Got plans for Labor Day?
I come from a large family that hosts large get-togethers for every tiny excuse that floats by. We make these events even larger by adopting every stray and stranger who makes eye contact with us. We show our love by making the most and best food that we can come up with, efforts which inevitably consume most of the time of the get-together.
That’s the fun part. The folks who just want to hang out have plenty of time and reason while they wait for the food, which of course is rewarded with plenty of finger food while waiting for fork food. The folks who are more comfortable doing stuff have plenty of stuff to do while all the doers and non-doers mill about socializing with each other. The late-comers arrive just as the fork food finally makes it to the table(s).
To really throw boundaries to the wind, we used to drag the entire scene to campgrounds all over the Southeast. The email communications were titled, “Camping Chaos Club”. And how about those emails? Talk about chaos. Everybody hits REPLY, which only goes to one person. So group emails soon look like a banana spider’s web after a nor’easter.
Now, imagine that scene at a restaurant. Can you even imagine? Actually, there’s a good chance you were unfortunate enough to be at a restaurant when the Camping Chaos Club showed up.
I’m over it. I’m really over it. It was fun. That was then. This is now. Now, I get all the perks with just one click:
What do I enjoy? Good food that I didn’t prepare. Somewhere to sit down, with people that I know, or should know. Leaving whenever I want, with no aftermath to clean up.
How is this wonderful one-click part of my life possible? Because someone else has automated most of the labor and smoothly woven the human components into a shiny new web I happily walk into.
This Labor Day, let’s remember to thank the invisible laborers who labor to give us a chance to relax. Thank you, Ron Cook, for sending us that GroupValet signup button for all the fun stuff SPVCA has to offer. Thank you, Julie Jones, Linda Bartimus, and all your volunteer caterers who make sure we are fed. Thank you, Bentley Burnham, for making sure the spirits keep flowing into our plastic cups. Thank you, Barbara Cook, for capturing our memories with your camera. Thank you, Diane and Bill Henn for sending us those memories and a calendar for more in the newsletter, which I also enjoy with just a single click.
Happy Invisible Labor Day
This article was originally published in the South Ponte Vedra Civic Association newsletter on 9/1/2022.