Stay in Florida

Stay in Florida

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Here is the coin laundramat where I did my laundry. It is right on my daily route, just after Wal-mart. Wal-mart has a food store which always has great prices, so I just go there every day and get my frozen dinner and whatever else I n eed. I thaw it on the dash and heat it on the engine. Another reason I wanted to do my laundry is that our boots and picker's bag are sprayed daily for citrus canker (so we don't take it from grove to grove). They also routinely spray our vehicles (dri ve through a big square that starts squirting as we approach) which is fine except that the driver of the loader (me) has no protection at all (not even a windshield) so I get completely sprayed. I just coast on through with my eyes closed. Anyway, that makes me more hesitant about wearing the same clothes from yesterday.
I have lots of grubby clothes but I didn't take them with me. However, before I left I gave lots of clothes to Salvation Army figuring that if I needed them on my travels I could just visit a thrift store and replace them. I got two pan ts, two long sleeved dress shirts (light colored) and a belt for $4 at this Hospice Thrift Store. Much of my ideas for how to dress comes from seeing my compatriots and what they wear. The problem is that one of the pants are very nice light brown jeans which fit me perfectly. They have been promoted to 'hanging out' clothes while the nicer jeans I had been wearing are now work clothes. When you get such nice clothes at bargain prices, what are you to do?
There was no work on October 31 or November 1 as it rained in the evening and then again in the morning so that the fruit never dried enough to allow us to pick. We spent a lot of time hanging out around this old shack. From the boarded up windows, my guess is that it was once the housing for farm workers (else, why windows) but now is just storage with the building full of plastic corrugated cardboard guards for supporting new trees. Under the awning are fence gates (green) and a trac tor mower attachement (reddish). Beside the mower are old Blue Goose grove signs (blue). On November 2, we were actually able to pick fruit starting at 1PM, but there were four crews in the grove and we were done by 3:30PM. I still only got two bins fo r a total of $13, but I was faster this time and made minimum wage ($5.15 per hour). Whew!
Here is a picture of some of the crew waiting on the green fence gates under the awning shown above. While I personally prefer pictures of people to the pictures of buildings I have mostly included so far, I am hesitant to take many pict ures of people as that can sometimes put them off (buildings don't seem to mind as much). Everyone has been very friendly with me (though there is the language barrier) and I finally felt that we were friends enough that they would understand. The pictu res were for 'mi mama y hermano' (my mother and brother) in Texas. I have wondered why people have accepted me so well and am thinking that if you are comfortable with a situation (and the people), then they will tend to be comfortable with you. Whateve r it is, I am very pleased to be making many new friends. I just wish I had gotten pictures of all my friends in Michigan.
My friend Anno (sitting on the mower) was back with us starting October 31. He mentioned that this morning immigration was hanging around Carter's checking people's papers. Carter was calling all the crew leaders on their cell phones (a s most of Carter's business is from selling to the fruit pickers). I mentioned that that wouldn't impact Circle H as they insured everyone had their papers. He said, 'No, not everyone had their papers!' I thought about it and decided that when there we re pairs of workers, one would be legal and collect the pay for both (so that the checks would all be legal). Presumably they would sort things out once the checks were cashed. As we left, the highway (CR609) was blocked by a white car; Louis said, 'Imm igracion' and we turned around about half a mile away and went the long way back to Circle H to get our checks. They didn't follow us, so that was easily dealt with. Of course if the I.N.S. reads this, I am sure that I completely misunderstood what he w as saying.
For now I am normally driving the loader between groves as, other than the crew leader, Louis, I am the only person with a driver's license. Anno took this picture of me sitting in the driver's seat of the loader. I found out that in Fl orida you don't need any license to drive farm equipment on the road if it can't go over a certain speed (like a regular tractor). However, if it can go at full highway speed, you need to register it (see the license which has 'Restricted' on the bottom) . Then the driver must have at least a regular license. I was told the 'Restricted' means you can't take it out of state. The loader is built on a standard truck frame which I would guess is rated for a gross weight of about 23,000 pounds. As such, if it had been made into a truck or bus, a CDL class C license would be required to drive it. I myself have a Class B CDL from driving buses at the ashram which means I can drive vehicles over 26,000 pounds gross weight, but not trailers over 26,000 pounds (that is Class A).