A Tribute to Laborers

PSALM OF THOSE WHO GO FORTH BEFORE DAYLIGHT

The policeman buys shoes slow and careful; the teamster buys gloves slow and careful; they take care of their feet and hands; they live on their feet and hands.

The milkman never argues; he works alone and no one speaks to him; the city is asleep when he is on the job; he puts a bottle on six hundred porches and calls it a day's work; he climbs two hundred wooden stairways; two horses are company for him; he never argues.

The rolling-mill men and the sheet-steel men are brothers of cinders; they empty cinders out of their shoes after the day's work; they ask their wives to fix burnt holes in the knees of their trousers; their necks and ears are covered with a smut; they scour their necks and ears; they are brothers of cinders.
(Carl Sandburg)

My mother's father was employed by TVA in the construction of the Fontana Dam. I only knew him years later, as my Papaw Newton, a Church of God pastor in North Carolina. But the work ethic which made him a great minister was partially developed in those days as a welder for TVA.

"The workers put in seven-day weeks. They labored around the clock to get the job done, three shifts a day. Those on the night shift worked under floodlights. Even if they had time off, there wasn’t much to do with it. Gas rationing meant that most workers stayed on the site for months on end, although few had cars anyway. Fontana was so remote that commuting was impossible."

I am blessed to be paid to do what I am gifted to do: research, writing and teaching; but I recognize that I would not be where I am without the men and women who labor for long hours, doing physically challenging work. On Labor Day, I am reminded to pay homage to them.