Holiday Monday: Sound of Life in the House of Labor

by

US Markets are closed. Labor(ing) Day.

Inflation Will Save Us! (???)

Even though it’s a “day off” our net worth keeps stacking up.

Why?  Well, I am the guy who said “load the boat on silver” when we were out in Burbank on a contract job back in 2005. Under $7 an ounce…

Let this sink in:

Hoo-rah, peeps.  Inflation is the game. Trump made his money leveraging real estate to harness what?

Inflation and whatever’s behind curtain #2!

news.objects  Tracking

We’re not sure who in DC had the brainstorm to pile US defense assets into Gaza – I sure don’t remember any discussion of this (BS):  Report: Post-War Plan Sees US Administering Gaza for at Least a Decade .  Say WTF?  What, We the People don’t get a voice in this?  Congress abdicate, or what?

Smug as Thugs in a Rug Dept: Modi, Putin get cosy at SCO summit days after US punished India for buying Russian oil.

Made Up Money Tracking: Bitcoin at $108,000 and change when we looked….

Down-Time Fun…

In lieu of a “regular” (whatever that is) ShopTalk project this weekend, I thought because of the holiday it would be useful to the young to stop for a moment and capture some of what made America Great once upon a time.

From the beginning, shall we?

When I first landed in Seattle radio news, 1970, I wound up briefly married and living in Lake Forest Park (north of Seattle) in a house that once belonged to Dave Beck’s son. Yes, that Dave Beck — the Teamsters boss who locked horns with Congress, Hoffa, and history itself. Beck was a figure who could make senators sweat. To a young reporter just starting out, sleeping under that roof was like sharing a room with the ghost of organized labor’s muscle.

Out in the back yard of the home, my 125-pound German Shepherd “Bismark” was easily able to clear the 6-foot fence separating Beck’s son’s home from the movie theater on the back side of Dave’s place.  Not on the water – across the street from it – this was what pure “class” looked like in the 50’s and 60’s. Sprawling ranch style, Romsan brick, and all Union Made.

Even years later, I remember thinking: here I am, making peanuts in radio news, but staying in the house of the son of a man who once sat at the very top of America’s labor pyramid. It was a strange kind of rent-based (with an option to buy, that I didn’t) history lesson.

Covering the Docks

From there I got close to the longshore beat. The 1970s were years of fire for the ILWU. When longshore walked, ships didn’t move, trucks idled, and the local economy seized up like an engine without oil. Covering those strikes was a reminder that news wasn’t abstract — it was sweaty men on picket lines, cops across the street, and a city trying to decide how long it could live without ships loading grain and lumber.

Worker’s had their “lunch counters” too.  There used to be a place under the elevated road from Beacon Hill over to the Duwamish bridge where for under a buck, you could get a heaping plate full of the day’s “Special”.  Working man’s food: Two scoops of mashed, 2-inch thick meatloaf, and enough perfect gravy to float a battleship.  And their offspring laid up at the Todds Shipyard ways within walking distance.

If you ever doubted the meaning of “leverage,” you only had to watch a longshore picket. Seattle was still a working port town back then. When ILWU called a strike, you learned quickly that everything — from union power to the evening newscast — rode on the docks.  Even Boeing was a dependent.

Broadcasting Roots

I can’t help but hear Labor Day through my broadcast roots. A holiday that started with bloody marches and pickets has been repackaged into bloody Mary’s and promotions.  Sales flyers and back-to-school weekends. But if you want to understand what Labor Day was meant to remind us of, spin some tunes. Songs are the folk memory of labor; and one old reporter.

They capture the grit, the bitterness, the pride, and sometimes even the gallows humor that working people carried home after a shift. Pappy always tried to make it to union meetings as a card-carrying Union firefighter in Local 27.

Here’s my set list — a Labor Day broadcast in print — drawn from Union (and scab) labor songs that still say something worth hearing.

Work Songs for America

Pick a Bale of Cotton – Lead Belly

 The rhythm is infectious, but the reality is brutal: stoop labor in southern fields that bent backs and shortened lives.

Huddie William Ledbetter — better known as Lead Belly (1888–1949) — was one of the most influential folk and blues musicians of the 20th century. Born in Louisiana, he grew up steeped in field hollers, spirituals, and the raw work songs of the South. His powerful twelve-string guitar style and booming voice carried songs like “Pick a Bale of Cotton,” “Midnight Special,” and “Goodnight, Irene” into the American bloodstream.

Lead Belly’s life was as hard as his music: he spent time in prison, was “discovered” by folklorists John and Alan Lomax, and went on to record hundreds of songs that captured the rhythms, injustices, and resilience of working-class life. Decades after his death, everyone from Pete Seeger to Kurt Cobain covered his songs, proof that the man from the cotton fields had become a permanent voice of labor and struggle.

John Henry – Harry Belafonte’s Version

Belafonte included “John Henry” on his 1962 album Midnight Special. (Link is to the Carnegie Hall session.) It’s the folk tale of the steel-driving man who tried to outlast the machine. He won the contest but lost his life. The metaphor still fits: when technology comes to take your job, sometimes all you get to keep is the story.

The Workers Song – The Longest Johns (2022)

Crank this one.

From their album Smoke & Oakum, the British folk-sea-shanty revivalists deliver a blunt anthem: “We’re the first ones to starve, we’re the first ones to die.” It’s a new coat of paint on a very old house: workers trading health and life for a wage that barely carries them through.

