Labor Day: no laboring

All is quiet here in Comer. There are lots of people camping down at the state park, quietly snugged down and staying put. School across the street is closed. My neighbors seem to be gone somewhere.

Ahhh.

So what did I do this morning? I was a bundle of energy. I vacuumed every square inch of the place. I flipped two mattresses. I dusted, I moved furniture, and I did loads of laundry- including the top bedding.  At 11:30 I'm settling down to a brunch and cooling off after a shower.

I made an egg fresh from a neighbor's farm, with green peppers. Home fries, whole wheat toast, and a bowl of fruit consisting mostly of one huge peach and half a mango. Yum.

This weekend I've watched To Sir, With Love (again) and I'd found a sequel, named the same with the number 2 after it. The sequel was passable. A little preachy but overall watchable. It picks up with Sidney Poitier 30 years after the close of the first movie, retiring and being honored by his London School at a retirement luncheon. Lulu reprises her song. Everyone claps.

Poitier had been contacted by his old friend in Chicago who is a principal of an inner city school. (Daniel Travanti). Contracted to come teach for one year, Poitier has his own reasons for wanting to be in Chicago again. The story unfolds with his departure from London over to Chicago. Much as the first film did, the teacher Poitier gains the high school students' trust, deals with their upheaved home lives, school politics, and this time, a personal life.

Seeing the films got me interested in the background to the movie story. I had not known that To Sir With Love was based on a book written in autobiographical fashion by ER Braithwaite. In addition, ER Braithwaite has written many books subsequent to the success of his first book, dealing with the social work system, race issues, and apartheid in South Africa. Wikipedia says Braithwaite was a "Guyanese novelist, writer, teacher, and diplomat, best known for his stories of social conditions and racial discrimination against black people. He was born in Georgetown, Guyana."

I went to Amazon and bought To Sir With Love. I was also interested in two other Braithwaite books, Paid Servant and Honorary White but they are hard to find so I'll have to wait for another more opportune time to buy them where the price is a bit lower than 'collectable.'

I also wanted to see "Up The Down Staircase" but that movie is not on Hulu, Netflix, Youtube or Daily Motion, more's the pity. So I bought that book too, and using up my refund-coupon money, also got two Christian books: John MacArthur's "Follow Me" and a novel called "When Crickets Cry."

My other neighbor is cutting her grass, and I've always liked the sound of a lawnmower so that is a good kind of comforting sound going on right now. The bedding is ready to be shifted from the washer to the dryer so I'll go out to the garage and do that, watering my flowers along the way. This is a good holiday day, quiet and serene.