Jack’s Winning Words 8/31/18
“Oh, give us the man who sings at his work.”  (Thomas Carlyle)  Who still believes that Labor Day is a day to honor our country’s workers?  It’s the year’s last 3-day weekend.  Times have changed.  Studs Terkel captured the spirit of the laborer in his book, Working.  Studs has put together a collection of his interviews with working-class people.  It’s worth a read or re-read.  Laborers in the 1930s were called, working stiffs, because they’d be so tired and stiff from their work.  I like TV’s Dirty Jobs which gives a glimpse of some of today’s working stiffs.   ;-)  Jack

FROM EDUCATOR PAUL:  There is so much content in what you wrote today, Jack!  Next door to me, people are building s new deck. It’s constructed of stone and bricks. The skilled workers laying down the bricks snd preparing the ground are Mexican. I watched them work for the past three days. I have never seen people working harder and with such skill!  The neighbor across the yard is s construction manager. He, like other people I know in the field, tells me that there is so much work that  he has stopped accepting new jobs. Why?  He said he can’t find skilled workers. He looked across the yard at people working and said to me that he could use every  Mexican or any other worker with those skills and work ethic. “What is our country doing putting road blocks  preventing these skilled hard working people coming and staying g here?”  In this Labor Day holiday, we should try to understand that skilled hardworking people are what this country needs irregardless of where they were born and how they got here!    Perhaps on another occasion we could address people trying to come into our country who are “unskilled” but just want to escape horrendously dangerous situations to themselves and their children.===JACK:  Not all immigrants are terrorists, but an agenda built on xenophobia is keeping America from being great again.  Our country was built, in large part, by working stiff immigrants like your forefathers and mine.

FROM HAWKEYE GEORGE:  Going to watch my g'son play soccer for Drake today in Des Moines. Hope it doesn't rain.===JACK:  Oh, what fun to relive our past as it is played out by our progeny.  This week I watched my son play hardball in an Over-50 League.  At his age I was winding up my geezer slo-pitch softball career.

FROM BLAZING OAKS:  Which would probably mean he enjoys his job ?  The unskilled jobs are where the market is in this era.  Or skilled jobs such as plumbers, electricians food and grocery positions, bakers, etc.Computers,  There is work  for those who are willing to get their hands and overalls dirty!  These working stiffs used to be the heart of America:  I don't know how many sang as they worked, however!!===JACK:  In the factory office where I worked while also going to college ans seminary there was a guy who would always whistle while he worked.  He knew the latest songs and whistled quietly and beautifully.  He whistled "Nola" just like Elmo Tanner.
.1938 Ted Weems - Nola (Elmo Tanner whistling) - YouTube



Just my thoughts on this upcoming Labor Day.