With so many people losing jobs today, and the sweeping upheaval in society, made me think of my Uncle Ed.
Most of my writing, as you know, has been a running history of our family, in hopes it both informs my children, or at least entertains them about who they are and perhaps why!
Uncle Ed was Mom’s brother, and when Granddaddy Marshall died, each of the children inherited some substantial money. Uncle Ed took his money and moved to Chicago, where he went into business and had heavy stock investments. With the Great Crash of 1929 and the resulting Great Depression that followed, he lost all of it.
Moving to California, leaving family and defeat behind, the only job he could find was a janitorial position in the types of businesses he once owned. But here is the story I want to remember. Every day he put on a full business suit, white shirt, ascot tie, shiny shoes, complete with walking stick and went to work. At work he put his clothes in a locker and put on coveralls and work shoes, and worked all day, changing into his street clothes and walked home.
I won’t begin to explain this, but I think it just might be what we need to do right now with the climate we wake up to, we need to put on our best attire, our best mind set, our best attitude and go to work, then putting on whatever it takes to clean up the dirt and rubble wherever we find it.
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