Vince Junior: Music

• MP3 play whole song, hi-fi (broadband)
• MP3 download whole song, hi-fi

This song was written by students in our unit on NC population and agriculture. Our students used the story Amelia’s Road as a spring board into a discussion of migrant worker conditions and agriculture in NC.

The Hardworking Farmers
By Mr. Floriani’s 4th grade class

A road leads nowhere special
To mountains, the coast, and rolling plains
We pick yams and apples and sweet blueberries,
Our hands, and feet, and backs in pain.

I’ve worked so long I have to rest
I’m so busy no time for school
I need education really really fast
Instead I am picking fruit like a fool

Moving, working
I wish I had a
big warm home.

Moving, working
I wish I did
not have to roam.

Kids in the field working all out
Trying to find food in the dirt
Corn, potatoes, and juicy plums,
After work our bodies hurt.

The weather is hot, the conditions are cruel
We work in the fields twelve hours a day
Our children are tired, hungry, and weak
We will try to buy food without pay

Chorus

We hate moving around the world
Children work many hours a day
Our kids get tired of all that work
And we still get a horrible pay.

I got a case of “must work blues.”
I only need to take a rest
I’ve got to work for more money,
I just want to do my very best.

Chorus

The sun is hot, the grass is tall
It seems like a giant forest to me
I wish they would cut it fast
Because I just got stung by abee.

My skin is red, the sun is scorching.
My younger sister has the flu
We labor, we farm, we pick and sleep
After the shift we feel so blue.