Candy Factory Kids: 1913

Right, all of us worked, and are just fine. None of us were alive in 1913. I suspect most of us are baby-boomers. So none of us can speak with much authority of how things were at the time this photo was taken.

We're not talking about working for your dad on the farm, or picking up an early paper route before school. I know that gives us the warm fuzzies.

We're talking about six days a week, backbreaking labor, which these children were forced by economic circumstances to undertake. Apples and oranges, people, apples and oranges.

[Work in a fabric mill (and, I would imagine, the candy factory) was not exactly "backbreaking." - Dave]

I spent my first 27 years of life working on a dairy farm. At 5, I had daily chores. At 11 years old, I was tall enough to reach the clutch on the Case tractor and was put to work in the fields operating heavy machinery. At 14 I drove the farm truck to and from the fields (what a great non emissioned 350 V8 that truck had!). I ended up just fine even though I worked most of my childhood. Work at an early age teaches responsibility and a good work ethic.

When I was a kid, I had a paper route, worked in fields and any other job I could find. Still had time to be a kid too. I would wonder how many hours a day the kids worked and whether they were afforded time for school work. I sure agree that today's kids are pampered too much. I try to keep my 11 year old daughter busy with daily jobs around the house, but she still has lots of time to do kid things too.

The Hughes Brothers building is south of downtown Dallas in the Cedars, which was a Jewish neighborhood around 100 years ago, next to Old City Park, where several historic buildings have been relocated, including the Millermore mansion. The factory is said to have produced "the first African-American soda pop."

"Robbed of their childhood"? Spare me. Childhood today consists of a pampered, entitled existence, devoid of imagination, cluttered with electronic entertainment devices and other brain-deadening paraphernalia, their days filled with pre-planned, adult-supervised "activities" (youth sports, play dates, etc.), their parents reduced to holding their breaths for 21 years or so, hoping their kids come out the other end without being completely screwed up or over-diagnosed with some sort of "syndrome", and at least reasonably capable of actually living on their own without Mommy and Daddy sending them a check every other week. The youngsters depicted in many of these photographs grew up with notions of responsibility, self-reliance, and self-sufficiency that seem almost quaint in today's world. God bless them!

A kid, working in a candy factory. How lucky can you get? When I was a kid I worked in a chicken house shoveling you know what.

"Robbed of their childhood" would be letting them sit in front of a game console, television or computer.

Life was hard for our working class ancestors. Mom kept house with little money and cared for the small children. Often she took in other people's laundry and mending to make some money. Dad worked six days a week for low pay as a farm worker or factory laborer. Those families needed the income from their children's labor on the farm or in the factories to survive.

If I had to pick between being a breaker boy in a coal mine, and running a "chocolate machine" - I'm pretty sure which one I'd pick.

Some conditions for child labor were admittedly awful. I think its a bit of a stretch to melodramatically delare that all their childhoods were entirely robbed, though. Kids have always worked, until very recently. Why do you think farm families had 6+ kids? And farm work is consistently one of the most dangerous working environments there is.

If this is really Deep Ellum, there will be a tattoo parlor just out of frame.

How many of the boys here were named Charlie?

The Hughes building is still standing in Dallas and the loading dock at the back of the building looks much the same.

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All these photos showing child workers makes me think how terribly sad on how all these children were thoroughly robbed of their entire childhood.

Where were all the adults? Taking a perpetual siesta? I know it was a totally different era and different culture, but still!

["Robbed of their childhood"? Oh brother. - Dave]