Chemical Worker’s Song – Process Man riff

Written in the British folk circuit (Ron Angel) in the ’60s, this one was revived by Great Big Sea on Play. The “process man” goes into the chemical plant and comes out with poisoned lungs and a shortened future. It’s a reminder that labor rights aren’t just about wages — they’re about whether you live to retire.

Sixteen Tons – Tennessee Ernie Ford (1955)

Merle Travis wrote it in 1946, but Ford’s booming 1955 version went #1. “You load sixteen tons, what do you get?” Company-store debt and a lifetime indenture. It’s still the anthem for debt servitude, whether to coal operators or the credit card industry.

Working Man Blues – Merle Haggard (1969)

From A Portrait of Merle Haggard. A song of pride rather than lament: “I’ll keep my nose to the grindstone, work hard every day.” It’s the voice of someone who doesn’t expect miracles, just respect for the sweat.

Red, White and Pink Slip Blues – Steve Earle (2004) / Johnny Reid (2009)

My pick is the Hank Williams, Jr. version here.  Steve Earle’s version came on The Revolution Starts… Now, with Johnny Reid’s cover giving it Canadian country legs on Born to Roll. It’s the anthem of the downsized — men and women who gave their years to a company, only to find the gates locked and the jobs shipped overseas.

Working Class Hero – John Lennon (1970)

“As soon as you’re born, they make you feel small.” From Plastic Ono Band. Stark, unvarnished, and often bleeped on radio for its language, Lennon turned cynicism into poetry: “A working class hero is something to be.” It’s been covered by Green Day and others, but the original carries the raw edge.

Maggie’s Farm – Bob Dylan (1965)

On Bringing It All Back Home. Dylan didn’t want to “work on Maggie’s farm no more.” On the surface, it’s surreal folk poetry, but it became an anthem for workers who’d had enough of being ordered around. Even The Specials gave it a ska spin.

9 to 5 – Dolly Parton (1980)

From the film soundtrack and her album 9 to 5 and Odd Jobs. It hit #1 across country and pop charts. “Barely gettin’ by, it’s all takin’ and no givin’.” A playful beat disguises a razor-sharp indictment of office work and gender inequities in the modern workplace.

Take This Job and Shove It – Johnny Paycheck (1977)

Title track from his 1977 album, written by David Allan Coe. It became a cultural catchphrase overnight — the country worker’s declaration of independence from lousy bosses. Everyone’s wanted to sing it at least once walking out of a bad job.

Factory – Bruce Springsteen (1978)

From Darkness on the Edge of Town. A quiet, mournful look at his father’s factory life. “End of the day, factory whistle cries / Men walk through these gates with death in their eyes.” This is the sound of work that doesn’t kill you instantly, but erodes your spirit year by year.

Born in the U.S.A. – Bruce Springsteen (1984)

Often mistaken as a flag-waving anthem, the title track from his album of the same name is really about veterans coming home to no jobs and no respect. It’s about being used up by both war and work, and it still cuts through the noise today.

Allentown – Billy Joel (1982)

When Billy Joel released Allentown on his The Nylon Curtain album in 1982, he gave voice to an entire generation of blue-collar workers watching their hometowns crumble as factories shut down. The song was inspired by Bethlehem Steel and the collapse of heavy industry across Pennsylvania and the Rust Belt. Its pounding rhythm mimics the mechanical thud of a mill, while the lyrics paint a stark picture: young men promised steady jobs and good lives, only to see the plants shuttered and the future vanish.

“Allentown” isn’t just about one city — it became shorthand for industrial decline in America. At the time, critics called it bleak, but workers called it honest. Forty years later, it still resonates every time another plant closes or another town is left behind by globalization. For Labor Day, it stands as one of the clearest pop anthems about what happens when the contract between labor and management breaks down, and the “American Dream” gets repossessed.

Working for a Living – Huey Lewis and the News (1982)

From Picture This. It’s bar-band rock but with real teeth: “Workin’ for a livin’, I’m takin’ what they’re givin’.” It’s light compared to Springsteen, but it spoke to the everyday hustle of the ’80s workforce.

Brother, Can You Spare a Dime? – Bing Crosby (1932, revived in the ’60s and ’70s)

Yes, older than 70 years, but it resurfaced during the folk revival and Vietnam protests. Originally a Depression ballad, it reminds us that when systems fail, it’s the working man who ends up on the breadline asking for pennies.

Working on the Chain Gang – Sam Cooke (1960)

A soul classic, released as a single in 1960 and later included on The Wonderful World of Sam Cooke. Inspired by the sight and sound of prisoners on a chain gang, it became both a lament and a rallying cry. Cooke’s smooth delivery carried a sharp edge: forced labor and the weight of systemic exploitation.

Career Opportunities – The Clash (1977)

On their self-titled debut album, The Clash railed against dead-end jobs in Britain: “Career opportunities are the ones that never knock.” Punk at its finest — sarcastic, angry, and perfectly aligned with the frustrations of working youth in the 1970s.

Working Class Man – Jimmy Barnes (1985)

An Australian entry that went international. From the album For the Working Class Man, it became an anthem for factory workers, miners, and tradespeople. Gritty vocals, pounding rhythm, and a straight shot of labor pride.

Why These Songs Matter

You can stack up policy papers and economic statistics all day long, but if you want to know how work feels, you go to the songs. They tell the truth in three minutes flat. Some celebrate the pride of labor, others curse its indignities, but together they form a soundtrack of America at work.

Labor Day isn’t just the unofficial end of summer. It’s the one holiday that grew out of blood, picket lines, and the unshakable belief that ordinary people deserved more than exhaustion and a casket at 55.

