February 1912. Port Royal, South Carolina. "Nine [?] of these children from 8 yrs. old up go to school half a day, and shuck oysters for four hours before school and three hours after on school days, and on Saturday from 4 a.m. to early afternoon. Maggioni Canning Co."
http://www.shorpy.com/node/2666
1915. Washington, D.C. "Francis Sayre Jr., baby, with father." Woodrow Wilson's son-in-law Francis B. Sayre with the President's new grandson.
http://www.shorpy.com/node/6338
It's November in 1954 and you're an 8 year-old boy; given the following options, what do you do? a) Watch TV; b) Play with cool toy MG sports car; c) Unroll giant set of maps and trace the borders of Czechoslovakia. Made sense to me then. Actually, I still understand it.