Happy Labor Day from your friends at the Dog Denizens of Genesee Park (DDGP)!
While you are preparing a Jell-O mold for your picnic or stowing away your white wardrobe, you may not know the origin of the holiday for which many working Americans enjoy. According to the Department of Labor (DOL), the holiday is "dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers."
Labor Day started as a result of a push to the now-ubiquitous eight-hour workday. In the 1880s employees in the manufacturing industry began organizing protests and strikes to protest unsafe and unjust work conditions... the eight-hour workday, for example. Tension between laborers and management grew increasingly hostile
The first "Labor Day parade" took place September 5, 1882 when 10,000 protesting employees took unpaid leave to march from New York City's city hall to Union Square. On May 11, 1894, employees of the Chicago-based Pullman Palace Car Company went on strike in opposition of wage reductions and the termination of a union representative. The federal government sent United States marshals to break the strike. The predictable result? Riots, violence and the deaths of workers. President Grover Cleveland signed legislation two years later to create a national Labor Day holiday. The holiday was scheduled for the first Monday so as not to appear to link the federal holiday with international labor celebrations on May Day.
Fast forward to more than a century later. Maybe you're preparing for a Labor Day gathering like a picnic in the 1955 movie Picnic with William Holden and Kim Novak. Here's a clip from the seductive love dance between Holden and Novak, who swoon to the tune "Moonglow":
Or maybe you're staying home and overdosing on all-day marathons of Pawn Stars or Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations. You'll need a beverage to deaden the prospect of the end of summer and returning to work Tuesday. A peach margarita seems in order.
Peach margarita
- 1 cup of ice
- 1½ oz tequila
- ¼ oz. triple sec
- ¼ oz. Peach Schnapps
- ¼ oz. lime juice
- 1 fresh peach, skinned
- Peach slice for garnish
Pour the ingredients into a blender... or the blender-wannabe that you purchased during a moment of weakness while watching an infomercial.
Blend until smooth.
Pour into a chilled margarita class.
Garnish with peach slice.
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