So while you’re flipping burgers or waiting in line at the hardware store sale, maybe take a few minutes to cue up these tracks. Let them remind you of what it took to win the weekend in the first place. And maybe imagine a young reporter, in the 1970s, covering longshore pickets by day and going home at night to a house that once belonged to Dave Beck’s son. That’s where I learned the hard lesson: labor isn’t just about work. It’s about who really runs the country, if they ever care to stand up and show it.

It’s always being stolen – Our America – you just have to know where to look and what their moves will be.  Labor knew.

I learned from then.  As We built this City on rock ‘n roll….

Anyone else remember when a workweek was 40-hours?

Write when life gets Unionized,

george@ure.net   (a proud past member IAM local 751, Seattle)

47 thoughts on “Holiday Monday: Sound of Life in the House of Labor”

  2. Shop Talk Sunday

    Those Damn Cats

    “Elaine (so she claims) is dialing back feeding the feral cat population a bit. But one of the projects finished off this week was cat-proofing the roof.”

    Ship the cats to New York City!

    Mayoral hopeful Curtis Sliwa is pitching a plan to solve New York City’s rat problem — unleashing a strike team of feral cats to hunt down the rodents at public parks and other “hot spots.”

    Speaking one day after The Post exposed rat infestation at the Tarr-Coyne Tots Playground on West 67th Street, the Guardian Angels founder and GOP candidate said the feline fix is the obvious answer to the rodent problem plaguing parts of the city.

    https://nypost.com/2025/08/31/us-news/curtis-sliwa-calls-for-feral-cat-colonies-to-claw-back-at-nyc-rat-problem-caped-crusaders-at-night/

  3. eventually brother can you spare a bitcon . massive deflation already here . bonds bonds bonds baby . gimme USD $ . wakey wakey the curtain is gunna get pulled back. its ugly

    • Watermelons are temporarily on sale.

      On the other side of the produce section I see ask on Iceberg head lettuce is now $2.39 ($2.16 @ $WMT but I think their produce is lower quality) and never on sale. Lettuce pickers must have gotten a huge bump. A 1/2 lb bag of croutons is now 5oz. Cheetos are still buy two get two but the base cost per bag is now $5.49 each. Not to mention people are complaining ask on Whopper deals in the Bay area is now over $17.00.

      Generally sales/cheap non-foodie stuff should be ending soon.

      Shoppers met with canceled orders, delays as de minimis exemption ends

      “The change has caused widespread uncertainty over how the levies will be collected. President Donald Trump’s July 30 executive order states that transportation carriers have to collect the tax from merchants before arriving in the U.S. using a third-party service preapproved by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. As of midday Friday, only a dozen service providers had been certified to collect and pay such duties.”

      I wonder how the transportation carrier will know what’s actually inside the package Vs written on the declaration.

      • TV network news had one package consolidator that was a US company but generated tens (hundreds?) of thousands of packages a day out of China who said they weren’t having any problems (China Tariffs went on this past spring so they have been handling the shipping of individual items each needing a specific tariff placed on them for several months now). They also were handling tens of thousands (hundreds?) of packages coming from elsewhere in the Pacific Rim.

        They were already bulk containerizing for ease of shipping from their biggest shippers (air containers, not ship containers) which had full manifest lists for the entire container including each item’s value and just paid the tariffs with one payment for everything in the container – they just tacked onto their invoice to the shipper the new tariff fees.

        For the new requirements for individual mail items which now applies beyond China they were also doing in the tens (hundreds?) of thousands a day so they just switched those over to their containerized system, shippers have to provide the manifest and pay them the tariff fees, and now are just placing everything in air containers, NOT routing them through the post office until they are US shores – which makes the tariffs on the individual packages easy to track and easy to pay.

        I will note TEMU hasn’t seemed to miss a beat with the changes in the tariff rules. They apparently are still sending out tens of thousands of packages a day and the tariffs are being properly paid. (though their prices are now a bit higher, but not by much)

        • Understand, TEMU is a vendor agglomeration site, like Amazon Marketplace. They have thousands of vendors in the U.S. who sell through their site. I just bought a compressor motor and a rack of steel shelving — no tariff. The rack was made in Wisconsin, the motor, a Vevor, came out of a warehouse in Georgia.

          I have gotten notices from vendors in Japan regarding the implementation of tariff collections by FedEx and DHL, but understand, China’s equivalent to our “Priority Mail” is China Post – Registered, which costs 62¢ US for parcels up to 2kg. They can add the tariff in to the post, and we will never notice.

        • Like Ray points out, Americans demand higher prices (inflation).

          “But industry experts said American consumers will ultimately foot the bill, as businesses, as well as independent sellers on platforms like Etsy and eBay, increase prices to make up for the tax. Some buyers might see it as an additional shipping fee at checkout, said Alison Layfield, the vice president of product development for ePost Global, a domestic and international shipping solutions provider.

          “There is definitely going to have to be some type of cost increase – I don’t think the merchants are prepared to just eat that additional cost,” she said.”

          https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/shoppers-met-canceled-orders-delays-204953932.html

          Don’t buy land in Oshkosh Wisconsin, yet land of the shuddered OshKosh B’Gosh children’s clothing factories!

