July hasn’t dealt too bad a month of weather this year. A mix of pleasant days, rain enough to supply gardens and greenery, and a very few days of oppressive heat. We shouldn’t complain, too much. If August is going to be the same, we’ll have a pretty good summer.

It is nice to see the Newtown flagpole, with its summer flag. In the earlier days only one size flag was flown, year around. Now, the much larger “summer” flag will fly till autumn and be replaced by the smaller one, before bad weather. How nice it is to have. The efforts of David Lydem as its caretaker all these years have provided the funds to purchase flags and keep that famous landmark in good condition. He has established a good tradition.

As summer begins to wind down, the last big holiday weekend comes into view. Labor Day signals an end to vacation time; the back to school days for young people who have enjoyed a couple of months of freedom, and it marks the start of more concentrated political activities.

Labor Day is not a very old holiday.

Only since 1882 has Labor Day been observed. Peter J. McGuire, a leader of the Knights of Labor and founder of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, proposed that a day be set aside to honor labor. His proposal was adopted by the Central-Labor Union and on September 2 of 1882, about 10,000 laborers marched around Union Square in New York City.

The day ended with picnics and dancing and fireworks and speeches by prominent citizens. A tradition was born. There was no significance in choosing the September 2 date. McGuire said it was between Fourth of July and Thanksgiving and filled a gap in the chronology of legal holidays.

Oregon was the first state to adopt the new holiday, followed by New Jersey and New York. By 1928 all but Wyoming had adopted the holiday.

Over the years, Labor Day diminished its ties to unions and celebrations include special church services, parades, and a general time of family festivals and sporting events – in fact the whole weekend is included in the celebrations.

Walt Whitman honored Labor Day in a song – a hymn of the working spirit of the people – he wrote “I hear American Singing” and noted that it was the mechanics, carpenters, masons, boatmen, shoemakers, deck hands, the hatters, the wood cutters, the ploughboys, and the singing of the mothers who were the soul of America.

Laurie paid a surprise visit from Vermont, Sunday. She re-hung the round birdfeeder she sent me a while ago and the new suet cake. They are hung from the overhang of the upstairs porch, and are not easy to get to. The one persistent squirrel, who makes my life miserable, has managed to jump to them from a brace from my awning. He falls to the ground and hasn’t managed to empty the seeds from the one. The suet cake in its metal holder was on the ground, and I brought it in. I think both can be rehung to another spot too far for the pesky squirrel to jump.

The words ending last week’s column were by Thomas Jefferson in a letter to James Madison.

Who wrote this poem?

“And you shall see the beautiful things

As you rock on the misty sea”?