For some, Labor Day is just a chance to drink beer at the lake with family. For others, it is an historic day with a uniquely American backstory. A lot of people may not really know the origins of Labor Day; until now. This is the first of many H2W@L History Specials: Labor Day Edition.
The origins of L.D. can traced back to a man named Anthony Bronson, a Tax Accountant from South Carolina. Anthony (“Ant”, as he was known by his friends), was a simple guy by all accounts. He lived a normal childhood in a small S.C. town before moving off to Knoxville, TN to start college at the University of Tennessee. He had received a generous scholarship, which lessened the burden of the increased out-of-state tuition. He also despised his family, so moving away for college seemed ideal. Ant majored in Accounting at Tennessee while minoring in French for some reason, and graduated with a modest 3.4 GPA. Ant had a bustling social life in college, where many anonymous sources claimed he “definitely peaked.”
*probably not Anthony Bronson
After graduation, Ant moved to Nashville, TN to achieve his lifelong goal of working for a small accounting firm. Only a few months into the job and Ant realized that this job was not as exciting as he had hoped. He decided he wanted to man up, and leave his job for greener pastures. Unfortunately for Ant, he never did man up, and he stayed at that firm for decades longer. Everyday after work, he would sip a Budweiser and dream about his time in college, a sign that he did indeed peak in college.
In September 2002, Ant and some of his old college friends decided to get together to watch the first Tennessee football game of the year. Now 4 years out of college, they all needed this. They remembered some of the legendary tailgates they had in college, and wanted to replicate that. And replicate that they did. Ant and 6 of his closest college buddies drank beer and whiskey all day, reminiscing about old times while watching their beloved Vols beat the stew out of Wyoming.
The next morning, however, was a different story. Ant soon realized that he wasn’t the same person he was back in college, and that he could no longer drink all day without feeling the consequences the next morning. He spent the entire day laboring on the couch, trying not to vomit. He SMS messaged his friends, and they too were suffering all the same. He decided to sleep on the couch that night and began to turn his attention to the beginning of the week.
Monday morning rolled around, and Ant still, for lack of a better term, “felt like shit”. He needed to get up and go to work, but somehow, he couldn’t. He was in the middle of the infamous “2-day hangover” which signifies the beginning of true adulthood. He was still laboring on the couch when he finally said “f*ck it, I’m not working today.” He called it his “Laboring Day”, and he encouraged his friends to also take the day off. They did, and the rest is history.
18 years later, the name has changed a little, but the spirit of Labor Day is still going strong.