I love you you offered both the historical and current perspectives on this holiday. The fight for labor rights has a contentious and bloody history that I see being recreated before our eyes. I hope we don't need to entirely relearn why this matters.
Thanks! It is vital that people understand even just a bit of the history behind the labor movement. And bloody, indeed. have you seen the documentary, Harlan County, USA?
I confused it with Matewan. I’ve seen both movies but a long time ago, when they first came out. Harlan County is a documentary while Matewan is fiction. I also misspelled Sayles’s name. Sorry. Wrote before I verified.
On my mother’s side of the family her sister married a farmer. He worked like a dog, as the saying goes. Their farm had dairy cows, pigs, chickens, and fields of corn and soybeans. My mother’s father was also a farmer. Both of these men worked until they were well past 80. My maternal grandparents lived in a house owned by their nephew who never bothered to bring in any plumbing. There was a cistern pump at the kitchen sink so my grandmother used that water for doing dishes and laundry. She had to heat water for these tasks on the stove. My mom’s youngest brother lived to be 99 and I think he did odd jobs for neighbors until he died, things like mowing grass and trimming shrubs. His business had been working for housing contractors sodding lawns and planting shrubs and trees. They all lived hard lives and never made a lot of money. I mean gobs of money. My two uncles owned their own homes, but of course part of being a farmer was that you had to know carpentry to keep the property from falling down around your ears and mechanics to keep your farm vehicles running, and a host of other things besides. I loved being around them out in Ohio when I was a child. My dad was nothing like them. Not at all handy. My mom and I did much of the handiwork around the house from the time I was about twelve and she taught me how to paint rooms. My dad wouldn’t have had a clue about that stuff. He was a tech nerd.
I love you you offered both the historical and current perspectives on this holiday. The fight for labor rights has a contentious and bloody history that I see being recreated before our eyes. I hope we don't need to entirely relearn why this matters.
Thanks! It is vital that people understand even just a bit of the history behind the labor movement. And bloody, indeed. have you seen the documentary, Harlan County, USA?
I loved John Sales, who made that documentary. It was so moving!
Barbara Koppel was the director of Harlan County- it won the Oscar for best documentary- don’t remember what year.
I confused it with Matewan. I’ve seen both movies but a long time ago, when they first came out. Harlan County is a documentary while Matewan is fiction. I also misspelled Sayles’s name. Sorry. Wrote before I verified.
I’ve not heard of Matwan, but will look it up-thanks!
On my mother’s side of the family her sister married a farmer. He worked like a dog, as the saying goes. Their farm had dairy cows, pigs, chickens, and fields of corn and soybeans. My mother’s father was also a farmer. Both of these men worked until they were well past 80. My maternal grandparents lived in a house owned by their nephew who never bothered to bring in any plumbing. There was a cistern pump at the kitchen sink so my grandmother used that water for doing dishes and laundry. She had to heat water for these tasks on the stove. My mom’s youngest brother lived to be 99 and I think he did odd jobs for neighbors until he died, things like mowing grass and trimming shrubs. His business had been working for housing contractors sodding lawns and planting shrubs and trees. They all lived hard lives and never made a lot of money. I mean gobs of money. My two uncles owned their own homes, but of course part of being a farmer was that you had to know carpentry to keep the property from falling down around your ears and mechanics to keep your farm vehicles running, and a host of other things besides. I loved being around them out in Ohio when I was a child. My dad was nothing like them. Not at all handy. My mom and I did much of the handiwork around the house from the time I was about twelve and she taught me how to paint rooms. My dad wouldn’t have had a clue about that stuff. He was a tech nerd.
Interesting story...and from Ohio, too! It is good to remember how hard our families worked and how hard we continue to work.