Attribution: Roadside Wildflowers, Droveway Lane by Des Blenkinsopp, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
By Bill Stokes
Kickass, the doorstop dog, aware that the keeper and Phyllis descend from the laboring class, will honor them today with extra napping on this Labor Day Monday. He suggests the same for everyone.
Since 1894, Labor Day has marked a pause to recognize those who build our cultural maze and keep it functioning. The day has also become the unofficial national acknowledgement that summer has ended. To check that out, the keeper and Phyllis did a windshield survey of rural roads in the Driftless hills to find that summer may not have actually ended but has instead slipped down into roadside ditches in magnificent, endless displays of summer’s colorful accomplishments.
In meandering the winding, hilly roads away from the racetrack traffic, taking in the sweep of deep green woods and fields showing colorful hints of significant changes to come, the sensation of time’s inevitable power over all things gets personal: it is a dichotomous thing, both ominous and thrilling. Take a drive in the hills to feel it!
Happy Labor Day from down in the magnificent ditches of summer!
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