So I just went through my first week of retirement
and I really haven't noticed much. More like a weeks' vacation to get
things done. BUT of course, guess what happened.
I basically could not get up. Not off the sofa or the
toilet. It took me by a shocking surprise. Especially the
toilet. I have since stacked a bunch of pillows on the sofa so I sit
higher and I have devised a way to get off the toilet; but, in the meantime I
went to the Doctor.
Well, it wasn't good news. I thought it was my
knees. I need two new ones but must lose about 40 pounds first before my
doctor will do them. But there was so much more happening. First my
knee went numb. I thought maybe years of putting stuff on my knees made
them numb. But then the whole leg went numb. Sometimes when I stood
most of the time when I sat and one muscle across the front of my thigh hurt
like hell.
Turns out - pinched nerve in my back and I see the spine
specialist tomorrow. Most likely a shot in the back or (I didn't like
hearing this) surgery.
So, please say prayer for healing, I would greatly
appreciate it.
Anyway, it is Labor Day. What is Labor Day - from
Wikipedia -
Labor Day is
a federal holiday in the United States celebrated
on the first Monday of September to honor and recognize the American labor movement and
the works and contributions of laborers to the
development and achievements in the United States.[1][2][3]
Beginning in the late
19th century, as the trade union and labor movements grew, trade unionists
proposed that a day be set aside to celebrate labor. "Labor Day" was
promoted by the Central Labor Union and the Knights of Labor, which organized the first
parade in New York City. By the time it became an
official federal holiday in 1894, thirty states in the U.S. officially celebrated Labor Day.[4
In the late 1800s, at the height of
the Industrial Revolution in the United States, the average American laborer worked
12-hour days, seven days a week, in order to eke out a basic living. Despite
restrictions in some states, children as young as 5 or 6 toiled in mills, factories and mines across the country,
earning a fraction of their adult counterparts’ wages. (Holy
Crap)
First
Labor Day Parade
Many of these events turned violent
during this period, including the infamous Haymarket Riot of 1886, in which several Chicago policemen and workers were killed. Others
gave rise to longstanding traditions: On September 5, 1882, 10,000 workers took
unpaid time off to march from City Hall to Union Square in New York City, holding the first Labor Day parade
in U.S. history.
The idea of a “workingmen’s holiday,”
celebrated on the first Monday in September, caught on in other industrial
centers across the country, and many states passed legislation recognizing it.
Congress would not legalize the holiday until 12 years later, when a watershed
moment in American labor history brought workers’ rights squarely into the
public’s view. On May 11, 1894, Chicago employees of the Pullman Palace Car Company went on strike to
protest wage cuts and the firing of union representatives.
On June 26, the American Railroad
Union, led by Eugene V. Debs, called for a boycott of all Pullman railway cars,
crippling railroad traffic nationwide. To break the Pullman strike, the federal
government dispatched troops to Chicago, unleashing a wave of riots that
resulted in the deaths of more than a dozen workers and the arrest and
imprisonment of Debs.
I never realized that Labor Day had such
a violent start. My grandmother did talk
about going to work in a mill at a young age.
She had to stand on boxes to do the work because she was so small. Now, you can work from home. I can write this blog in my living room on my
laptop.
In fact, Labor Day is Another day in
Catasauqua
