A Good Labor Day
Val and I had a very nice Labor Day today; we did a ton of cleaning around the house, took Walker Evans to the Lasalle Park dog park again, did lots of computer stuff and just got back from going to Anderson's on Delaware Avenue for dinner and ice cream.
Labor Day is a day that means a lot to me; my grandfather, the late William Hosey, was a union member for about 45-50 years, working at what became Niagara Frontier Transit before it became the NFTA, among other places. He retired as a longtime union steward, and he and my grandmother/his wife, Ina, used to tell us about the sitdown and rooftop strikes he and his coworkers underwent to gain their now taken for granted rights. When Grandpa Hosey died, the only special request he had was that he receive a union honor guard/burial detail. When we called his union to ask for this, they were overjoyed at the opportunity and six members showed up to do the honors, and we had a wonderful time talking to them at the post-funeral brunch, where they expressed their gratitude to the old guard for doing what they did to gain them their rights.
Also, labor wise, Ina Hosey worked as a foreman at the Curtiss-Wright aircraft factory, making P-40 Warhawk fighter planes, during World War II, and my other grandpa, James Connelly, a Royal Navy veteran of World War I, was a coal miner for years.
UPDATE: As my sister Heather points out in the comments, our maternal grandmother, Hilda Connelly, as well as kept a home and raised our mother, Sheila (as a widow when Grandpa Connelly died in 1949), cleaned houses for several families on Delaware Avenue when it was still Mansion Row, and other places. This included the Klopps family, which were married into the Knox family, among others, and we ended up getting lots of blankets, towels, china, etc., when the family moved from its mansion here.
Labor Day is a day that means a lot to me; my grandfather, the late William Hosey, was a union member for about 45-50 years, working at what became Niagara Frontier Transit before it became the NFTA, among other places. He retired as a longtime union steward, and he and my grandmother/his wife, Ina, used to tell us about the sitdown and rooftop strikes he and his coworkers underwent to gain their now taken for granted rights. When Grandpa Hosey died, the only special request he had was that he receive a union honor guard/burial detail. When we called his union to ask for this, they were overjoyed at the opportunity and six members showed up to do the honors, and we had a wonderful time talking to them at the post-funeral brunch, where they expressed their gratitude to the old guard for doing what they did to gain them their rights.
Also, labor wise, Ina Hosey worked as a foreman at the Curtiss-Wright aircraft factory, making P-40 Warhawk fighter planes, during World War II, and my other grandpa, James Connelly, a Royal Navy veteran of World War I, was a coal miner for years.
UPDATE: As my sister Heather points out in the comments, our maternal grandmother, Hilda Connelly, as well as kept a home and raised our mother, Sheila (as a widow when Grandpa Connelly died in 1949), cleaned houses for several families on Delaware Avenue when it was still Mansion Row, and other places. This included the Klopps family, which were married into the Knox family, among others, and we ended up getting lots of blankets, towels, china, etc., when the family moved from its mansion here.
posted by Kevin J. Hosey at 7:23 PM
3 Comments:
And don't forget Grandma Connelly, who cleaned wealthy homes in Buffalo.
And it wasn't fair that they all had monogrammed "K"'s on them!
Ouch, that's right. I couldn't wear women's sweaters and you had no reason to wear sweaters with the "K" on them, despite Mom's best attempts.
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