Hooray!!!!!

It is finally Labor Day weekend. Ironic isn't it? Three days of leisure to celebrate Labor. As an average boy I have a deep respect for the ordinary laborers that keep our society turning. I was thinking back to the labors I've performed in my life, I was amazed at how many different things there were. I had a paper route when I was seven, at the same time on weekends I would sweep out a machine shop. In Junior High School I was the janitor in a Kresges (precursor to K-Mart). I'll never forget that the Manager somewhat sarcastically called me "Lightning". Wonder what he meant? In high school I pedaled an ice cream cart on weekends and worked in the body shop at Highfield Buick in Decatur Illinois during the week. After graduating in the lower half of my class I went to work at the Caterpillar Plant where I worked on the bur bench grinding the sharp metal shards off of freshly milled metal. After I gained some seniority (a heavy union requirement) I became a hand trucker. We went on strike 6 times in 11 months. From there I became a Station Agent Telegrapher for the Illinois Central Railroad, then a factory worker, a shop clerk, a computer operator, a gandy dancer (during a strike), a Maintenance Manager, a purchasing buyer, a photographer, a retail manager, an insurance salesman, an Agency Manager and a Vice-President of a national insurance company. Then I retired and became a manure inspector. Whew! I think I'll take the weekend off.

Some of you have heard my daughter Amanda sing at church. A God given voice. If you are interested in hearing some more go to my web site samleejackson.com and click on music. This is an album of songs I have written over the years that she performs to perfection. She was in college at the time and her voice has only gotten better with age. Uh, not that she's old, she's not. Actually really young yet, not old at all. I have to be careful, she reads this. Don't know why she's so sensitive about being a quarter of a century old. I wonder how many occupations she'll have at 63? Hopefully, with all that schooling it'll only be one.