I didn't know when I started my first real job as a "Corn De-tasseler" that it would or could shape the rest of my working life. If someone had told me I would end up learning so much, or that I would end up loving what I was doing or that I would be in the fields 9 years, and what I learned there would apply to every job I had for the rest of my life; I think I would have laughed at them.

There are four types of corn growing in the field. There is "male" corn and "female" corn. The "male" corn has shorter, lighter and narrower leaves than the "female" corn. Then there is what we call "suckers". The suckers grow around the base of some of the other stalks of corn. Finally, you have what is called "queer" corn which you can see standing way above everything else when you look across a field. Or it can be corn with a white bulge hanging off the side of the stalk. If you break this bulge off you find black stuff inside.

I learned in a seed field, farmers plant 2 male rows then 6 female rows, or they can plant 1 male row to 4 female rows. Our job as de-tasselers was to take off every (and I mean every) female tassel, and leave the male corn alone. We found out that one tassel left on a stalk, could possibly ruin the whole crop, depending on the size of the field. (The suckers also had to be de-tasseled). This was my job for the first 3 summers.

The next 3 years I spent as a crew leader. The crew leader's job was to walk behind the crew of 6 to 12 teenagers and get any tassels or bad corn out of the field that they would overlook or miss. Also to make sure everyone got out of the field at the end of the row, and had some water, and got a short break. Once all the crews were out we would line them back up and send them to the other side. We would do this until the field was finished. Then back to the bus and off to the next field. We did this all summer until all of the fields were done.

The last 3 years, I spent as a Supervisor. My job was to take everything that I had learned over the past 6 years and teach it to approximately 72 or more teenagers. This is where what I had learned, to my amazement, came in to play.

It was during this time I realized that by putting the most experienced workers together at the beginning of the line and and the less experienced (the ones who had been in the field for a year or two) next to the first batch, I could have the first group out, and they would in turn go back in and help the second group. I then put the beginners and the slowest ones at the end so the first two groups could eventually go back in and help them finish.

I would spend my time in the field with the last group teaching them about the corn and helping them to become faster by showing how to take their hands, put them on the row and pull the tassels like pulling on a rope to pull themselves out of the corn and to safety.

By the middle of the season my slower groups could keep up with the fastest group and then I worked on the middle group helping them. Before the season was over all of the groups were out of the field at about the same time.

I learned first to teach the new ones, and help improve the medium ones. By doing this the job gets better for everyone. And the more hands you have working together not only makes the job easier for everyone, it also gets the job done better and faster with less errors, because you have more eyes and minds checking to make sure its right. And you have more time for everyone to have a little break between job assignments.

This kind of cooperation builds happier people which is good not only for the workers but also for the bosses who are happier with the work that is being done. Plus it makes a safer work place because by working and learning from each other we tend to watch out for one another which enables us to return home to our loved ones safe and happy; I believe that should be everyone's goal.

Penny Nunn
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