  5. Great list-o-songs George! Others to consider:
    – Takin’ Care of Business, BTO
    – Five-o-Clock World, the Vogues
    – Working on the Highway, Bruce Springsteen
    – Hard Hat and a Hammer, Alan Jackson
    – This (F-n) Job, Drive-by Truckers
    – Worker for the Man, Roy Orbison

    • Beautiful songs – thanks (and thank you for your service – I have always been impressed with AF officers who can ride a nuke around the sky. It’s a promotion, you bet. But with even a small miscalcuation? Whatever the O-level you mstered out at, it’s not enough – so thank you.)

      • No thanks necessary sir. I started out in the late 70s as a liberal mercenary (the pay was good and the economy sucked under Carter) and I ended up 22 years later as a Reagan emancipated patriot.

        I’m not trying to start a love fest, but It’s people like you that make the country great. Were you alive in the mid-1700s (and maybe you were???), I’m sure you’d have been ringing freedom’s bell with the Founders, practicing what we now know as our First Amendment rights while giving the single finger salute to King George.

        It felt so natural to gravitate to Ure site years ago. I’ve learned so much about so many things I don’t know where to begin. Thank YOU!

        Oh, and a mistype on the Orbison song. Should be WORKING for the Man! Apologies for my poor editorial skills.

  6. Work’s good, will be 71 on the 3rd of this month. The wife and I put in a few hours yesterday checking open projects and mowed out our storage facility. Today heading to put the finishing clean touches on a rental to show this week. Tomorrow me and the guys have a few service calls and the 31 rent checks start to come in. We are secure, financially set, we travel, play and work. This Labor Day will be my last because next year I plan to retire.

  7. Geeze George

    Maybe your fans might begin to question your libertarian high horse when we remember the benefits that the socialist reforms the Union movement demanded. What these songs document is the collapse of that effort as your beloved capitalist billionaires wrought as the off shored the jobs and turned the future into one of desparte techno feudalism.
    Though, I guess it is a holiday, so nobody is actually paying attention. Thanks however, for this wonderful journey through the history of labor oriented music in the US.

    • You’re sright to spot it – sharp! I think everyone who has been a labor union worker and a mahogany foxhole dweller ends up with this biphasic personality schism I have. Unions got us the 40 hour week. Being able to raise a whole fmaily with one spouse working not both and many jobs. The flip side? I was in the start-up IP world once upon a and got a (very small) slice of IP buy-out…so it’s a dynamic tension that self-balances over time. Peacefully, one prays.,..

      • “Unions got us the 40 hour week. Being able to raise a whole fmaily with one spouse working not both and many jobs.”

        Not true. Both were gifts from Henry Ford. What the unions did was take Ford’s initiatives and implement them, first throughout the automotive industry, then to the steelworkers and mine workers, then the teamsters and longshoremen. They were often implemented by the barrel of a gun or the meat of a ball bat, and people died.

        I don’t know if the chocolate industry is unionized now, but Milton Hershey kept them at bay for years, by simply seeing what the food unions negotiated, then giving his employees more and better than the UFW rank & file got. His treatment of his employees became the pattern by which all modern factories avoid unionization (and which makes building factories in “open shops” so desirable, for both workers and owners…)

        • Still what Honda does to this day … and Honda takes it one step further. Once on as a Full Time employee (you usually work your first two years as a “Contract” employee) virtually NO LAYOFFS.

          During the Covid slowdown, and in the 2008 – 2010 recession they kept virtuallly all hourly employees employed full time, at one point in time telling the hourly’s to only show up 2 days a week but they still got a full week’s pay, although they may have spent the entire days they were in cleaning the assembly plant top to bottom, or doing new landscaping outside, versus building any cars.

          Obviously the labor force turnover for Honda’s manufacturing plants is virtually nil if you make it past your 2 years of Contract Employee status (they did terminate many (most?) of those contract employees … though after business picked back up many came back)

      • I have always tried to put the puzzle together.. The old man was the president of his local UAW, he was also a demo delegate, fund raising for teddy.

        The strikes, the implementation of health care provided for the worker and his family. The times he was physically attacked.

        Yet the Blue Dog’s took things too far….so did Corp. Here we sit today, our families have become a microcosm of 1984.
        There is no longer a left – right paradigm…it’s all just a steaming pile of dog shit.

    • This is why I hate capitalism.

      “Capitalism” is the selfish bastardization of “free-market economics.” It is a word coined by Karl Marx, to help to define “communism” as the economic component of socialism.

      The free-market laissez faire industrialist crowd of the 1830s to 1920s made a lot of money. They also made a lot of money for the poor, downtrodden lot at the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder, and proved that one could become rich without slaves. Henry Ford is credited with creating the “middle-class,” thus earning him a special place in the hearts of the commies. He inspired Marx to rail against the bourgeoisie (which means “middle class,” not “wealthy”) and his followers to coin the phrase “robber baron” to differentiate people who saw an opportunity and took advantage of it from people who saw the same opportunity and didn’t.

  10. Peace /Piece of Mind, HARD Play, Hard Work = Dragging The Line!

    Beware –
    “My Dog Sam eats purple flowers..Hugging a Tree when you get near it”

    – Dont forget to ask that Tree for its “Codes”, after you introduce self..

    Tommy James & The Shondells “live” -https://youtu.be/f5AX-kv4Q4M?si=to-768KvgaEjIijq

  11. Thanks everybody for the advice on rats. Big bar of rat poison ordered and I have a plan to fill the hole that includes rocks, cement, and a couple of cinder blocks on top.

    I belonged to a union in Pennsylvania. The union lawyer was impressive when a parent tried to sue me when her non verbal student wasn’t “reading” at his previous level. I had figured out that he tracked the eyeballs of whoever was working with him and he answered by choosing the answer the adult looked at. I didn’t look at the correct answer and the kid’s scores tanked. The kid found a way to cheat. The union lawyer saved my job.

