Labor Day 2014
01/09/14 05:15
It may be inevitable, but we often find our celebrations of holidays far removed from the reasons that the holidays exist in the first place. Labor Day seems to be one of those holidays that we don’t quite know how to celebrate in our contemporary society. Here in South Dakota, most of our schools start classes before Labor Day, so the holiday is the first holiday of the school year. It is a weekend to head for the lake for one last time before putting the campers and boats into storage for the winter. It is a short reprise of summer vacation for school children. It is a time for picnics and barbecues an, when we are lucky, which is frequent around here, to enjoy summer-like weather before the chill of autumn sets in.
It is, at least potentially, also an opportunity to think of the people who invest their hard work in making our community a wonderful place to live. For us, it is a good thing to have Labor Day on a Monday. Monday is our usual garbage day. We put out our rolling toter so that the truck can come by and dump it. Most weeks, we don’t even think of this particular part of life as a matter of labor. It isn’t like the old days when someone had to ride around on the back of a garbage truck, picking up cans and dumping them into the compactor. I spent a summer doing that job once. It wasn’t much fun. I ended each day smelling pretty bad with a shower the first thing on my mind. The work was good exercise and I was feeling strong after three months of the work, but I was also ready to move on to some other job. These days, the task is automated and the bins can be dumped into the truck without the drive having to get out except when people overfill their bins or leave extra garbage on the curbside.
Since Monday is our usual garbage day, it gives us pause to think of those workers simply because we don’t put out our garbage until Tuesday this week. Of course that means that the crews have to accomplish the same amount of work in four days that they usually have five days to do. In exchange for Labor Day off, they have to work longer days for the rest of the week. The flow of garbage from the homes of the hills is pretty constant and once it gets to the landfill, there are plenty of workers required to sort and deal with our refuse.
Speaking of jobs that deal with the things we want to get rid of, we have our septic tank pumped every three years and this year is the year. I generally call right after labor day. Since it is something that happens at an infrequent interval, it is easy to forget. Even with modern trucks and pumps and much better equipment than was the case in the past, there are probably some days when the job of a septic pumper is pretty stinky and not that much fun.
There are a lot of other jobs that are essential to the community that aren’t all the much fun to do. It makes sense to pause, from time to time, and think of the people who do those jobs. We make fun of city workers who fill the potholes in the streets, but it is a relatively thankless job. They have to work with shovels and other hand tools while dodging cars driven by folks who are too distracted to pay attention to the people who make their driving possible. And the folks who fix the roads aren’t the engineers who designed them. It isn’t their fault that the street is crumbling. They have no role in the complex politics of who pays for new streets.
Of course there are plenty of folks who don’t get the day off. Hospitals need to be fully staffed day and night with no interruptions of service. Law enforcement, firefighters, and ambulance attendants need to be available whenever the need arises. In our community, hospitality workers keep the motels clean, the restaurants running and other services available holiday or not.
And, these days, holidays don’t stop retail sales. It isn’t just the grocery store that will be open for business as usual today. All of the retail businesses will be scrambling for the dollars of shoppers. In fact some businesses have increased traffic and sales on holidays because people have more time to go to the shops. Holidays when the stores are closed seem to have become things of the past. I think we’ve gone overboard on that one. It saddens me the way Thanksgiving has been turned into a day of overconsumption and consumerism. So far I have been able to stick to my principles and stay away from stores on Thanksgiving. But if I need a trip to the hardware store later today, I’ll probably go without another thought.
It kind of makes me feel sorry for all of the people who don’t get the day off.
Of course, it has been a lot of years since I’ve had the kind of job that observed holidays. In the church we tend to work most holidays. Monday is my usual day off and I probably won’t go into the office today, but there are a few phone calls that need to be made and this week with the newsletter, the resumption of fall programs, the launch of new programs and plenty of people in need of prayer and pastoral care, won’t be a week with too much time off. When there is work to be done, we do it without too much attention to posted holidays.
So here’s to all of the workers we honor on Labor Day - both to those who get the day off and to those who have to work as well. May you all find strength for the journey and rest from your labors.
It is, at least potentially, also an opportunity to think of the people who invest their hard work in making our community a wonderful place to live. For us, it is a good thing to have Labor Day on a Monday. Monday is our usual garbage day. We put out our rolling toter so that the truck can come by and dump it. Most weeks, we don’t even think of this particular part of life as a matter of labor. It isn’t like the old days when someone had to ride around on the back of a garbage truck, picking up cans and dumping them into the compactor. I spent a summer doing that job once. It wasn’t much fun. I ended each day smelling pretty bad with a shower the first thing on my mind. The work was good exercise and I was feeling strong after three months of the work, but I was also ready to move on to some other job. These days, the task is automated and the bins can be dumped into the truck without the drive having to get out except when people overfill their bins or leave extra garbage on the curbside.
Since Monday is our usual garbage day, it gives us pause to think of those workers simply because we don’t put out our garbage until Tuesday this week. Of course that means that the crews have to accomplish the same amount of work in four days that they usually have five days to do. In exchange for Labor Day off, they have to work longer days for the rest of the week. The flow of garbage from the homes of the hills is pretty constant and once it gets to the landfill, there are plenty of workers required to sort and deal with our refuse.
Speaking of jobs that deal with the things we want to get rid of, we have our septic tank pumped every three years and this year is the year. I generally call right after labor day. Since it is something that happens at an infrequent interval, it is easy to forget. Even with modern trucks and pumps and much better equipment than was the case in the past, there are probably some days when the job of a septic pumper is pretty stinky and not that much fun.
There are a lot of other jobs that are essential to the community that aren’t all the much fun to do. It makes sense to pause, from time to time, and think of the people who do those jobs. We make fun of city workers who fill the potholes in the streets, but it is a relatively thankless job. They have to work with shovels and other hand tools while dodging cars driven by folks who are too distracted to pay attention to the people who make their driving possible. And the folks who fix the roads aren’t the engineers who designed them. It isn’t their fault that the street is crumbling. They have no role in the complex politics of who pays for new streets.
Of course there are plenty of folks who don’t get the day off. Hospitals need to be fully staffed day and night with no interruptions of service. Law enforcement, firefighters, and ambulance attendants need to be available whenever the need arises. In our community, hospitality workers keep the motels clean, the restaurants running and other services available holiday or not.
And, these days, holidays don’t stop retail sales. It isn’t just the grocery store that will be open for business as usual today. All of the retail businesses will be scrambling for the dollars of shoppers. In fact some businesses have increased traffic and sales on holidays because people have more time to go to the shops. Holidays when the stores are closed seem to have become things of the past. I think we’ve gone overboard on that one. It saddens me the way Thanksgiving has been turned into a day of overconsumption and consumerism. So far I have been able to stick to my principles and stay away from stores on Thanksgiving. But if I need a trip to the hardware store later today, I’ll probably go without another thought.
It kind of makes me feel sorry for all of the people who don’t get the day off.
Of course, it has been a lot of years since I’ve had the kind of job that observed holidays. In the church we tend to work most holidays. Monday is my usual day off and I probably won’t go into the office today, but there are a few phone calls that need to be made and this week with the newsletter, the resumption of fall programs, the launch of new programs and plenty of people in need of prayer and pastoral care, won’t be a week with too much time off. When there is work to be done, we do it without too much attention to posted holidays.
So here’s to all of the workers we honor on Labor Day - both to those who get the day off and to those who have to work as well. May you all find strength for the journey and rest from your labors.