Happy 124th Labor Day!
I suppose technically it should be happy 136th, since it was a Tuesday on Sept. 5, 1882 that 10,000 citizens marched for their labor rights down the streets of New York — when the average American worked 12-hour days, six days a week. Labor Day became a federal holiday in 1894. But it was 34 years after that first march that the eight-hour work-day was established.
I suppose we’ve all read employment help-wanted advertisements looking for that perfect position, where we could make a living doing something we absolutely loved.
Ages before any labor laws, there was one early documented manuscript that mentioned a position as CEO of horticulture. This most prominent and esteemed job as the director would find an elaborate irrigated garden full of “every tree that was pleasing to the sight and good for food.” I heard a guy named Adam got the CEO of Horticulture at GoE and his job description was simply one-line with two objectives: “to cultivate it and keep it.”
Maybe I’m a bit envious of his elegantly concise job description, but I also heard he was quickly promoted to creative director of biological nomenclature and was quickly paired with an apt and suitable partner after his job placement in the Garden of Eden.
I can only imagine Adam sometimes worked long hours, not because he had to, but because he loved his boss, job and his co-worker became (like) family.
Do you remember your first job? Do you remember the jobs you labored in love? Do you remember the job that wasn’t your favorite, but you learned from?
I suppose my very first job was babysitting — keeping a house of children safe, feeding, playing, cultivating, cleaning up after them — for a mere 50 cents a hour. Which taught me how, in some cases, not to raise my children.
I have fond memories of a learning a variety of skills and even more about people by working during high school: McDonald’s, detasseling corn (though hard, loved it), Meridian Drive-In (I was my younger brother’s hero, since they got in free AND got free popcorn,) in addition to lots and lots of babysitting.
Throughout college I worked jobs filing in the administration office, as lab tech in Purdue University’s Tissue Culture Lab, waitressing for a short stint at the Vogue (not my thing, even though I once received a $100 tip that I conscientiously and naively tried to return to the inebriated music patron) and started selling my writing to magazines.
After college I worked nearly a decade as superintendent/horticulturist at Forest Lawn Cemetery (Adam had my dream job), while simultaneously stringing as a newspaper correspondent for the Indianapolis News and selling magazine articles, teaching aerobics at Gold’s Gym and walking Indianapolis runways (modeling, not airport runways. That would be dangerous and against the FFA regulations.)
After a Senate communications internship at the Statehouse, I took a job in communications with an executive communication company, which basically means I wrote political propaganda — back when life was simple with no social media and junk could only enter your house through mail or email. My Robert Frost fork-in-the-road came when I turned down a job offer to run the campaign of an incumbent senator, whom I respected, to focus on my growing toddlers and writing.
As I look back now, some of the best labor-intensive work of my life has been spent, not only writing, but doing ministry, starting communication ministries, developing and directing church Connection Ministry, LifeSkills classes and serving as director of communications at Central India Christian Mission. And the years of volunteering as elementary and junior high speech meet director — oh the joy!
May we all continue to find joy in our labors — Happy Labor Day!
