Ah, Labor Day!

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Ah, Labor Day! That wonderful holiday that celebrates workers, work and time off. Labor Day is the official start of fall as far as I’m concerned. It is also a day that throws off school schedules, football games and still confuses us about whether it is summer or fall. My dad first told me about Labor Day when I was a little fellow. He told me that we had this holiday to celebrate workers and their jobs. I had no idea what that all meant. I didn’t have a job, I didn’t go to school and everyday was just about the same to me. One of my friends was just starting the first grade. She was telling me that she had been at school and now she was getting a day off. I remember asking her if they let you get what you wanted in the lunchroom. I was afraid that when I went to school they would make me eat some kind of awful vegetable. She didn’t know. She hadn’t stayed for lunch yet. Later when I was in school, we started going to classes on the day after Labor Day. That was no big deal. Then a few years later the problems began. School was going to start before Labor Day. The ruckus was amazing. What was going to happen if kids had to go to school and couldn’t help with picking cotton or gathering crops? It seemed to get worse. Deer season, dove season, cotton picking, corn harvesting and football season were all coming together. There was so much to do and kids were starting to go to school earlier. I wasn’t sure if I knew any kids that had to do any of that. Some of my classmates came back to school with tales of going on a deer hunt. That was neat. They were three feet tall and they carried a shotgun that was four and a half feet long. They were a sight standing by the road waiting for a dog to run by. Things have changed over the years. Cotton picking has gotten later in the year. School schedules have moved up and football season has pushed in almost a year round sport. For a long time there was the big debate about high school kids having summer jobs at the beach and having to come home early to get back into school. Well the beach economy didn’t fail because of that. Probably the biggest problem to me is the temperature. The hottest I have ever been was the Tuesday after Labor Day. I was in a building that was so hot and humid we almost had to call off an auction sale. In another week it might be cooling off. Who knows? Mosquitoes are still creating terror in deer stands. What are we to do? One of my friends told me to come hunting but he is still cutting corn and doesn’t have any hunting areas prepared. Well, that about sums it up for Labor Day. How are we celebrating the workers? People are still working or just getting a day off to mess up a schedule. The weather is too hot for some things and possibly too cold for others. One of my friends has been retired for twenty-five years. The twenty-five years that he worked were described with “I hate work.” Everyone else agreed he didn’t work much. In fact they thought he had practiced for retirement for twenty-five years. Thankfully, Labor Day is just one day and you don’t have to buy anything or prepare a big meal. The other holidays are coming and you’ll have lots of other things to complain about. Those holidays cost a lot of money too.