Happy Labour Day! I hope you had a good one.
Yeah, I had no idea what it was, either. My first Canadian Labour Day and you have better include a ‘u’ when you spell it or people will be offended has been a singular experience.
The quick guide to the Labour Day weekend is that it’s the important bridge from summer to the death of the year and it happens on the first weekend in September. It began as a way of celebrating the achievements of workers, according to its Wikipedia page. Please don’t judge me. It’s the holiday weekend.
But Labour Day has grown into an important milestone here, where the seasons tend to lag a little behind the UK. The was still snow in late March, summer officially starts in late May and it was 25 degrees here on August 31. Early September is the point at which people start to think of the winter.
The schools start again this week, so the stores are all full of backpacks and coloured pencils. The students are returning so you’ll get a great deal on a cheap desk or waste paper basket.
We just moved into a new home near a university and, as we shifted our own boxes on Saturday, I counted 13 other minivans or movers’ trucks helping the intelligentsia get set up in their own homes.
Meanwhile, most people have had their summer holidays and are thinking ahead to fall (yes, I said fall; who wants to fight me?) and beyond. There are Halloween decorations on sale already.
Labour Day is the time we start to get cosy for the winter. First, there’s one last hurrah with three days off. As I said in a previous post, everybody tries to take part in the holiday weekend. The streets are deserted and nearly everything is closed. It’s like Scotland on the first day of the year. Yes, with plenty of beer.
So here comes the winter. Stock up on the preserves, Betsy. There’s a storm coming.
I’ve endured a few smiles and smirks as people tell me to get ready for my first Canadian winter and, boy, am I worried.
Here in southwestern Ontario we sit between two of the Great Lakes so apparently that does something to the local climate and the snow gets pretty bad. Everybody’s got a story about getting stranded.
Expect an update, if I can keep one typing finger unfrozen.
Wish me luck.