    • you should try to avoid using any poison that contains sgars. the sgars work their way up the food chain killing raptors, foxes and coyotes that would normally feed on rodents. people that use sgars are making their rodent problem worse by killing the natural predators of rats. please have a look at ratx, or another brand that uses corn gluten and sodium rather than sgars.

      • Eleanor should seal up all the holes she is aware of before putting out the bait, regardless of type. Rats need relatively large holes compared to mice, but if she has a major infestation next door, they may slip in through burrows. Buttoning up a house with a crawl space is more difficult than a slab on grade. Norway rat infestation is major health issue, and needs to be dealt with quickly and aggressively.

        I regard Norway rats as the most dangerous species I potentially deal with, followed by copperheads. I generally leave the large predators alone. Mice are a common problem indoors during winter here, rats not so much.

        The best vermin control I have had came from brown prairie king snakes. I haven’t seen one in several years, and copperheads had moved back in. This year, I have had roadrunners hunting my fence row, and I haven’t seen a copperhead or a field rat. The last time I saw a Norway rat was 20 years or so ago. Neighboring ranchers keep killing the coyotes, so I have had less help from them than in the past. I do have a bobcat / puma pantera in the hood. Never seen it on my property. It looks like a juvenile mountain lion, with a squared off head. No telling how old it is. Those crosses don’t happen in nature, so it was either released or escaped. It’s been several years since I have seen a full size puma. We do have black wolf packs come down out of OK. Haven’t seen or heard a timber wolf in five years or so either. I suspect lead poisoning over rat poison as the leading cause of the reduction in large predators. Everyone loves road runners.

      • Agreed. To get rats/mice I put rat/mouse traps inside of a live trap then close the doors. Rats/mice go in to meet their doom while chipmunks/squirrels won’t/cannot. But if the area is infested and out of ones sphere of influence, call in an air strike.

        Side note is emaciated yard cats usually won’t fight a rat. By me there’s a small inner city (Hamtramck, MI) that is chock full of cat enthusiasts, and rats.

      • Speaking of the food chain example. Generally if rats/mice have a place to live, they’ll live.

        Four Pests campaign

        “The Four Pests campaign (Chinese: ???; pinyin: Chú Sì Hài) was one of the first campaigns of the Great Leap Forward in Maoist China from 1958 to 1962. Authorities targeted four “pests” for elimination: rats, flies, mosquitoes, and sparrows. ”

        ” Sparrows were replaced with bed bugs, as the extermination of sparrows had upset the ecological balance, which subsequently resulted in surging locust and insect populations that destroyed crops due to a lack of a natural predator.[30][31]

        With no sparrows to eat them, locust populations ballooned, swarming the country and compounding the ecological problems already caused by the Great Leap Forward, including widespread deforestation and misuse of poisons and pesticides”

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Pests_campaign

  12. George
    Everyone has forgotten one ditty I actually DID play on the finall day at a project, on a boom box as I walked to the car:
    Eurythmics
    Annie Lennox
    “Would I Lie to You?”
    MY Friends
    All Know the Score
    I won’t be here
    any more
    I packed my bags
    I swept the floor
    Now watch me walkin’ (walkin’, WALKIN’)
    Walkin’ out the Door!! (or or or or)

  13. Hmmm… True wealth is not measured in coins, contracts, or commodities—it is found in the quiet abundance that sustains life. It is the grain that feeds generations, the water that nourishes both body and spirit, the shelter that holds memory and meaning. Civilizations that chase gold often forget that it cannot be eaten, cannot heal, cannot comfort. The Aztecs understood this: they adorned with gold but revered corn. In a world obsessed with illusion, true wealth remains rooted in what endures—nourishment, care, and the ability to pass on wisdom through acts of restoration. It is not what glitters, but what grows.the deepest truth about wealth, Is Just—not as something hoarded, but something shared do unto others. When that gentleman saw the suffering caused by the absence of clean water, he didn’t reach for coins or contracts—he reached for compassion. His response wasn’t transactional.. it was transformational. By using his skills to bring clean water to communities in need at his own expense using his skills and knowledge, he offered a gift more precious than gold, more enduring than currency..life itself. In doing so, he reminded the world that true wealth is not measured in glittering metals or printed paper, but in the quiet dignity of a child who no longer drinks from a contaminated stream. His act was a sermon without words—a legacy of care that ripples outward, far beyond the reach of markets. That is the kind of wealth that builds civilizations, not empires.
    his book is a great journey.. one of faith and humanity..
    https://www.waterschool.com/history
    one of my heros…..
    https://biblehub.com/matthew/25-40.htm
    The old story or modern parable..
    “Dear Ruth, I’m going to be in your neighborhood Saturday afternoon and I’d like to stop by for a visit. Love Always, Jesus.”
    Overwhelmed and anxious, Ruth rushes out with her last few dollars to buy food for the Lord’s visit—bread, cold cuts, and milk. On her way home, she encounters a homeless couple in an alley, cold and hungry. Initially hesitant, she decides to give them her groceries and even offers her coat to the shivering woman. She returns home with nothing to serve her divine guest.
    Later, she finds another envelope in her mailbox. It reads:
    “Thank you for the meal. And thank you for the coat. It was me you helped. Love Always, Jesus.”
    True worth is never defined by what we possess, but by how we choose to use it. A mansion without compassion is just a shell, while a modest home that opens its doors to others becomes a sanctuary. Wealth, tools, knowledge—none of these carry meaning unless they are put into service of something greater than self shared and taught. Even the smallest act, when done with intention and care, can ripple outward and change lives. It’s not the size of the gift, but the spirit behind it that reveals someones character this man that saved millions showed his true wealth to mankind that radiates across African nations. In the end, legacy is not built from abundance—it’s built from generosity.
    this video reminds me of the homeless veteran that live in a dumpster… we brought him into our home..he was probably one of the most giving and caring people I had ever met.. with nothing.. another one had cancer and was turned away..his tears as he cried in the van..because he didn’t have the huge deposit for his medical.. a young lady now that I had met..struggling loss of income forced to do a dance with the devil in collections at the hospital collections.. all I can do is give her some food a camera system and GPS tracker that I have..Stu’s huge decisions for her are coming.. her journey that she’s just now starting to see is she’s jumping out of an airplane without a parachute.. been there done that the events she’s facing is devistation..
    oh well it is the business model..
    https://youtu.be/AUBTAdI7zuY?si=_Mq6RD3d0zgBxiJJ

