On holiday in Jersey I was having a drink when a chap on crutches hobbled into the bar.
His mates already in the bar asked him how he came to be on crutches and he informed them that he had broken his leg by falling off a ladder while picking potatoes.
I expected his mates to have a laugh about this unlikely story but they appeared to accept it as a perfectly reasonable explanation.
Driving around the island I did notice that many of the fields are extremely steep and I could imagine that it would be extremely difficult to pick potatoes from the ground without slipping backwards and dislodging a great deal of soil.
Can any Jerseyman tell me if ladders are used or was my leg well and truly pulled, if not broken?
Admittedly these events happened at the start of the twentieth century, but it would seem, from reading the article that Jersey residents make quite a habit of falling off wagons.
Jersey is a major producer of potatoes, so I would hazard a guess that (unless they were joking) they are harvested in large quantities, requiring large trucks to move about and the fellow was injured falling off a ladder that was leaning against the truck.