By Virginie Boone

The first Monday of September has been a legal federal holiday we call Labor Day since 1894. It is meant to recognize the role of American workers in our country’s strength, prosperity and well-being.

New York was the first state to introduce a bill for a Labor Day holiday, but Oregon passed a law for it first, in 1887. By the time Congress passed an act for it, and President Grover Cleveland signed it into law, 29 states had already adopted the holiday.

The first Labor Day parade ever held was in New York City on September 5, 1882.

According to historical accounts, the parade had men on horseback and a band, with some 10,000 to 20,000 tradespeople, many of them spectators, eventually joining the fun. An abundance of cigars and lager beer kegs were also said to be on hand, the kegs “mounted in every conceivable place.”

It’s always been a good day for a party. A 1984 column in the Petaluma Argus-Courier recalled the sound of Big Bands playing at the Russian River resorts on Labor Day.

“The Big Bands were something I came to know when I became a teenager,” wrote columnist Bill Soberanes. “How many people out there in readerland remember when Tommy Dorsey played at Mirabel Park or when Harry James was the rage of the Russian River crowd?”

Dorsey used to play in Rio Nido, sponsored by the Bohemian Club.

For several decades, the long Labor Day weekend was also when the Sonoma Harvest Wine Auction would occur.

The event was typically marked by a zany spirit of dress-up, skits and revelry, like the time in 2003 when Ravenswood winemaker Joel Peterson and a handful of his winery workers starred as the Lady Marmalades, with Peterson donning a huge, feathered mask and Speedo swimsuit on stage. In 2009, he and some of the other guests wore togas.

The “Bad, Bad Benziger Boys” were also often a featured highlight of the day, shackled together in prison stripes one year, in white robes and halos the next. During the halo year, oldest brother Mike Benziger led the procession dressed as a priest, splashing “holy water” that turned out to be tequila. For years, these skits helped raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for local charities.

The weekend used to also include a concert. In 2004, Carlo Ponti Jr. conducted the Russian National Orchestra at Chalk Hill Estate Vineyards and Winery, another benefit for local charities.

Of course, here in Sonoma County, the switch from summer to fall has always been symbolic of one very important thing: the wine grape harvest. Depending on the year, it’s often the kickoff to the season, the beginning of picking white and red grapes, soon after the picking of grapes for sparkling wine.

This year, Labor Day looks reasonable in temperature, a nice departure from some of our recent heat waves during this three-day weekend, allowing the growers more time to get the fruit off the vines. Slow and steady is always preferable to hurried and panicked, so this Labor Day, let’s hope our most important labor gets a day, or at least a couple of hours, of rest.

Image by The Sonoma Index Tribune