Labor Day Memories

What memories come to your mind when you think about Labor Day. Recent memories for me include kids camping, football, and start of harvest. My 25 year old memories are softball tournaments, machinery consignment auctions, and silo filling. It's the 50 year old memory I have of Labor Day that I want to share with you today. The pictures of this week's activities don't necessarily go along with my story.

When I was a kid Labor Day was the annual family reunion on my dad's side. My dad's parents had 10 married children and a gazillion grand kids. Each year two married children were in charge of games, location, and reading the reunion minutes which consisted of who was in charge the previous year, where it was held, and who had babies.

The in charge folks had to be early to set up those old brown Monroe tables for all the food. Everyone brought lawn chairs. Uncle Harold and Aunt Wimp always had the most colorful chairs. Remember those wide nylon intertwined plaid chairs made of aluminum tubing.

Soon everyone started coming in their cars as big as houseboats with all their kids and all that food. Grandma always brought a dish of asparagus and a bowl of strawberries. Aunt Mert always brought fried chicken that she had just killed and cleaned. Uncle Sam would only eat what his wife Aunt Wilma would bring. Uncle Jake and Aunt Nellie would show up shuffling very slowly and actually looked older than Grandpa and Grandma.






The men gathered in lawn chairs. The women arranged and rearranged the food. The kids all ran around like frisky calves. Pretty soon it was time to eat. Someone hollered loud enough for car alarms to go off except there weren't any in those days. Grandpa got up, put out his cigar, got that church look, and said it was time to pray. He had alot to pray about but all I could think about as a kid was that the food was getting cold.

After dinner the minutes were read and next years in charge folks were picked. The little kids had to play these games the in charge Aunts thought up. I was always embarassed to play. Finally the moment all of us kids were waiting for, the softball game with the dad's and the big kids. We all brought our ball gloves hoping some big person would say, hey, I think you're old enough to play this year.

The Aunts hung around the tables and were a beehive of conversation. The little kids would gather around the ballgame just waiting to dash after stray hit balls. Grandpa would come and sit on the sidelines and relight his cigar. I can't remember if we respected him so much or if we were just scared of him but I don't remember ever being that close to him. Of course the game was slow pitch and the grade school kids were pitched to until they hit the ball. Cousin Stanley could always hit homeruns.

Finally after a wonderful time we all left and returned to our indivigual homes knowing summer was just about over for another year. So while you are celebrating Labor Day this weekend think about the memories you are making for your children and grandchildren.