    • best comment i read here in a while.
      thank you!

      lines up nicely with true story another regular shared with me in private and confidence about a very recent

      although i do applaude the study of others whose skills stand the test of time.

      i am more interested in developing my own. they lead by example. id be more interested in Mr Stewarts work if He was spitting out his own Quatrains. and to a degree he already is.

      mindful of what the Greatest That ever lived said,

      ” “Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father”

      ok, cool, Thanks, be a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.

      recently i was driving down the road at 330am on my way to a side huslte to get some Money. im just driving along, not car in the road. nobody in sight. im just chugging coffee, smoking a smoke, rocking out and thanking God for another day of life. all the sudden almost apearing out of thin air, i see something in the middle of the road. A Dragon. a Stuffed Animal. so, i stopped and picked it up. on its ear tag read ~ On Mystical Wings comes Magical Things.~ i said cool. thanks! put it in the passenger seat and went about my day.

      i havent been down that road since that day. not intentionally. i just have had no reason to go that way again.

      my last trip down that road i picked up a Dragon as a hitch hiker.

      Dagons always mean Gold to me. because they sleep on a bed of Gold.

      All the money in the world cant buy a single experiance like that. sure, alll the money in the world can buy a million stuffed animals but not a single one of them will give you that same experiance that i had.

      you can talk about stuffed animal drgaons and re-arrange the words around it as a topic a thousand different ways but you will never have the same exact dragon i found nor the experiance i had finding it. you can build an entire video game and place it in there as a trophy to find in a quest. but you will never experiance what it symbolizes in my personal future.

      and all the money in the world will never produce that same experiance and feeling i had when i found it.

      Today, i return to my personal studies and trajectory. i have had a thoughly good time on Urban visiting with Y’all.

      * marked safe from the Galactic Viginia Doom on labor day.

      I still have my Blue Nose and Shellback certifcations.

      ~ for what Heaven Brought you and me can not be forgotten. ~

      until we meet again,

      I Win with God within.

  14. “Coal Tattoo” Billy Edd Wheeler Nineteen sixty something. sang it once with him and Susan Knox in a Lexington, KY coffee house called “The Ninth Life.”
    Long ‘goes-with’ story I’ll spare you.

    Susie & me cudda been contenders. She had a powerful contralto voice — shook dust off the tinwork ceiling panels.

    Glory.

  16. History channel … the boss,and I are watching the story of Jessie James…
    the criminal … years ago the boss and I took care of someone that was a little girl..Jessie and frank James and their gang stopped by their farm..they asked if they could sleep in their barn..the farmers wife said yes and then offered them supper at their table..the dad was really sick and unable to do the chores and fence mending etc. Jessie,Frank and the gang stayed there took care of the chores that the father wasn’t able to do.. for a couple weeks while he was to sick to work..
    we see television shows like that that tell of the evil they did but rarely ever get hear the things they did that was good. which like my berry basket that was made by william Clark of the Lewis and Clark expedition you won’t ever read that story if it wouldn’t have been for a very small boy that noticed no one on the porch wanted to talk about the adventures when’s young boy asked.. asking his great great uncle why they acted that way.. no one would know it.. that’s what I liked about taking care of people in healthcare settings..

  17. Labor Day …. from my youth it marked the end of summer since school would start on the Wed or Thur after, but also the day that the local unions for the various factories, and some companies without unions, would have large cookouts with games etc. for the families and kids.

    No parade. No speeches. No fireworks (except at the couple of big Amusement Parks in the state). Just a time for all ages in a family to get together to celebrate the final end of one year and the beginning of another. (for most much more of a real marker of the end of one year and the beginning of a new one than New Years was)

    Happy Labor Day everyone.
    (and great song list George!!)

    • Great playlist, G!! Or did AI do all your homework ??

      ‘Money for Nothng’, Dire Straits:
      ‘Huh, now look at them yo-yos, that’s the way you do it
      You play that guitar on the MTV
      That ain’t workin’, that’s the way you do it
      Money for nothin’ and your chicks for free
      Now that ain’t workin’, that’s the way you do it’

      Disco 80’s, She Works Hard for the Money, Donna Summers
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmiKUD_ruYg&list=RDXmiKUD_ruYg&start_radio=1

      Another ‘Ledbetter’,
      https://www.npr.org/2024/10/14/nx-s1-5152538/lilly-ledbetter-pay-equity-obituary
      Less than two years later, Congress passed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009, which amended the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and allows workers to “obtain relief, including recovery of back pay, for up to two years preceding the filing of the charge.” Then-President Barack Obama signed the measure into law on Jan. 29, 2009, the first bill he signed as president.

