Published: September 09, 2009 08:52 am      

RANDOM THOUGHTS: The history of Labor Day

Crossville was honored to have a visit from the highly respected poet Edwin Markham during the 1920s. He spoke and recited some of his poems that evening. These words of wisdom for troubled times are as true today as when he wrote them.

At the heart of the cyclone

tearing the sky

and flinging the clouds and

the towers by

is a place of central calm.

Now is the time for citizens of our country to heed those words and find their place of central calm as irresponsible words from both pro and con believers are shouted in anger.

***

The holiday the nation just enjoyed began on May 1, 1889 overseas and was spelled Labour Day. The movement for such a day in the United States began earlier in New York City by the Knights of Labor who held parades in 1882, ’83 and ’84. During that time other states began celebrations and finally in June 1894 a bill passed Congress naming the first Monday in September as Labor Day, a legal holiday.

Labor means different kinds of work depending on which gender you speak to. For women getting rid of invading bugs is labor at its hardest. Those creatures live a labor intensive existence which may explain why they have been around much longer than man. Once they appear it is a battle to get rid of them.

Recently I heard from a relative in the state of Washington. She told of fighting fruit flies which she suspected had hidden in a bunch of bananas. Searching the Web for an answer she tried three different suggestions and she passed along the one that worked best.

In her own words she wrote, “You just pour about a quarter inch of apple cider vinegar in a cup or margarine tub or whatever, give it a little squirt of dish washing liquid (like Dawn) and fill with water so it forms a good head of bubbles. They are attracted to the smell of fermenting fruit, land around the bubbles and are captured. It’s a bit like the watched pot that never boils in that if you watch, not much happens, but if you leave and come back later you see a lot of them in the bubbles and eventually in the bottom of the container. It takes ten days from egg to adult so we are crossing our fingers that in a week we can say they are gone for good.”

Later she wrote that the professional pest controller had been there for a regular check and she asked him about the recipe for fruit flies. He gave it his seal of approval and said he used the same method.

In our household ants got the attention of both man and woman. First we tried the ant traps but to no avail. Because they hung out on the counters around the sink we were constantly slapping at them and finally on July 13 we had out first visit from our pest control company. It takes some time to stop them but there was no decrease and we had a second application of poison again on the 23rd. The ants were still there on August 3 and another spraying followed by yet another on the 10th.

As of today we are down to one or two every once in awhile. There have been other years when those tiny black ants addicted to sweets have appeared but one treatment took care of them. I have a theory that just as germs have learned to mutate and became drug-resistant, other creatures have learned that secret.

Labor Day nods welcome to a change of weather and I hope it is a signal to bugs to prepare for a long rest!