Labor Day - A Tip of the Hat to the American Worker

How often has a national holiday come and gone without many of us ever giving a passing thought to its history? I know I have. Remember Flag Day? Most of us don't. But Labor Day? I give credit to one man... my dad, who most reminds me of the value and purpose of this national holiday. 

 

He was orphaned as a youngster. With minimal education and training, he set out alone to the big city to find a job. He found it, or it found him, in the stock yards of Kansas City. "School" consisted of killing cattle and moving the carcass to the next "Station" of the slaughterhouse process. It was a hard job. In 1923, he was a tiny segment of the process that slaughtered approximately 2,631,808 heads in that single year.

Jumping decades ahead, when I was in high school and he was still butchering in the neighborhood grocery store, he gave me some stark advice. I will remember it until the day I die. He said, "Son, get a good education, then get a job where you have some protection. Otherwise, when you turn sixty-five, they hand you a cheap gold watch, open the back door, and kick your ass out."

It was his hard work in life that led him to become a good union man with the Amalgamated Meat Cutters of America. He was union to the marrow of his bones. He had learned his trade the hard way. 

When Labor Day rolls around next year, I will once again recall his fatherly advice.

 

In the meantime, I will continue the love of writing. I learned its value in my younger years at the Tucson Police Department, where I garnered assignments that involved in-depth research and writing of policies and practices. After retirement, I turned those skills to works of fiction centered around my myriad years, places, and people, where my assignments had taken me. It all started with "Color of the Prism," which has gone through several publishers, and has continued with a total of eight novels, several short stories, and screenplays.

Personalized copies of my books are available at www.thomasjnichols.com, www.tomnicholsbooks.com, or on all major book seller websites. 

Please leave your comments in the section below about the holidays you celebrate but are more or less forgotten by the general public.