The October holidays were normally used for the "Tattie-picking" or "Tattie-howking" as it was sometimes called in those days.
This was at some of the local farms where the older children could go along with their friends and their families to earn some extra pocket money during the school holidays.
The work was very hard and quite tiring, and especially sore on the back with all of the bending over that was involved throughout the day.
Everyone would gather together in the field and each adult that was going to be in charge was given a set length of the field to "tattie-pick" in, along with a team of workers that they had selected who would get into line ready to gather up the potatoes.
A tractor would be driven up along the field to plough up the ground, coming around again and again to plough up new furrows with even more potatoes to be gathered in. Everyone would be busy putting the potatoes into the wire mesh baskets that sat on the ground, before emptying them into a large hessian sack when the wire baskets were filled to the brim. When the sack was eventually full of potatoes it would then be tipped out onto the trailer that came around the field with the second tractor that was also in use.
This was a race against time, as each furrow had to be cleared of potatoes and everyone moved out of the way before the first tractor with the plough had had enough time to come back around again, turning over a new furrow.
This could be fun when the weather was kind to us, but not so much fun when it was raining, windy and very cold with everyone in the field standing ankle deep in sticky thick mud. The words "cold, wet and miserable" spring to mind. Warm clothing and at least two pairs of thick wooly socks inside the Wellington boots that you had to wear were essential.
When the sunshine did manage to break through from behind the clouds everyone would be casting off their warm coats and, sometimes, even their jumpers. The combination of hard work and warm weather made us sweat a bit too much and feel hot and uncomfortable. It was certainly a lot easier to manoeuvre your arms about to pick up the potatoes when you were not wearing a heavy coat.
The farmer's wife would usually send up a wicker basket filled with sandwiches and flasks of tea for a mid-morning break, and would also give some of the workers their lunch at the farmhouse at mid-day. Lunch at the farmhouse was nearly always home-made soup with some freshly sliced bread, followed by an assortment of sandwiches, scones or a piece of cake – or sometimes even a pudding of some kind. The remainder of the workers would have brought their own "piece" (lunch) with them in a container, eating out in the field if it was warm and dry enough or close by in a farm shed or a shelter if it was raining.
The best part of the day was getting back home and slowly prising off the dirty Wellington boots that seemed well and truly stuck, then taking off the rather grubby and sweaty clothes that had been worn all day, before climbing into a nice warm bath to soak away all the stiff joints and aching muscles from the day's hard work. Then it was early to bed so as to be ready for the next morning's early session of "Tattie-picking" on the farm.