If you were to look at the schools in a small town in Idaho, you would see that they were empty, and they have been that way for the past two weeks. Every year, near the end of September, the farmers are harvesting their fields that they carefully tended all summer long. And for Idaho, one crop in particular stands out: potatoes. And for the high school-aged students, it means that it's Potato Vacation time.
Now, I know what you're thinking. 'Two weeks off of school? Just because the potatoes are ripe? I'm moving to Idaho!' But there is a reason for the break. All of the farmers hire high school students to sack potatoes for two weeks, twelve hours a day. This year, yours truly worked "in potatoes" (as they say around here.) I decided to tell you what it's like to sack fifty-pound bags of potatoes and/or pick dirt clods out from between the potatoes as they move by on a conveyor belt.
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