Thank You For Your Time

     In 1985, the Country Music group Alabama, released a song titled, “40 hour week”, in which they pay tribute to the unsung workers of our nation. The song mentions truckers, policemen, steelworkers, farmers, and others, who work to keep our nation going. The workers mentioned are not white collar workers earning six-figure salaries. They are the workers who depend on an hourly wage to pay the bills and keep a family fed, safe, and secure.

     As I have researched my family tree and helped others with their genealogy, I have ran across job titles that make me do some extra research just to find out what kind of job the ancestor had.

     Of course I found a lot of farmers, laborers, and other jobs that have not changed a lot over the years, but what was a “Cooper”? Well, it turns out that a Cooper makes or repairs wooden barrels. That is a job that was replaced by automation.

     Some of the occupations came over from the old countries and were passed down from generation to generation until they too faded into memory, replaced by a machine. Some occupations had their names changed even though the basic work stayed the same.

     Does a Barker still work with animal hides? Is a metal worker still called a Brightsmith, or will the union allow that?

    There was a time when a Drummer was a traveling salesman and not a wild-man who pounds away on a percussion instrument with a pair of sticks. Or a Duffer was a door to door salesman and not a poor golfer.

    Kedgers sold fish, Chandlers sold candles, Cinder Winches sold gas work cinders, a Packman sold goods out of his pack, and a Pever sold pepper.

     Boilermakers worked with metal in industrial settings and Clod Hoppers worked with plows, while a Collier worked in the coal mines.

    A Charwoman would clean your house and if you needed your shoes fixed you would seek out a Cobbler. You would buy new pots from a Crocker and to replace the broken garden hoe, you would visit the local Hacker to get a new one.

     If you were a Felter, you worked in the hat industry, where you might work with a Stripper, who did not get paid to remove their clothing, but to remove assorted rubbish from the carders used in the wool trade. If both of you worked the early shift, your employer might hire a Knocker-up to wake you up early in the morning in time for work.

     As you left for work early in the morning, you might see the KnockKnobber making his rounds, picking up stray dogs. Or you might say good morning to the Coney Catcher as he heads out in the fields to catch rabbits. The bleating of goats might be carried by the morning mist as the Gatward moves his herd out to the pasture for the day.

     The local Feller would be making his way to the forest to cut some trees which he would later take to the Sawyer, who would turn the lumber onto boards that the House Wright will use to build a home for the town Phrenologist, who earned the money to pay for the home by telling fortunes based on the lumps found on a person's head.

Near the center of town, the Vulcan was opening his shop. This Vulcan was not a long eared alien, but made his living as a blacksmith.

     And you might see some young Ankle-Beaters gathering near the stock-yards, waiting to help herd some livestock to market.

     The names may have changed. Some jobs may have disappeared, victims of progress, but the majority of Americans still get up day after day and go off to work to “Get er done!” I believe there is still a lot of pride in what we do, whether we swing a hammer, check a pulse, flip a burger, patrol a highway, or keep a house going.

     To all the workers, past, present, and future, as it says in the song, “Thank you for your time!”