A big surprise: I don't have to work!
Some Labor Day traditions have changed in the past few years. To wit:
When I was a kid, the big attraction on Labor Day weekend was the Jerry Lewis Telethon. We'd watch it every year–Jerry would be there all night, all day, and by the end of the whole thing he looked as if he'd been through the wringer–twice. And there would be Ed McMahon, Sammy Davis, Jr., and all Jerry's other long time friends. I got out of the habit of watching, but would check in every now and then to see how Jerry was holding up–and even well into his '70s and '80s, he'd do well. He always fell apart at the end–I think it was more of a trademark than anything–but he'd hang in there for most of the show. I don't know what he did to get the boot, but he'll be missed by many. Why the MDA couldn't have set aside whatever differences they had with Jerry for this last year–Lewis had announced that this would be he final year–I don't know.
Another tradition that died several years ago was the Labor Day race that used to be held at Darlington. The Southern 500 was just one of those things you did on Labor Day–like watching the Indy 500 on Memorial Day, this was a tradition that seemed like it would never go away. But it did–seems that the owner of the speedway and the heads at NA$CAR decided that they could make more money of they moved the race to California, to "grow the sport". Well, it seems that a great number of the "new" NA$CAR fans were of the fair weather variety–they stuck around for a few years, then attendance started to drop. They kept the name "Southern 500" attached to Darlington–they used it for the race held in the Spring at the track–but it doesn't matter. To many life-long stock car racing fans, the Southern 500 means a race at Darlington held on Labor Day.
The final tradition that comes to mind is one of those wink-wink, nudge-nudge things. For years, Labor Day meant that there was some tropical weather system headed for Florida. My personal "tradition" of tracking Labor Day storms started when I was in High School–Hurricanes David and Floyd seemed to be making a beeline right for Broward County. My brother and I joined friends up towards Sebring that year, and wound up driving through David on the way home! David sort of fizzled as he made his way towards Florida, but Floyd did some damage on the Gulf Coast that year.
This year, Katia is churning out in the Atlantic, and Tropical Storm Lee has just formed in the Gulf of Mexico, near the Louisiana coast. And from what the weather guessers are saying, Lee is going to dump a bunch of rain. We might feel the effects of both storms here in South Carolina–we need the rain, but we don't need what they got in Vermont and Upstate New York last week…
Of course, the Grandaddy of Labor Day hurricanes was the 1935 storm known as the Labor Day hurricane–it swept through the Florida Keys, destroyed Henry Flagler's railway, and killed scores of World War One veterans who were building what we know as the Overseas Highway.
No matter where you are, though, this Labor Day weekend, please be safe. If you're in the path of any of the Tropical junk, be double safe–and if you need to get out, do so!
Enjoy your Labor Day. Be good to one another, be safe, and I bid you Peace.