September 08th, 2020

Happy Day After Labour Day!

There are two things you can be absolutely assured of on Labor Day at our house.  One is that the streets will be lined with Flags.  The other is that there will be yummy things to eat.  Yeah, we are pretty food-centric  (as if you didn't already know)

But this labor day we had one added bonus special unexpected treat!  It turned out to be MINOCK DAY!  The best day of any month  :)

It was a perfect way to enjoy the day, good food (chicken on the grill and potato salad for example), good company, a lot of talking and a ton of laughter.   Hard to improve upon that!

This country has been celebrating Labour Day since 1894.  The original intent of course was to  celebrate and pay  tribute to the contributions and achievements of American workers.  An honourable intention at the very least. Although when I was a kid, the actual intent of labour day was lost on us.

 I know it's changed now but way back when dinosaurs walked the earth and I was a kid, every single school that I heard about or attended (and I attended many) that Tuesday following Labor Day was when the new school year began.  That was the only real meaning of labor day to us kids.

Nowadays of course, the date of the start of school is all over the place. Some kids have year 'round school for instance.  Others started in August and a few have not yet begun.  And then of course, this year being what it is and the pandemic throwing it's monkey wrench into things,   more kids are being schooled alternatively. That is to say,  home schooled or doing on-line classes.  I have no idea what their school years look like.  Kind of  a shame.  I enjoyed the consistency of KNOWING (or at least thinking I knew) exactly what Labor Day meant.

It meant that last blissful day of freedom before school commenced.  Which made that final day extra important. I vividly recall the deliciousness of enjoying to the absolute maximum that final day before the new school year.  In a way it was the best day of the entire summer because we were so focused on making the most of it.

I remember waking up extra early  and being very aware of the different feel and smell of the early hour.  I absolutely remember sitting on the porch steps in my pajamas watching the sun slowly creep up over the trees and seeing the light overtake the darkness in the shadowy garden. (No matter where we lived, my mother always had a garden) I could suddenly hear the birds begin their early morning song as I hugged myself in the early chill.  The chill would burn off soon but my little barefeet on the concrete would be almost achey cold at that hour. And I remember that I didn't mind one bit too.  It was just the tiniest of beginnings to one of the most important days of the year.

I don't think it was a conscious decision on our parts.  I mean we were kids and not especially sophisticated ones at that, but there was something about that day that even we knew was important.

The sun felt warmer, the air felt fresher, food tasted better, laughter rang louder, and whatever goofy-arsed way we chose to spend the day was perfectly perfect.  We probably spent the entire day outside getting sweaty and dirty and only went inside if our mother's insisted that we break for a meal  and even then, we pleaded and begged to be allowed to have our sandwiches outside please!  We stayed out after dinner playing games in the yard, chasing the fireflies, enjoying our last day of freedom and trying to make the joy last as long as possible.

That's kind of how it is enjoying a Minock Day.  No matter what we do, it's extra special and we try to  make it last as long as possible.

Hope your labour day was even half as good as ours!