      Ooops! Far right echo chamber can not allow any positive comments about Obama, G, you’ll probably ban me!

  19. George, what is happening with the ads? This supposed ad has a woman on a couch with a big dog on top of her. Day after day it’s here, same ad.

    La moglie si rifiuta di lasciare andare il cane, il marito chiama la polizia.
    Wife refuses to let go of dog, husband calls police.

    Is this spam? If I copy the link, I get this mess.

    https://tracenep-eu.admaster.cc/ju/ic?tn=2ce2e6e33746b4224011d22068a89c02&trackingid=6b49f626c541acb9d381d577b120b97d&acid=31290&data=YJEpC9ecIlRmFqghDvBPQodh68nj1ZTbVr9sEWhB_hfcT2WHa8viKKtRbKE9ltYVNTIkWvTKyG2XAbECf3bnIBwdac-sPsDbwWww7gyvLHPdVI_csyLsI2y7GRmwT8CIEdnfehiI7t9fWOI_mVgrrjpGtGuj2OK30v2m5ASiO_wxkEyWh-cZ00IAuha_RzuSPsnhLrqxO3xZIWqIyrOZ4N18DmRxy2V–xEZqYvWE5UqHfH77e3yZL_1ycPU5YE1ow2evsLHlZ5WBI0OoGADUQr-Y9c9QxlCDZXHDzHJat86K-2O0OcH6yoZvMh1wjGynTCtY2JBgIVktsdyL07Ho0jZJQo1-4M7eXDA5r3D_Qxmvnfe1yo0WlnZEkX1smy0zFcGfdqMsmowAIfW9j20pU1z0TZ32Ggg9C4qOqVa-zduGfsqVfxNGYsjknPvxDW2YoFAZCRshQ_llqzNF2S40rojr18212vUhWAZ2u_lCbsQPvT4EyFztd6HYkxRa5cwKKPD6VS64rz9aAFnho0XFg_y5miEm-dmdYmUz8pju5vxC2_quFa4XHBgF8Xe_PvQEoKaYufLN03atE-Aabww0Rt5pG0yVuegGNpCNCj6ZL4K6kxsAPZjGEBcbz8DriTrTvvN4_VhcFrezTGe5hbc-cDO8kd2zq4ayhROQTakunLBROQCcx7QanwIkGdeRp2tdNwv2W-Xzc00jPc1CLI3wU8e8qHEK84-hEjglfolhATjHDoJQNeyXDEtlwWWKf852hWzRVT6Jb13h-J3o5FERuxUkykeA3vsFmN7ndwBQNkEi5ClDLbEQN14f4ROjgDyeUVE_PulkEYeejmt8fxf3fhiMRJRiKP3IueqZXu7PSkCFGNhpYzddiFDbIK5U7zE07t3qPBlnJmNDBfZIS8YOQtK55yIBG-YHTjyDQoyjmmFTtP_srg-igcwAIWJRImzxh6-BwGyG6FCr1Y55VzVvL5L_d_qwq2bYYz0W0WnB0JMRybbfUbqk0th1TxgCD8wIO_KEMX4y64I2XskOkS1RgSu1AItgYJ_GcDcUGWWSLOT3u_g4xr3lrD6CcwymBph-EnMqZ80bCUc6xPjsgMREMAW2BTYKhzTIvF9-idjKabuNYoZWgifpitQoKYzhwPHi3ycmurnI0hD83kHEfNKAuFpzo3e8mdaVshc2OkOQnkRaSqn1hGn1K2AhXNwGwvTn09M4CpHURVo_TSaWw-kfdb1a8-k1e-n_6Wn-y4TMIbjt6xTkQMxbDjhjXoeZ6uFYPQTerpYWyIYVmT4gTfKlrZPr2DiQh7riyjausci4Qbip16L6jmcoI3ui9z35SIzJgi8i5RI3OxjuZ7qcBdsf83rfLc2NBrYQneJpKZmZ6CdV3Tuzr2gH0cX241mpstnoLW-x1Vaomk3mxuy27a5sSGRfxTLfzil_N39aZ00irRsfZGs0Z1aNvkZAF6pvvv4NPpj1zvnGtxw9WdqDenIYUXqaMG3dZtbAcHbc7iExIN0C6A4T1Labbg2X0j4bECrvDg88j4kx8LPWZXS0WnkL2q4smusuSXosbDB0TgRPP6yQSxedGYhjxdTwxqgDGUF37yN5MFzvHzOa_XNUuu8Zlc5694yi1loEWKj6Txs7RTzuTwu9HbpZmkiBgLGUCjeASrYBYjdt0_1X9sjnyz36_E4fQ9WDL3GWF7ZLVIZqY3cuWV3PIimHWqks6BK_FMU7fKzqAceT1tSJxfqY9__JA&uid=mid_no_ip_41939bb3b2ae6a5dd3ca4cf24588c663&mguid=&ap=0.056917&tid=82&gprice=F_-YvCiZiLhbDWcfAFZfBHxZXoUXUC1mM3iVdJxdZwM&campaignid=3639176&c_sync=0&google_click_url=https://adclick.g.doubleclick.net/aclk%3Fsa%3DL%26ai%3DCNnj8lvG1aLzKJILl78EPovXZsA3R6vbye_nLk9bQE8CNtwEQASD48IAhYP2CgICwE8gBCagDAcgDAqoEsQJP0FNsoAvjZDugg0bPYP7Qp_NOccPvD69AFOgGMdA2EY3j2J3qn-N_0P1mIv9OSlnoEmPJX8ZO4vxef7wQcufxXtdwDY7HhDuRf4umea_MmBGbotwQOtETlnd-ZSgtPxRAJ5y4YlJDup6zOrnfuPQiD4k66iQuDHrDoBZNFNlMIVNrV2nhJd7-zxHPj6eq2GHxjZlo0U3qnt4A0L8UgvXK7HwssYGrLRnYQE-hlOudTQYZ5idM460OBTJnxM5NYb88qnKXRHK4cP8VMNPeBTpZYLNfBjxIVmZ-5_2ni5U2FigN3v3vdBwngcIiMBH80CRNfmu7IFd-vaM04nmLgnfp2nVNxFDde-MRNA9deuDWi_PDhnpJCsWx5s4GDOm_Uzzk7QQiQPKcA2BHSsS9AEJWyIAG_NGV95_H3Mn6AaAGIagHpr4bqAeW2BuoB6qbsQKoB_-esQKoB9-fsQKoB62-sQKoB7_TsQLYBwDSCCoIkeGAcBABMgXri4CAIDoMAICAgICAlK7gA6gDSL39wTpYtMff7KO4jwP6CwIIAYAMAaoNAklU6g0TCLGD6eyjuI8DFYLyOwIdonoW1ogOCdAVAYAXAbIXBBgMUAE%26num%3D1%26sig%3DAOD64_2S-tpuIqKe1CScx6VlPnb2eb8KHw%26client%3Dca-pub-4719818764112443%26adurl%3D

