Labor Day has become one of those holidays that nobody really understands. Frankly, I don't think I was ever really TAUGHT the origins or history of the holiday. For most Americans, it's simply become a date that marks the symbolic end of summer, the time to close up summer homes, close down swimming pools, and pack the white shoes away for the winter.
I guess it's good that we have a long weekend to allow us to do all that, even though for those of us in the midwest, we're as likely to have an 85 degree day throughout September as we are to have 60 and 70 degree days.
Kids get a day off school, parents get a day off work. The federal government shuts down and the US Postal Service doesn't deliver or pick up mail.
I suppose if I'd grown up in a union family, I may have a better appreciation for the meaning of the holiday, but then again, who knows.
Clearly they're still not teaching kids the reason for the school holiday.
Yesterday The Tweenager asked if he had to empty the dishwasher on Monday, since it was Labor Day and nobody had to work.
Diva Nana told him "Sure! But then your mom doesn't have to work at all either. No cooking, no laundry, no cleaning."
I think I'd like a Labor Day like that.
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