Laws, Oreos and Lifesavers

Recently when I told my son that the dog needed to be walked he looked a bit unhappy about being disturbed from watching the television, but because he really doesn't seem to care what people think of him he didn't bother to add any clothing to the pajama bottoms and the hat that he had slapped on his head when he woke, and he took the dog out.

This lack of modesty and the unusual get-up mandated a photo be taken.  Can you believe this?

And then when I explained that we had yard work to do on another day, the wee girl put clogs and a skort on to complete her job.

Now, on neither of these occasions were they happy to be doing this work.  They did the jobs with very little complaints but they made it obvious that they thought it was child abuse and that in other homes children didn't work like this.

As I was considering their views of child labor I stumbled across two articles in Time Magazine the detailed the 100th anniversaries of the Oreo Cookie and the Lifesaver Candy.

And this got me to thinking of my childhood and these treats.

And that lead me to wondering about the children of 1912.

Which resulted in me searching for images of children working a century ago...

http://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/childlabor/index.html

http://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/childlabor/index.html

http://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/childlabor/index.html

http://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/childlabor/index.html

http://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/childlabor/index.html

http://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/childlabor/index.html

http://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/childlabor/index.html

http://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/childlabor/index.html

These children were definitely over worked but I cannot help but believe that our kids could use a bit of perspective.  I can see where a box of Oreo Cookies would have made these children as happy as a trip to Disney World, for our kids a century later.


What about you?  When you think Oreo or Lifesaver what childhood memories pop to mind?


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