The kids in America, and for that matter, around the world, didn't always have it so good. And some still don't. For over a century businesses found that hiring children was much more economic for them. The child labor in the U.S. was out of hand in large cities like New York. But they were also used on the farm and in small shops.

Now, I'll admit, when I was growing up in the 1950s, child labor to me was when my father wanted me to cut the grass or shovel snow from the walkway or when my mother asked me to take out the trash. I thought that was such a job. But, unknown to me, I was being showed up by hundreds of thousand of kids around the country who were working in factories, mills, glass shops, canneries, etc. Of course, they were getting paid and I wasn't. Yeah! Their pay could range anywhere from $1.00 to $3.00 a week. My pay was that I was being raised in an above level middle class family and we always had food on the table and the heat stayed on all winter. Many of these other kids did not have that privilege.

It was a harsh time for them. Instead of growing up and having a childhood, they toiled away in deep coal mines and hot, blistering factory buildings. Come to think of it, mowing, shoveling and taking out the trash wasn't so bad after all.

This blog is dedicated to the millions of children under the age of 20 who sweated, got cut, burned and abused throughout their childhood and got very little, if anything, for it. Most, if not all are gone today. Some died from injuries on those jobs. Others died from illnesses that they caught from the jobs. And the rest just died from old age. If any of you are still alive and see this, please e-mail me at this e-mail address: bomurs@aol.com and tell me your story. I would love to add them to this blog.