Labor Day

Mr. Levine from his days working and playing at Erasmus Hall High School

Today is the first Monday of September. Labor Day. Do I get to celebrate this day and be honored as an American worker if I retired from the American workforce last June? Five years ago, Norman retired from a succession of highly stressful jobs. He was special ed teacher Mr. Levine for 17 years at Erasmus Hall High School and another 17 years at Wagner High School, which means he taught a whole lot of kids who couldn't learn much.

Coach Levine

Dean Levine

He also wore the titles of Coach Levine and Dean Levine. I think he secretly enjoyed the bad kids and the excitement of the dean's office. After 10 cold months of nabbing juvenile delinquents, his other job as head of boys side 'Storming Norman' was spent in the 2 hot months of the summer at Camp Kinder Ring. This was a different lot of teens, but there was still the occasional delinquent to make his summers exciting.

Norm retired all of his school ID badges and camp T-shirts at the same time. He went from a stressful year-long labor situation to sitting on our deck, on a lounge chair, singing along to his iPod and amusing the squirrels in our backyard. I think it was more stressful for him to be relaxed. It didn't take my husband a long time to accept a set of keys to a job that allowed him to play tennis and expend some of that leftover energy he had from not nabbing teens anymore. His new job of laboring at a tennis center gives him the right to celebrate Labor Day.

Labor Day was first proposed as a day with a public parade to honor the trade and labor organizations, followed by a festival for the amusement of the workers and their families. So, today, I began my parade by carrying laundry down the stairs to the basement and shlepping a second basket of clean tennis shorts back up the stairs so my husband can begin his celebration of the American worker with a game of tennis. A sweaty game of tennis in the summer means more laundry for this non-worker and another parade for tomorrow. Nowhere in the U.S. Department of Labor handbook does it say that my parade of laundry baskets has a day off.

I have to find my new reason to celebrate Labor Day. My job at school was a day at the beach compared to a day in a dean's office. It was not more stressful than little As'ad or Phillip made it on any given day in the art room. But the long 12 hour days dedicated to school were killing me, especially those snowy days that should have been snow days. I am ready to scrape the snow off my car when I feel like scraping the snow off my car. I am ready to see daylight hours again and be creative for me this time. So I made a decision to retire from the labor force. Now I need to find my reason to celebrate Labor Day. My hard-working husband not only earned his pension, he earned his right to have a day off and watch a parade of laundry baskets. I need to find my reason and my day too. Just not today. Today is a holiday. Today, I follow my parade of laundry with a festival at the Bubers and get to enjoy great food with great friends.