Labor Day Dolls

Happy Labor Day! Unlike last year, I spent my holiday quietly, mostly at home or work. Started out the morning with an essay on Samuel Gumpers, spearhead of the US labor movement, and a few poems on workers (including I Heard America Singing by Walt Whitman) from the Colliers Book of Holidays.

Also did two segments from American Girl books, both set in the first two decades of the 20th Century. Samantha Parkington's best friend Nellie teaches her friend about child labor, and that "progress" frequently isn't painless for the people doing the work, in Samantha Learns a Lesson. Rebecca Rubin learns a lesson of her own when she speaks out for the rights of workers at a Labor Day picnic in Battery Park during the last chapter of Changes For Rebecca.

Switched to breakfast (including some of that sweet little green watermelon) and a pair of Three Stooges shorts that revolve around working after finishing Rebecca. They're carpenters who accidentally cut a priceless Chinese box in half in "Slippery Silks." A dress shop they just inherited turns out to be the perfect place to hide out...until their clientele gets a load of their idea of fashion. "Violent Is the Word for Curly" when a trio of gas station workers accidentally knock out three professors and take their place. They end up teaching the students of a prestigious girls' school about the importance of "Swinging the Alphabet."

Spent the rest of the morning changing my American Girl dolls into outfits more appropriate for school and early fall. My Samantha wears her blue and white checked Play Dress and white ruffled Pinafore with Springfield Collection socks and the black Mary Janes from her current "meet" outfit. Molly's in Kit's blue floral School Outfit and brown oxfords. Jessa pairs a Springfield Collection pink, white, and black sailor-style top with the gray and pink skirt from Whitney's "meet" outfit and black flats swiped from Josefina. Put Whitney in a yellow floral Queen's Treasures outfit with white socks and the yellow t-strap shoes from Kit's Scooter Outfit. She has her white lace-trimmed crinoline from her eBay poodle skirt outfit under it for more 50's flair. Josefina's in her orange and yellow-print Empire-waisted Summer Dress with the ruffled skirt, fake leather vest, and riding boots. I left Felicity in her Traveling Gown. I really don't have much to change her into.

I was running out of time, anyway. I just barely made it to work. Not surprisingly on a holiday that takes place in the beginning of the month, work was a madhouse all afternoon. I'd return a whole line of carts...then, ten minutes later, they would be empty again. I suspect that a lot of people who would normally have run off to the Shore for the holiday weekend stayed home because of the weather reports...then got stuck amusing their children and families when the worst weather we got all weekend was wind and clouds.

(It didn't rain today, either. At the worst, it was cloudy and a little humid. Mostly, it was sunny and much warmer than it has been.)

Went straight home after I finally got out. Did writing for a few hours. A few weeks have passed. When Leia isn't helping Ben with the cottages, she's in the library or in town, trying to find out more about Empire Industries. Luke's disappointed, but he is happy to be learning more about surfing from Ben. Ben even gives him his late brother Adam's beloved, custom-made blue surfboard.

Luke wants to know what happened to Adam. He and Leia were told that their brother died after returning from Vietnam. Ben says Vader, who had once been a surfing protege of his, killed him when they tried taking over the Jedi Knights, the local surfing gods.

Finished the night with the last of the leftover pork and beans, sliced tomato and white cucumber, and more work-themed Stooges. "Tassels In the Air" has painter Moe mistaken for classy interior decorator named Omay. The boys' ideas of interior decoration are even more outlandish (and destructive) than their fashion sense. Shemp joins them for "Sing a Song of Six Pants." The Stooges are tailors who may lose their shop if they can't make some quick money. A bank robber who uses their store to hide his money may provide the perfect opportunity to earn a big reward...if they can get past his men and his girlfriend first.