I took the car to Terry to have the hose put on that he'd been waiting for. If Terry is working or not defines for me how important a bank holiday it is here. He doesn't work on the 4th July, Memorial Day, Labour Day, Thanksgiving, or Christmas, he probably thinks that's enough days off, and the other holidays don't matter to him.
Those major holidays by the way, are the ones where Walmart's aisles are jam packed with crates of watery beer (I might have mentioned that supermarkets cannot sell beer stronger than 3.5%) so I have two indications of how important a holiday it is - if Terry is working, and how much beer Walmart is selling.
Chaplain Bill had a little service at the hospital chapel which I attended. He played part of the video, just about 3 minutes, of Dr King's "I have a dream" speech. Bill hoped his wife would attend, and it would have been nice to have met her, but she is a teacher. Normally, children would have been on holiday today but the little dears have to make up for the 'snow' days they had off when the weather was bad.
Bill told us that Dr King had originally been called Michael, as was his father, but as his father progressed in his ministry he changed his name to Martin, and his son's name as well.
Googling MLK Day I noted that it is celebrated on the 3rd Monday in January, around the time of his birthday on the 15th January. Down in the southern states of Mississippi and Alabama it is all mixed up with their celebrations of Robert E Lee's birthday on the 19th January. For those of you whose American history is as hazy as mine was when I came here, Robert E Lee led the Confederate Army.
I have been running round town today - as I said, getting the hose fixed on the car, calling on Cecil and Louise, working on the Kiwani bulletin for Thursday, and going to the hospital. The rest of the time I told myself it was a holiday, to justify putting my feet up.
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