  20. I have been on both sides… union/supervisor… at the TV stations I worked at. I have always considered myself a ‘union of one’ for myself. If I didn’t like the deal the union… or management… gave me personally, I looked for employment elsewhere and frequently ‘walked’. I was smart and talented enough to find work elsewhere. I’ve seen it all. Scumbag management, and worthless, feckless unions. I took care of me, first.

  21. George,I was on here in Mar.2019 telling people to buy gold now at around $1300 as the Phillies had just signed Bryce Harper.Sure enough,as it’s getting close to three times that level.
    As gold goes,so goes the Phillies.
    And vice versa.

  22. ha ha. Todays Urban read is much like these lyrics,

     my love is an anchor tied to you, tied with a silver chain.
    I have my ship, and all her flags are a-flying.
    She is all that I have left, and music is her name………

    i litterally started singing the next lyrics of the song after reading what you wrote George,

    Think about how many times I have fallen.
    Spirits are using me; larger voices callin’.
    What heaven brought you and me cannot be forgotten.
    I have been around the world, lookin’ for that woman-girl
    Who knows love can endure.
    And you know it will.
    And you know it will.

    and you know, it will.

    :)

    i heard a story on sunday from a lady from Illinoise.

    she was talking about when she was a really young little girl. she said i was around 5 years old and at my grand parents house. their barn was the biggest building for miles and miles. she was standing on a porch watching this storm that blackened out the sky move accross the land toward them. lightning was flashing like she had never seen. they just finished bringing in the harvest and it filled the entire barn.

    her Grand mother stood on the porch with her started praying Lord Jesus dont let that lightning strike the barn. she just kept saying it over and over.

    the storm got to the farm and lighting struck the barn and lit it on fire. her grand mother fell to her knees and started crying. their entire harvest was in that barn. all they had to live on for a year.

    she said she ran and got her grandfather up who was sleeping in bed. she ran in the bed room and screamed The Barn is on fire! The Barn is on Fire. she said her grand father woke up, put his bib overalls on saying first this leg. then this leg. then the straps all out loud really slow like. then he put his boots on slowly saying first this boot. then this boot. she said looking back my grand father was so chill. no sense of urgency. he remained calm.

    he came out on the porch, looked and said yep. you are right. the barn is on fire. she said she ran got some buckets. when she got back she saw her grandfather standing there watching it burn. then he looked over at her grandmother and said. why are you crying. our provision isnt in that barn. she dropped the buckets in awe. he wasnt worried or concerned at all about the barn on fire. he bent down and hugged his wife and kept saying easy, im right here. our provision isnt in that barn.

    the rain eventually put the barn out. all that remained in it was just enough to take care of them for the rest of the year.

    the next year they had the biggest bumpercrop they ever had in their lives. so much they had more than 10 barns full. so her grand mother started food bank for those who didnt have enough. a nurse was visiting and started a little clinic in in the food bank. 15 years later that clinic and food bank became a hospital. 20 years later that hospital became the biggest hospital in 500 mile radius.

    right before her grand father died she talked to him about that day. with tears in her eyes she said how did you know that the the barn caught fire that one day there would be a hospital that provides for us? she said you said our provision isnt in that barn. you were right.

    she said he smiled and said why are you crying child our provision isnt in that hospital then he breathed his last breath.

    Good times and Good tunes.

    until we meet again,

    I Win with God within.

  23. I love your Labor Day articles! It’s good to remind people that, as bad as they think their present jobs are, they were worse before unions “civilized” employers. As the daughter of one of the original union organizers in Minneapolis, who afterward became a Teamster boss, I want to whack people over the head who bad-mouth unions and gripe about union dues. They have no idea of the union battles it took for them to enjoy the fruits of those battles, the many benefits that they now take for granted.

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