The Working Man.

On Monday, a man named Bob will get out of bed before the sun comes up.  He will get dressed and fix some coffee and set off for his days routine.  Bob will drive off to spend the day on the second floor of a run down office building in Jacksonville Florida.  Usually there is a whole office full of people that work to manage the 500 or so employees in the company where he works, but today he is the only one here.  Bob is a dispatcher for Cypress Trucking.  Bob covers the weekends most times.  He has been doing this way too long and usually works a 60 hour week. He is that one guy that goes above and beyond to keep the ship afloat and takes the most grief for his commitment. Management is constantly on Bob’s case about logistics while drivers call and whine about the load assignments and getting home.  A couple months ago, Bob had to take a week off work.  It was almost instantly visible to the drivers he deals with that things weren't being handled quite the same.  Bob left because his brother passed away.  He had to take care of some things, including how to handle an invalid family member that his brother had been taking care of.  That responsibility now falls to him. It’s wearing on him, and the stress is reflected in his eyes.  It might be easy to mistake Bob for a grumpy guy, but he deals with a disproportionate amount of grief—especially lately.

Across the country, a man named Kevin will be awakened by a beeping coming from his computer.  It’s an email from Bob wishing him a happy holiday.  Kevin drives a truck.  He is also working today, in Texas, halfway across the country from his wife and child. Kevin is sharing the cab of his truck, which is smaller than a jail cell with a trainee for the next 4 weeks.   Kevin is the sole breadwinner for his family and despite the extra pay he gets for training the new guys, it’s hard to make ends meet. He stays out on the road on weekends and holidays like this because it provides a little extra income for his wife and 12 year old daughter.  She is growing up while he is away and he knows it. But the responsibility of providing for them far outweighs his desire to be home today grilling up some burgers and having a beer.  He needs this extra holiday pay to cover the cost of a new mini fridge for his truck.  His old one died and he cant carry food with him right now to save money, so he is forced to eat out at a lot of fast food joints.  Kevin will wake up his rookie and hit the road.  He has a delivery of construction materials to make on Tuesday morning.  Those materials will insure that the folks home celebrating the holiday will have work to come back to tomorrow.

Back in Illinois, a young woman in her 20’s named Amanda is already moving.  She has two young children to take care of, but she wont be able to see them long this morning.  She has to get to the Flying J across the county where she works as a manager.  Truck drivers like Kevin are out there in her lot.  They will need fuel and clean showers and most definitely coffee—LOTS of coffee.  Sometimes she wonders if they don’t just pour it in their radiators and come in for another thermos. Amanda is working to make her own ends meet.  She lost her dad two weeks ago to cancer.  He died too young and he left her in charge of handling his affairs and his tiny estate.  She still has a lot of things she needs to work through, but it will have to wait.  She has a job to do and she needs to get to it. Despite the overwhelming grief she feels, she picks herself and heads off to work for the day.

Down near Cleveland Florida, a woman named Leslie is checking on her husband Raymond.  Ray was also a truck driver, but he has fallen ill with age and can no longer get behind the wheel.  Leslie is working hard to take care of him and she loves him dearly.  Ray’s truck is up for sale.  That might help cover some of the medical bills, but there have been no serious offers yet.  So Leslie needs to get in to cover her shift today at the grocery store in town.  Like Amanda, she works retail and has to deal with all manner of ill tempered patrons.  Today is going to be especially bad and she knows it.  The mud park down the road is open for the holiday and that always leads to intoxicated, self serving idiots running through the store tearing things up.  She has enough to worry about with Raymond.  She should not have to be babysitting these people.  Quite frankly she has earned this holiday with her ailing husband.  But she has a responsibility, and a job, and bills.  So Ray will have to spend the holiday without her.

Across town, a man named Dylan is slipping into his bullet proof vest.  He does not want to wear it.  It’s hot in Florida this time of year and that vest is a sweat box.  But there have been so many random attacks on police officers these days that there is no way in hell his wife would let him leave without seeing it on him.  Dylan has four beautiful young daughters.  He wants to work this 12 hour shift today because its holiday pay.  He too can use the extra money.  The police Department where he works has not offered up a decent pay raise to officers for nearly a decade.  After paying into his medical plan and his retirement, he brings home a pretty small paycheck for what we ask him to do.  Christmas is right around the corner though, and Dylan knows that the extra money will help put a few items under the tree this season.  Dylan will spend most of the day keeping an eye out for intoxicated drivers.  Revelers who don't know their limits and head out on the road possibly endangering the lives of people like Leslie Amanda and Kevin.

In Wichita Kansas, a woman named Abby is also stirring.  She is slipping into her scrubs and talking to her husband.  Abby is an RN.  She works taking care of people like Raymond.  During her down time, she has been studying to get her doctorate.  Abby’s husband has a pretty good job.  They don’t want for much, and they would probably be just fine if Abby chose to stay home and focus on trying to raise a family while he worked.  But Abby feels a deep sense of responsibility for the people that she cares for.  It’s a thankless job that no one really wants to do.  But it absolutely needs to be done and she knows it.  So while her husband is firing up the grill and watching football, Abby is probably going to be cleaning up vomit and other nasty stuff.  RN’s all across the country just like her are also preparing for their shifts today, just in case something goes wrong.  Dylan and Kevin are working today at jobs that are consistently listed in the top ten most dangerous professions.  Someone needs to be on standby—just in case.

Later in the day, Dylan may just take a quick lunch break at the restaurant where an attractive young lady named Felicia is working her shift.   She gets the unenviable job of serving drinks and food to holiday patrons all day.  Felicia is a magician when it comes to dealing with horses. She has an unrivaled love of everything equine. She has a couple of her own, but horses are an expensive habit.  She needs to work through the holiday in hopes of landing a few extra tips to keep her animals in feed.  Ideally, she would be working a career training horses and the people who want to ride them.  But fewer people these days can afford the luxury of time and money that it takes to care for such an animal, and horse training jobs are hard to come by.  So Felicia works full time serving drinks and part time with her passion—when she can find the work. She is working tonight because holiday customers will usually tip a little better.

At the Crossties farm and garden store across town, where Felicia buys her feed, Kerry is fixing to close up shop for the day.  Kerry has been struggling the last few years to keep her small business afloat.  She came in with her most loyal employee Velvet today to open the store in case any of her regular customers like Felicia needed anything.  Kerry has been running her store for years.  Lately business has taken a swift hit in the gut.  The down turned economy means that fewer and fewer people can afford to take care of farm animals, especially horses.  She has seen her customer base dwindle off over time.  She wonders how long she can hold on, but she feels a driving need to be there for the people who have loyally shopped at her business for years.  She came in to work today herself so that several of her employees could enjoy the holiday.

While we take time this Monday to celebrate the working men and women who built our great nation, lets not forget that scenarios like this are playing out all around the country all day.  I’ts not hard to look around and see the people working on the working mans holiday.  People who should be celebrating with their own families, but have commitments and responsibilities that take greater precedence.   It wouldn’t hurt to say thanks to Kevin, Leslie, Amanda, Dylan or Abby if you see them. Tip Felicia an extra 5 and find a reason to spend some money at that locally owned business… They earned it.   

Me?  I chose to work the holiday simply because I wanted to.  If I read my cards correctly, I will probably be sitting at the Hooters in Waco Texas about a hundred miles up the road from my trainer Kevin, waiting to make my own delivery of construction materials on Tuesday morning.  I think that maybe I will have a pizza, breadsticks and a 2 liter of soda delivered to our dispatcher Bob in Jacksonville--and have them put Kevins name on the receipt......

Happy Labor day my friends.