Task One:
The Pine
Barrens once had their own particular witch.
Pineys put
salt over their doors to discourage visits from the Witch of the Pines,
Peggy
Clevenger.
It was known
that she could turn herself into a rabbit,
For a dog
was once seen chasing a rabbit and the rabbit jumped through the window of a
house and there-in the same instant, in the window-stood
Peggy
Clevenger.
On another
occasion, a man saw a lizard and tried killing it by crushing it with a large
rock.
When the
rock hit the lizard, the lizard disappeared and
Peggy
Clevenger
Materialized
on the spot and smacked the man in the face.
Clevenger is
a Hessian name; Peggy had lived in Pasadena, another of the now vanished towns,
about five miles east of Mt. Misery.
It was said
that she had a stocking full of gold.
Her remains
were found one morning in the smoking ruins of her cabin, but there was no
trace of the gold
Task Two:
The Pine
Barrens had a witch
Her name was
Peggy Clevenger
Salt was
used by Pineys
In order for
visits to discourage her
A rabbit,
and lizard though different they may be
Both were
forms of Peggy Clevenger
Who was said
to live east of Mt. Misery
The rumors
were she had a stocking of gold
But when her
remains were found one day
It was found
to be just a story told
Task One:
We had come
to a clearing where thousands of blue-berry bushes grew
In the
center of it was the packing house-a small, low building with open and
screenless windows on all sides
In front of
it was a school bus marked “Farm Labor Transport.”
The driver
stood beside his bus; he was a tall and amiable-looking man, with bare feet, he
wore green trousers and a T-shirt
The end of
the working day had come.
Pickers were
swarming around a pump-old women, middle-aged men, a young girl; a line was
waiting to use an outhouse near the pump.
Inside the
packing house, berries half an inch thick were rolling up a portable conveyor
belt and, eventually, into pint boxes
Charlie’s
sister was packing the boxes; Charlie’s daughter-in-law was putting cellophane
over them and Charlie’s son Jim was supervising the operation.
Charlie
picked up a pint box in which berries were mounded high, and he told me with
disgust that some supermarket chains knock off these mounds of extra berries
and put them in new boxes, getting three or four extra pints per twelve-box
tray.
At one
window, pickers were turning in tickets of various colors, and they were given
cash in return
One picker,
who appeared to be at least in his sixties, tapped Charlie on the arm and
showed him a thick packet of tickets held together with a rubber band.
“I found
these,” the man said. “They must have fallen out of your son’s pockets.” He
gave the packet to Charlie, who thanked him and counted the tickets.
Charlie
said, “These tickets are worth seventy-five dollars.”
Task Two:
The packing
house stood in the clearing,
Sticking out
against the thousands of blueberries that grew all around
A small
building that would soon come to the life with the ending of the day
When the
pickers brought back their blue treasures from the ground
“Farm Labor
Transport” marked the side of an awaiting bus
It’s driver
standing guard nearby
His wait
would be long as the pickers unload their days work
And for the
outhouse and pump stood in line
Inside the
house, berries were everywhere
They were on
conveyor belts, in boxes, rolled then packed
In disgust Charlie tells me what
sometimes happens at markets
The mounds get knocked off and in
extra boxes to gain more profit stashed
A family business or so it seemed
Charlie’s sister packed the
boxes, his daughter-in-law then followed with cellophane
And Charlie’s son Jim was deemed
To supervise the operation
To determine one’s wage,
Tickets were given
At the end of the day
You would receive your provision
One lone picker approached
Charlie with care,
He handed Charlie a wad of
tickets “I found these,” he declared
Thanking the man, the tickets he
counted
“These tickets were worth
seventy-five dollars” he amounted
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