Camp Sherman will celebrate last hurrah of summer

Labor Day in Camp Sherman will be another family event. The kids will all be going back to school the following week and many adults will have a day away from their labors to enjoy a long weekend.

The Camp Sherman store will hold its Labor Day barbecue starting at 5 p.m. Saturday and The Anvil Blasters will be on stage from 6 to 9 p.m.

Everyone will be able to follow a great evening of dinner and entertainment with a hearty breakfast on Sunday. The traditional pancake breakfast will be held at the Community Hall from 8 to 11:30 a.m., sponsored by the Camp Sherman Historical Society.

Proud father Roger White, owner of the Camp Sherman store, has added a new item to his merchandise: a cutting board with a picture painted by his daughter Kelsey.

"Her mom Kathy commissioned the painting," said White with a smile.

Prints of Kelsey's work can also be purchased at the store along with the other commissioned works of local scenes including the Metolius River and various local artists' renditions of the store itself.

White will be serving the usual brats, burgers, chicken and beans along with other great barbecue fixin's. Oregon Dan will be on site with samples of his special barbecue sauce, newly available in the store's grocery section.

Jill and Allen Methvin of Methvin Vineyards near McMinnville will be returning for a second year with sample wine tasting.

Labor Day actually started in Canada in the 1870s as a result of labor disputes. It began in America on September 5, 1882, after labor leader Peter J. McGuire visited Toronto Canada and saw a festival. Since then, Labor Day has been observed on the first Monday in September.

Congress made Labor Day a national holiday in 1894, also as a result of a labor dispute.

Workers battled for higher wages during the Pullman Strike of 1894 in Pullman, Illinois. Cleveland ordered in the U.S. military and U.S. Marshals to squelch the strike, ostensibly because the train strike interfered with mail delivery. Violence broke out. Strikers were killed and wounded. Property damage was severe, about $6.8 million by today's standards.

Congress disputed whether Cleveland had the authority to call in the military and made Labor Day a national holiday within days after the end of the strike.

Camp Sherman resident Katherine Livingston wrote her college thesis in 1936 on the West Coast Longshoreman Strike of 1934.

"It marked the beginning of the AFL, started by Samuel Gompers, merging with the CIO, the Congress of Industrial Organizations," she said.

Livingston also spoke about the Haymarket Square riots in Chicago in 1886 which began as a rally for striking workers.

"The important thing to remember about Labor Day is honoring all those people who fought and bled and died for the eight-hour work day, the right to have a union, and good wages," Livingston said.

When Labor Day was first founded, it was a day of parades and speeches, especially during election years.

"I remember Labor Day parades," Livingston reminisced, "but I've just seen it collapse."