Growing up in small-town Nebraska, you don't find too many kids who don't detassel. I was most definitely one who did detassel, starting the summer after eighth grade until the summer after I graduated from high school. Though most view detasseling as hard work and extremely strenuous, I learned some very valuable lessons from my first-ever summer job.
Detasseling showed me that it doesn't matter if you're not related, you are still family. Many of us pulled pranks on each other, cried with each other, fought with each other and stuck out our necks for each other. Most of us were high schoolers or younger, so we were pretty immature, but immaturity doesn't mean lack of understanding or compassion.
We showed compassion when a group of siblings' dog had gotten run over at the end of a work-day. Many of us rushed to their sides to hug and console them the best that we could. We laughed and joked about the kid who somehow killed a deer with his genitals. Only a few of us truly knew what had happened, but who were we to tell people he didn't actually have "nuts-of-steel?" We bonded over watermelon and Mt. Dew when it was the rookies' last day. Our bosses even sent home large paper bags loaded with ears of sweet corn to share with our families.
Working out in the cornfields half of the day, trying to beat the heat of the afternoon, we learned what hard work entailed. Working hard didn't mean we couldn't have fun, though. There were many passes through fields that we goofed around or told dirty jokes, especially since we were out of parental earshot. The only time we would even remotely get into trouble is if we took our fun too far and forgot to do our job. This happened to everyone at least once.
Embarrassing yourself happened at least once, too. Whether someone blabbed about your much, much older crush, or you were literally caught with your pants down while trying to take an emergency pit-stop in the field, being embarrassed happened to everyone. The best part was you usually were with a group of your friends, so it was okay to be embarrassed. Sometimes, those friends were just as embarrassed as you were because they were caught, too.
You learned to respect the adults around you. Since most of us were children, it was easy to fall into immaturity far below our years, but whenever "The Boss" was around, you straightened up and listened to what he had to say. Many first-years were afraid of The Boss and his giant calves. After the first face-to-face encounter with him, though, we realized he wasn't so scary and would actually smile and say "hi" to us. Of course, many of the adult supervisors would joke right along with us, too.
Though we tended to become very immature out in the fields, detasseling did help one grow up a little bit. For many, this was a kid's first ever job. We realized that working does take some growing up to do. Detasseling was a time when kids were expected to work for the money. Didn't get as big as a paycheck as your friend? Next year, show up to work on more days. A lot of us got our very first paychecks from this job, and I think that helped us realize that our parents won't always be there to buy us things. We have to earn the money we want to spend.
If I were to go back and decide which detasseling group to pick to work for four summers in a row, I would make the same decision again and again. Without them, I wouldn't have made numerous friendships or grown up the same way that I did. Thank you for being such a great second family during my summer months.
