Columbus: Floater.

I don't really feel like writing about Columbus Day today. I've written before about that remarkable man and the history behind the day; also about how Italians need to fight back against the menace of "Indigenous Persons Day" (a day solely made to try to eclipse Columbus and the spirit of discovery). Today I'd just like to note my own history of Columbus Day, which hasn't been much of anything since high school.

What I mean by that is, I've had to work every Columbus Day I can remember since I started college. Sure, my college was closed for the holiday, but not the office where I was lucky to have a part-time job as a general flunky. (The stories of things I massively screwed up in that job would make Will Ferrell, Pauly Shore, and Jerry Lewis wince.) I don't even know what the business did. Something real-estatey. It was a small, family-owned firm, and all I know for sure was that they both generated and received a lot of mail.

That was how I found out that, in a large city, although the mail would not be delivered on Columbus Day, you could send a flunky (me) down to the local post office to get the mail. All you had to do was bring something on letterhead authorizing said flunky to pick it up, and I think call ahead to let them know the flunkster was on his way. Please note that this is all to the best of my memory; don't quote me. It was a long time ago and I was as new as a baby out of the womb, and knew about as much.

Anyway, all this meant that I wound up dragging a couple of sacks of mail about seven or eight blocks back to the building. But that was okay; every other job I'd had to that point had involved lifting heavy things. Much worse was a later, rainy day -- possibly Veterans Day -- when I had to deliver a dozen sacks of mail to the same post office on a wobbly cart with wonky wheels that was not large enough for the job. That's another story.

This was my first job with an actual paycheck, a check that had actual taxes taken out of it. It would not be the last. And I think that all those jobs in my future would have this in common: no Columbus Day off.

"You! Get to work!"

I'm not sure, though. My first job in publishing was a small outfit connected to a nonprofit, and those guys get every holiday. But in the deadline-driven places I subsequently worked, holidays were often a major inconvenience and fit to be ignored. One job involved coordinating with a lot of British people in London, who were not off on Columbus Day, of course. Magazines I worked for closed issues around the second week of the month, which meant that not only was Columbus Day not a holiday, but it was a late night. I don't say all of this to complain, just to note that I haven't often had the day off. In fact, I have a huge pile of work to do today.

Columbus Day is, sadly, like Veterans Day, a second-tier holiday that people seldom get as a paid day off. They may be given the days as floaters, to use on the holiday or some other time. Many of those who do get these days off have little respect for Columbus or veterans. I guess that can happen to national holidays in a nation where millions of people have strong but varied priorities.

I just want a day off with pay. But Columbus didn't get one; why should I?